Caleb Love looking to 'impose his will' against Duke basketball team in Sweet 16
For the tenth time, the Duke basketball team will battle Caleb Love – and Thursday night will definitely be the last time.
Love and the Blue Devils have a complicated history from recruiting him as a high school player to hitting the game clinching 3-pointer when Duke battled North Carolina in the Final Four, which ended the Hall of Fame career of Mike Krzyzewski.
Now, even though the ex-Tar Heel is playing on the other side of the country, he is still a problem for Duke. Its Sweet 16 matchup will be the third time that the two sides have meet since his transfer to Arizona and Love is looking to get the last laugh.
“Just me not being afraid of the moment,” Love detailed what was the biggest factor in his previous successes against Duke.
“Me trying to impose my will…me being from St. Louis, I’m not afraid of anything, anybody.”
Love is the biggest reason why Arizona advanced to the Sweet 16 with his 29-point showing against Oregon in the Round of 32 in which he was 10-for-18 from the floor and 5-for-7 from 3-point range.
When Duke and Arizona met in November, Love had just eight points on 3-of-13 shooting and connected on just 1-of-9 attempts from beyond the arc.
However, in his previous nine games against the Blue Devils he has averaged 15.8 points per game on 37.6-percent shooting from the floor and 26.7-percent from 3-point range. Love has also posted 3.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 3.3 turnovers per contest.
“We're not shying away from anything, and we're not running away from the fact that this is another game and that this is a game that we have to win,” he added.
Tipoff will come shortly after the conclusion of the Alabama and BYU matchup at approximately 9:39 p.m. ET (CBS) from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.