Former University of Arizona star puts up best game of NBA career vs Suns

Former University of Arizona standout Caleb Love put together the best game of his NBA career Tuesday night against the Phoenix Suns.

A former Pac-12 Player of the Year while with the Wildcats, Love went undrafted in the 2025 NBA draft and subsequently signed a two-way deal with the Portland Trail Blazers.

The early stages of his NBA career have been rocky, but he showed why he was so impactful at UA against Phoenix.

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Love scored a career-high 17 points while sinking three 3-pointers, adding seven rebounds, three assists and a steal in a losing effort for Portland.

He scored 13 of the career-best 17 in the first half.

Love spent three seasons with the North Carolina Tar Heels before transferring to Arizona to play under head coach Tommy Lloyd.

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In his two seasons with the Wildcats, Love’s teams reached the NCAA Tournament both times, ultimately falling in the regional semifinal round to Clemson and Duke, respectively.

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As an Arizona Wildcat, Love averaged 17.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game.

He consistently played his best basketball in the NCAA Tournament, endearing himself to Wildcats fans and alumni.

In the 2025 NCAA Tournament alone, Love had a 29-point, nine-rebound performance in Arizona’s 87-83 win against the Oregon Ducks. He followed that outing by scoring 35 points on 52.4% shooting in a 100-93 loss against eventual No. 1 overall draft pick Cooper Flagg, Suns No. 10 draft pick Khaman Maluach and the Blue Devils.

Love showed he has the clutch gene needed to perform on the brightest stage, but he went overlooked in the NBA draft.

Primary reasons for that include his age, measurables and outside shooting.

Love turned 24 in September, so he was among the older prospects coming out of college and entering the NBA draft — which never helps the draft stock. At 6-foot-4, he’s also relatively undersized for a shooting guard.

But what probably hurt Love’s standing most was the consistency (or lack thereof) of his 3-point shooting.

While he was awesome from long range in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, sinking 12 of his 22 attempts from beyond the arc (54.5%), that was an aberration compared to his full body of work in the college ranks.

Overall, Love shot 32.6% from 3-point territory in college split between Arizona and UNC. Excluding his years as a Tar Heel, Love converted just 33.6% of his 3-point tries while with the Wildcats.

If Love is going to stick in the NBA, he’ll need to find consistency from beyond the arc that he rarely showed in college. Perhaps his career-best outing against the Suns will springboard him to more NBA success.