TUCSON, Ariz. - The second game of the 2023-24 basketball season sends No. 12 Arizona on the road to take on No. Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Friday in one of the most anticipated early season matchups of the season. The game starts at 5:00 p.m. MST and will be televised on ESPN2 with Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas and Angel Gray on the call.
STARTING FIVE
1) The 2023-24 season marks the 119th year of men's basketball for the University of Arizona, and the Wildcats have an all-time record of 1,863-977.
2) In seven career games against Duke while playing for North Carolina, senior Caleb Love averaged 17.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists and shot 40% overall from the floor. In three games at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Love averaged 19.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists while shooting 42.1% from the 3-point line.
3) Under Tommy Lloyd, Arizona is 11-4 against Top 25 opponents, including 4-1 vs. the top 5.
4) Arizona's last win over a Top 25 team on the road was March 1, 2022 at No. 16 USC. Its last win over a Top 5 team on the road was Jan. 21, 2017 at No. 3 UCLA. The last road win over a team ranked No. 1 or 2 was March 8, 2001 - a 1-point win at No. 1 Stanford.
5) Redshirt senior Oumar Ballo in on the Naismith Trophy preseason watch list as well as the NABC National Player of the Year preseason watch list. Caleb Love was also listed on the Naismith Trophy watch list.
SERIES VS. DUKE
• Arizona leads the all-time series with Duke, 5-4
• The Wildcats have won the last two meetings (2011, 2013)
• The only other time UA has played at Duke was Feb. 25, 1990 - a 78-76 loss
• Seven of the nine all-time meetings have been decided by less than 10 points
NOTING THE WILDCATS
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd is in his third season leading the Wildcats and has a record of 62-11. He set the all-time NCAA record for most wins by a coach in his first two seasons and is the only Power 5 head coach to ever win his conference tournament in each of his first two seasons.
In the preseason poll released by the Associated Press on Oct. 16, Arizona checked in at No. 12, and they are No. 11 in the Coaches Top 25 poll. The Wildcats are the highest ranked of the two Pac-12 teams included in the AP poll, ahead of USC at No. 21.
The 2023-24 non-conference schedule ranks as one of the most challenging the in country, with five games against teams ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25 poll. The only other team in the nation to have that many games vs. Top 25 teams is Gonzaga. The gauntlet includes:
- No. 2 Duke (road)
- No. 3 Purdue (neutral)
- No. 4 Michigan State (neutral)
- No. 10 Florida Atlantic (neutral)
- No. 24 Alabama (neutral)
- (rv) Wisconsin (home)
The preseason All Pac-12 teams featured four Wildcats: senior Oumar Ballo (first team), senior Caleb Love (second), sophomore Kylan Boswell (second) and senior Pelle Larson (honorable mention).
Ballo was named to the preseason watch list for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, Love is on the preseason list for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award and Keshad Johnson is on the preseason list for the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award.
The Wildcats return 42% of the minutes played from the 2022-23 season and 41% of the scoring from last year's squad.
Offensively, UA has just 26% of the 3-pointers made and 27% of the 3-pointers attempted a season ago back on the roster this year.
Arizona has six returning scholarship players and seven new players - three transfers and four freshmen - on the 2023-24 team.
Redshirt senior Oumar Ballo was named a preseason All-American by Blue Ribbon Magazine and College Hoops Today. Blue Ribbon along with ESPN.com also named him the preseason favorite to earn Pac-12 Player of the Year. He was also tabbed for the Naismith Trophy and NABC national player of the year preseason watch lists.
WORLDWIDE WILDCATS
Eight different countries, including the United States, are represented on Arizona's 18-man roster. The countries include Serbia, Sweden, Mali, Estonia, Lithuania, England, Spain and the United States.
SUMMER TOUR
Back in August, Arizona got a jump on the 2023-24 season by taking a Summer Tour to Israel and Abu Dhabi for 10 days. The travel party was able to visit countless historic landmarks in both countries and play three exhibition games as part of the trip. It was the first international trip for Arizona since a 2017 trip to Spain. Read more on page 7.
NCAA ELITE
Entering this season, Arizona's 1,862 all-time wins rank 19th among all schools in NCAA history while the .656 winning percentage is 10th in NCAA history.
TOP 100
Oumar Ballo checked in at No. 13 on CBS Sports list of the top 100 men's college basketball players entering the 2023-24 season. Caleb Love was No. 66 on the list.
LLOYD LOVES IT
Head coach Tommy Lloyd's record is 62-11 in his third season as a head coach. After setting the NCAA record for most wins in his first two seasons (61), the focus turns to the three-year record. The NCAA record for most wins through three seasons is 89 wins by Brad Underwood and Brad Stevens.
BALLO'S BUSINESS
Redshirt senior Oumar Ballo is back for his third year in Tucson. He was a First Team All Pac-12 honoree last year and was named to the 2023 Pac-12 Tournament All-Tournament team as well. He garnered MVP honors at the Maui Invitational a season ago on his way to setting new career highs in nearly every statistical category. He shot 64.7% from the floor during the 2022-23 season, which ranked eighth nationally and is the second-best single-season percentage in Arizona history.
His development has been off the charts over the last three seasons, dating back to the 2020-21 season when he played at Gonzaga:
PPG RPG Min/G
2020-21 2.5 1.5 6.2
2021-22 6.8 4.4 15.2
2022-23 14.2 8.6 27.5
SEE LOVE
Senior guard Caleb Love arrived at Arizona this summer after three seasons at North Carolina. He has fit right in with Arizona's free flowing offense.
In the season opener against Morgan State, he dropped 12 points to go with three rebounds, four assists and zero turnovers. When you add in the two exhibition games, Love has 14 assists and four turnovers.
For tonight's game, Love has an extensive history against Duke while playing for the Tar Heels. In his first ever game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Feb. 6, 2021, Love scored 25 points on 4 of 5 shooting from the 3-point line and added seven assists.
On March 5, 2022 at Cameron Indoor, Love went 12 of 12 from the free throw line on his way to 22 points and another UNC win in Coach K's final game at Cameron. Later that season, on April 2, 2022, Love and UNC met Duke in the Final Four and it was Love that dropped 28 points in a UNC victory.
KYLAN KONTINUES
After finishing the 2022-23 season on a tear from the 3-point line, Kylan Boswell picked right up where he left off in Arizona's season opener. He finished with a career-high 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting and also added five rebounds and two steals.
Over the final six games of the 2022-23 regular season and the start of this season, Boswell shot 24 of 33 (.727) from the floor and 15 of 23 (.652) from the 3-point line. Those six opponents last year included road games at USC and UCLA, three games in the Pac-12 Tournament and one in the NCAA Tournament.
Boswell also spent time over the summer playing for the USA Basketball U19 team at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary. He was a starter for five of the seven games and averaged 6.4 points and 2.3 assists as Team USA went 5-2 at the event.
