Big 12 Tournament championship game set — and one team will win trophy for first time
The Big 12 was guaranteed to have a first-time men’s tournament champion when the semifinal matchups were established. Now, the league is assured of presenting its trophy to a relative newcomer.
Houston, in its second year in the Big 12, will take on first-year member Arizona for the title. Tipoff at T-Mobile Center is 5 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN.
Second-ranked Houston is the top seed and used a suffocating defense to defeat BYU 74-54 in the semifinals.
In the other semifinal, Arizona defeated Texas Tech 86-80.
“This three days is an awesome, awesome chance for the Big 12 to show how great a conference it is,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said.
A day earlier, BYU set a tournament record with 18 three-pointers against Iowa State. Friday, Houston, which scored the game’s first 15 points and forced a 6-for-28 performance from beyond the arc.
Chiefs coach and BYU grad Andy Reid was on hand to watch his alma mater close the deficit to 45-32 with about 13 minutes remaining. But Houston guard Emanuel Sharp knocked down 3-pointers on successive possessions to restore the big lead. Sharp finished with 26 points.
Houston has all but locked up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament when the bracket is announced on Sunday. BYU (24-9), which had a nine-game winning streak snapped Friday, has been projected as a No. 5 or No. 6 seed.
Texas Tech (25-8), playing without injured starters Darrion Williams and Chance McMillian, fell behind early as Caleb Love had the hot hand for the Wildcats and finished with 27 points.
Arizona (22-11), which defeated Kansas in the quarterfinals, will bid for its third tournament title in four years. The Wildcats won the Pac-12 Tournament champion in 2022 and 2023.
The Big 12 figures to get at least seven teams — Houston, Texas Tech, Arizona, Iowa State, BYU, Kansas and Baylor — and perhaps West Virginia into the NCAA Tournament.
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 8:35 PM.