Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Is there any play in sports better than a half-court buzzer beater?
In today’s SI:AM:
🌵 Caleb Love comes up clutch
🧠 Most memorable NFL games
🤷♂️ Jimmy Butler suspended again
He got hot at the right time
If you’re a big college basketball fan, you’re surely familiar with the name Caleb Love. Love was ranked the No. 7 recruit in the class of 2020 by 247Sports, the same class that included players like Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Evan Mobley, Jonathan Kuminga and Scottie Barnes, who are currently enjoying successful NBA careers. Love, meanwhile, is still in college. After playing his first three seasons with the North Carolina Tar Heels, Love transferred last season to play for the Arizona Wildcats and is currently using his extra COVID-19 year of eligibility to play his fifth college season for Arizona.
Love has had a solid college career. He was the second leading scorer on the UNC team that made a surprise run to the Final Four in 2022 and was the best player on an Arizona team that reached the Sweet 16 last year. He might never have had a more highlight-packed game than what he did on Monday night, though.
Love brought his A game in the Wildcats’ 86–75 upset over the No. 3 Iowa State Cyclones in Tuscon. Well, sort of.
Love’s first big play came late in the first half when he threw down a powerful dunk on a fast break.
CALEB LOVE WITH AUTHORITY 😤 pic.twitter.com/RL9RrmeVTo
— ESPN (@espn) January 28, 2025
His best play of the night—and one of the best plays in college basketball this season—was his desperate heave at the buzzer from well beyond the half court line to send the game to overtime.
CALEB LOVE JUST LAUNCHED IT FROM BEYOND HALF COURT TO SEND IT TO OT 😱
— ESPN (@espn) January 28, 2025
📺: ESPN pic.twitter.com/PaL8fC6SxQ
“You just got to give it up to God at that point,” Love said after the game. “We practice half-courters in shootaround, you know, that’s the fun of it. We do that shot at practice, and like I said, you got to give it up to God, and that was all him.”
Love came up huge in the OT period, too, scoring eight of Arizona’s final 11 points as the Wildcats finished the game on an 11–0 run to seal the upset.
The reason I said Love only “sort of” brought his A game is that Monday night was a perfect example of what makes him a frustrating player. Yes, he came up huge for the Wildcats with the game on the line, but he also spent the first 39 minutes and 59 seconds of the game chucking up and missing shot after shot.
Before the buzzer beater, Love was 5-for-18 from the field and 1-for-10 from three. He’d only gotten to the line one time and missed. He’d scored just eight points. That’s the Caleb Love experience. He’s one of the most unabashed gunslingers in modern college basketball. He’s leading the Big 12 in shot attempts this season with 282 (14.1 per game) after leading the Pac-12 last season (528, or 14.7 per game). He also led the ACC in shot attempts as a sophomore and finished fourth in that category as a freshman and second as a junior. He currently ranks 19th on the NCAA’s career field goal attempts leaderboard and has a good chance to crack the top 10 if Arizona wins a few Big 12 and NCAA tournament games.
There are 65 players in men’s college basketball this season who are averaging at least 14 shot attempts per game. Love ranks 51st out of those 65 in field goal percentage (.390). But despite the inconsistencies of its star player, Arizona is having a great season. With the win over Iowa State, the Wildcats improved to 8–1 in Big 12 play and 14–6 overall. They haven’t been ranked in the AP poll in about two months but are 11th in the NCAA’s NET rankings. All six of their losses have been against Quad 1 opponents (Wisconsin, Duke, Oklahoma, West Virginia, UCLA and Texas Tech), but they also boast four Quad 1 wins. They’re well on their way to earning an NCAA tournament berth and letting Love reintroduce himself to a wider audience.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Today’s Digital Cover is the first installment of Matt Verderame’s list counting down the 50 most memorable games in NFL history.
- Albert Breer outlines how a piece of advice Tom Brady gave Patrick Mahomes has shaped the Chiefs’ season.
- Several big-name players have left the NWSL this offseason in favor of teams overseas. Hannah Pinnock has a list of every player who’s made the jump thus far.
- Dan Evans got a fascinating inside look at the fancy locker rooms players are using for the new TGL indoor golf league.
- Monday night’s TGL match featured Tiger Woods’ first win—and the first shot clock violation.
- The Heat have suspended Jimmy Butler indefinitely as he continues to try to force his way out of Miami.
- Rudy Gobert narrowly avoided a really dangerous situation when a piece of the scoreboard fell and almost hit him.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Caleb Love’s Monster Night Powers Arizona to Upset over No. 3 Iowa State.
