Arizona’s season came to an end on Thursday night at the hands of the juggernaut that is Duke. The Wildcats got an all-time performance from Caleb Love in his final college game and turned a 19-point deficit in the second half into a 2-score game but just couldn’t finish the rally.
In some ways, the last of the Wildcats’ 37 games mirrored a season that included several bouts of adversity—remember when they were 4-5?—but still resulted in a third Sweet 16 appearance in the past four seasons.
“Super proud of our guys,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said afterward. “Our guys really hung with it this year, and the season was obviously an adventure, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Our game recap can be found here. Below is what Lloyd, guards Caleb Love and Jaden Bradley and center Henri Veesaar had to say about the season-ending loss:
Lloyd on Duke: “They played awesome today. They were a machine on offense. We just couldn’t get enough stops. They’ve done a great job. They’re a team that they come down, they have a plan, they know what they want to get, and they’re able to get to it consistently, which is hard to do. We’re not a bad defensive team, but they make you feel like it for long stretches today.
They’ve done a really good job creating certainty, and all their young guys have gotten better. Their vets like Proctor, Sion James — he’s impressive — have gotten better. Even Pat Ngongba has gotten better over the course of the year. They’ve got a lot of good pieces, and they all fit together.”
On the 2024-25 season: “I learned so much about myself, and I think these guys learned a lot about themselves and our group. And just for us to hang in there and give ourselves a chance to make a run in the NCAA Tournament really says something about the character of these guys that we had in the locker room, and honestly the character of our coaching staff. When you’re at a place like Arizona and you hit some rough waters, it can be tough. But we persevered, and we’re better for it and our program is better for it.”
On Caleb Love: “I’m going to miss Caleb. Obviously he’s had an amazing career. I’m so excited for his future. I know he was tremendous today, and he’s going to wake up tomorrow and he’s going to smile because he has a lot to look forward to. So I’m really, really proud of him.”
On Jaden Bradley: “JB was just rock solid for us all year. We had to ride him hard as our point guard. The only reason he played 30 minutes today is because he had foul trouble. He was exceptional all season.”
On Henri Veesaar: “Henri, the progress he made is well noted. So really proud of him and his development as a player and know there’s so much more room to grow.”
On Cooper Flagg’s development since the first meeting: “His shooting has gotten so much better. He makes 3 of 5 from 3 today, 9 of 10 from the free throw line. And just his ability to play make.”
On Arizona players praising Love in the season-ending press conference: “I almost got emotional. I’m trying not to get emotional right now. You can see we have great kids. Man, everything they said today — I didn’t say one word to them walking in here and said, hey, you need to say this, you need to say that, talk good about Caleb. That was all 100 percent authentic and from their hearts.
“The true essence of Arizona basketball when you take all the accolades and whatever, the success, the failures away, is we’ve got great people. I’m really proud to be associated with these guys, and I’m just thankful. Honestly, thankful. Just have crazy gratitude for how fortunate I am in my life to be where I’m at and doing what I’m doing and doing it with who I am doing it. Just awesome kids.
About Caleb, the thing is, you know, I don’t lie — especially to our local media, I don’t lie to you guys. I tell you the truth as I see it. Caleb is a great person, and he’s been through a lot. I hope everybody takes a step back, whether they’ve been a hater or whatever or pile on, and give this guy a real chance because he’s special.
On Love’s pro future: “This is what I know. When he gets there, the right team is going to wrap their arms around him and they’re going to see they’ve got a guy who’s been through it. Been through it, and he’s come out the other side of it better. That is so valuable, to have gone through what he’s gone through and come out the other side. I think his experiences are going to give him advantage over a lot of other guys that he’s competing with for opportunities at the next level.
“But more importantly, I always tell Caleb, the most important thing I want him to do is just to have a great life. Hopefully eventually his basketball thing is going to run out, and I don’t want him to define himself by what people thought about him in college, good or bad, because he’s just such a great dude. I’m sure he’s going to be a great husband someday. I know he’s going to be a great dad. Probably could be a heck of a basketball coach some day. I’m excited to see him move through his next journeys in life, and I’ll always be here for him.”
On the players staying positive after the season-ending loss: “Well, I mean, it’s special. We have some core tenets in our program, and one of them is we’re going to be a program rooted in love, not fear. And you guys can see the love for each other. We’re going to play for joy.
“Then one of our other core tenets is we’re going to enjoy other’s success as much as our own, or more. To me, when you get to help young people and, really, in what could be a selfish game and a selfish industry, figure out how to combat that with love, acceptance, and just a true, genuine support for each other, I mean, it’s pretty special.”
Love on his final NCAA Tournament run: “I just want to thank each and every one of my teams and my coaching for sticking with me, as a person, first and foremost, because I went through a lot transferring from my other school, and they took me under their wing, and they accepted me for who I was. I just want to give all my thanks to them because without them, I wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t be the player that I’ve grown to be.
“The points are good, but the relationships that I’ve built over the course of my career, especially at Arizona, is just — I give all my thanks to them.”
On his favorite memory during the season: “It’s hard to pinpoint one moment or one memory. I’d just say the whole season because we went through so much adversity, especially after we came back from the Bahamas, us starting out 4-5. It’s tough for a team to fight through that. We could have went the other way, and we didn’t. We fought through adversity. We fought, we stuck together, and I just — the memories, it’s a bunch of them. But I’d just say just spending time with these guys, spending time with them in the locker room, off the court, going to dinners, having team bonding, outings, going bowling together, the bus rides, the plane rides, everything under the sun. I feel like we just connected on a different level, and I appreciate all my teammates for accepting everybody as a whole.
“The coaches did a great job, especially Coach Lloyd. He’s one of the best, if not the best, at building a culture here at Arizona, and he takes pride in that, and we take pride in that, as well.”
Bradley on Love: “He’s a great player, but I feel like we all built a relationship off the court. You don’t see the workouts and the stuff we do off the court. Y’all don’t see that. He really took all of us under his wing. He’s a leader. He’s been through so much and taught us all so much. So definitely going to learn a lot, miss playing with him. He’s just a great guy.”
On his favorite 2024-25 memory: “I’d just say the overall season. We started off with a losing record, and it’s easy to kind of split off that, start thinking about next year, start thinking about your next move. I feel like this team, we came together and we smiled. After a loss, it’s not easy, but we smiled, came together, and we knew it was going to be brighter on the other side.”
Veesaar on Duke’s lobs inside: “Definitely was hard with Cooper (Flagg). He’s a freak athlete so you definitely have to be a little bit higher up because otherwise he’s going to get to the rim. You kind of have to play in between, and they were great at recognizing so they threw a lob over me.”
On Love: “If anybody ever thinks he’s not a good teammate, it’s not true. He’s the best teammate we had. He’s one of the better persons I’ve ever met. He’s pushed me so much over the last two years, I’m so grateful for him.
In the tournament, I was struggling, he talked to me. He came up to me after I missed the free throw because we had been — he made me practice free throws after that game. After that he just came up to me, hey, we worked way too hard, you got this. After that I didn’t miss a free throw, I made seven in a row.
I just want to set the record straight. For any scouts or anybody who thinks he’s not a good teammate, he’s the best person. Everybody loves him on the team. There’s no problems with him. The best person we have.”
On his favorite memory during the season: “All those moments over the season, just bonding with the team and just spending time together. But I feel like for me especially as a part of the team, like, after the game at UCLA after we lost, we just really came together as a team and we locked in for the rest of the year. We just kind of really thought about what we need to do and we kind of came together. And I feel like that was so special. Especially after the game against Baylor, we really felt like we got our mojo back.”
