Arizona, Central Michigan square off looking to go over .500

Arizona heads into its final nonconference game of the season Saturday against Central Michigan, needing a win to get over .500.

In fact, the Wildcats and the Chippewas are both 5-5.

Arizona is coming off a 96-64 victory over visiting Samford on Wednesday, a bounce-back game after losing to then-No. 24 UCLA last week in Phoenix after blowing a 13-point second-half lead.

The Wildcats are off to their worst start after 10 games since former coach Sean Miller's first season in 2009-10.

Preseason All-America guard Caleb Love finished with 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field with five rebounds and four assists in the victory over Samford.

In the loss to UCLA, Love had only seven points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field.

"Caleb's a good player," Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. "And you know what? I'm gonna hang with him. I mean, that's my job. We're gonna hang with him. I'm not a fair-weather guy. I love my players.

"And listen, I hold them accountable. We have a lot of conversations about things, and we have real talks."

Starting Arizona center Motiejus Krivas is out indefinitely with a foot injury.

Lloyd took reserve post player Emmanuel Stephen out of his redshirt status and inserted him against Samford. Stephen played two minutes and made his only field-goal attempt but was whistled for two fouls.

Central Michigan is also affected by an injury to one of its top players, as Lithuanian forward Ugnius Jarusevicius is out with an undisclosed ailment.

The Chippewas used only seven players in their most recent game, a 83-59 loss to Mississippi State on Tuesday in Jackson, Miss.

Central Michigan's Jakobi Heady scored a season-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds.

"For our identity, for what we want to become, it doesn't matter if we play the pickup team from the Y or we play (Power 4 opponents), if you're a true competitor, you get up for any game no matter what," Central Michigan coach Tony Barbee said.

--Field Level Media