Arizona tops Houston for Big 12 in battle between league’s new power programs
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- Arizona beat Houston 79-74, completing the regular-season and tournament double.
- Freshman Brayden Burries hit two free throws with eight seconds left to seal it.
- Jaden Bradley was named tournament MOP; Arizona is 32-2 and should be a No. 1 seed.
An amazing Big 12 season was good through the final seconds.
Arizona outlasted Houston 79-74 in a Big 12 Tournament final between the top-two seeds and highest ranked teams.
The Wildcats led nearly the entire game but couldn’t feel comfortable with the victory until freshman Brayden Burries hit a pair of free throws with eight seconds remaining with Arizona ahead by three.
The Cougars had trimmed a nine-point deficit to 75-72 with 52 seconds to play, but they never got the ball with a chance to tie.
Arizona, 32-2, completed the double, winning the regular-season and tournament crowns and should be a No. 1 seed when the NCAA Tournament field is announced Sunday.
“From Day 1, it’s been about Arizona,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said while handing the championship trophy to Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd.
This marked the second straight year Arizona and Houston have met in the tournament title game, and it’s a third straight final for the Cougars. Each year those teams have been in the Big 12, they’ve reached the championship game, establishing a new order in a league once dominated by Kansas.
The Jayhawks last played in the Big 12 Tournament title game in 2023, a year after winning the NCAA championship.
“When we got to the Big 12 I learned real quick that we were looking up and chasing a program, and it was Houston,” Lloyd said. “It gave us a great barometer for what we felt like we had to do to improve our program, to see if we could put ourselves at the top. I’m thankful for Houston and the competition they’ve given us.”
Houston, 28-6, is looking at a No. 2 seed in the NCAAs. The Cougars may have had an outside chance at a No. 1 seed with a victory.
The Cougars won last season’s Big 12 Tournament and reached the NCAA championship game before falling to Florida.
Arizona had opened a 15-point lead early in the second half, but with 17:19 remaining, point guard Jaden Bradley attempted to dribble around Emanuel Sharp and they collided. Bradley immediately grabbed his left hand in pain. He left the game and went to the locker room.
Bradley returned three minutes later with his lower left arm wrapped and tape around a finger, but he wasn’t the same aggressive player. The Arizona lead had swelled to 15 early in the second half, but Houston battled back with 14 straight points to make it 59-58 with seven minutes remaining.
The Wildcats widened the margin with the help of a couple of bank-shot jumpers: a 3-pointer by Ivan Kharchenkov and a shot-clock-beating 17-footer from Burries. But back came Houston to make it a close finish.
Bradley was named the tournament’s most outstanding player and was joined on the all-tournament team by Burries, Houston’s Joseph Tugler, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and Iowa State’s Milan Momcilovic.
This story was originally published March 14, 2026 at 8:02 PM.