Arizona got on a plane for its conference tournament on Tuesday afternoon, but instead of heading slightly west it flew east to Kansas City. The arena they got to practice in that evening has the same sponsor, T-Mobile, but that’s where the similarities end.
Bye bye Las Vegas and the Pac-12 Tournament, hello Big 12 country.
The UA heads into its first Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament far from the favorite, which is new territory for a program that won two of the last three Pac-12 tourneys and was the No. 1 seed in the third. The Wildcats (20-11) are the No. 3 seed but finished five games behind first-place Houston, which is the overwhelming favorite.
The Cougars (27-4) were +100 to win the tourney, per FanDuel Sportsbook, while Arizona is +700.
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Arizona plays Thursday at 6:30 p.m. PT in the final quarterfinal, playing the winner of Wednesday’s second round game between No. 6 Kansas and No. 14 UCF. Because it won’t know who it is playing until after 10 p.m. local time, and when it left Tucson there were still three potential opponents, the process this week has been more inward than on the foes.
“I think the best thing you could do this time of year is kind of, maybe take a breath, pull back and kind of focus on yourself rather than try to put in three different scouts,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said Tuesday. “You’re going to let it play out. You’re going to respect the competitive spirit of a conference tournament.”
Three first round games Tuesday were won by the lower-seeded team, with UCF beating No. 11 Utah 87-72.
Here’s what to watch for during the UA’s first trip to the Big 12 tourney
Did the defense travel?
Arizona was ranked 10th in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom, ahead of a home showdown with BYU on Feb. 22. The Wildcats gave up 96 points in that 1-point loss, the start of a stretch of five games to end the season in which they allowed an average of 85.4 points and lost three times.
Lloyd wondered allowed if opponents had “cracked the code” on Arizona’s defense after it gave up 100 to ASU on Senior Night. A week later he was more specific with his analysis.
“Probably just having a few too many breakdowns,” he said. “Too many executional breakdowns. The scheme is something we’re always evaluating, You got to be able to adjust in college basketball this time of year. That’s what the really good teams do, and we’ve done it at times this year, other times we fell a little bit short. I don’t think there is a code or anything. I think just comes down to execution.”
Lloyd said that every defensive gameplan has to be built around deciding what areas of an opposing offense to focus on.
“When you’re scheming and putting together defense, you don’t feel like you can guard everything,” he said. “Sometimes the other team just kind of makes the shot. There probably have been a few extra ‘we’ll live with this’ makes. Let’s say, above average. So is there going to be a regression to the mean? I hope a few of those shots miss.’
That may have been the case against Kansas, when 7-foot-2 senior Hunter Dickinson was 15 of 23 from the field, with nine of those makes coming on 2- or 3-point jumpers. The previous two games he was 4 for 12 on shots outside of the paint, though in those games he was doubled quite often while Arizona never brought help.
“Who is to say we didn’t say we wanted to double when our guys didn’t do it?,” Lloyd said. “There’s a lot of things that go into that. It’s not always a hardline choice. And he played good. You know what he did a really good job of that game that he hasn’t done every game? I think he made five or six perimeter shots.”
Assuming the Wildcats play Kansas again, how Dickinson is defended will play a big role in the outcome. So, too, will whether the UA can force turnovers. Arizona has only nine takeaways in the last two games, three on steals.
“I think we can be a little scrappy or a little bit more aggressive,” Lloyd said. “We’d love to create a few more turnovers, because for us that can kind of maybe kick start some of our transition stuff. In order to do that, you got to be opportunistic, you got to be aggressive, but you also have to have a level of discipline about you. You can’t just be out there running around like crazy, because teams are well schooled by this time of year.”
Will all the guards show up?
Caleb Love was Arizona’s lone representative on the Big 12 all-conference team, landing on the First Team, with Tobe Awaka and Henri Veesaar each getting honorable mention. Love averaged 17 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists in conference play, all but than his overall season averages, and as was his 33.1 3-point percentage.
But you never know what Love you’re going to get, scoring 20 or more seven times but 10 or fewer on six occasions. He’s hit at least four 3s nine times and one or none seven times, including a 4-game stretch in February when he was 3 for 28 from outside.
Earlier in Big 12 play the Wildcats were able to overcome a bad Love game because one or more other guards. But during the 3-5 finish to the regular season the more common theme has been disappearance than ascension.
KJ Lewis was 1 for 8 at Kansas, taking (and missing) four 3s to lower his season average to 16.9 percent. Lloyd said the right wrist that has been taped for nine games “was a legitimate injury” but he thinks it’s better now.
Lewis is best when he’s driving to the basket, his season 2-point percentage (52.2) up from his freshman year. If there’s someone who should be shooting from beyond the arc it’s Anthony Dell’Orso, who is making 40.4 percent of his 3s, but he only took one at Kansas and often finds himself dribbling into the lane and getting stuck rather than hunting shots on the perimeter.
The most consistent guard has been Jaden Bradley. He’s averaged 15.8 points the last four games, scoring 21 at Kansas with 15 in the second half, and has taken 43 shots from the field and 21 from the line in that span.
But all that effort on the offensive end may have impacted Bradley’s defense. The team leader in steals with 59, he had only 10 in the final eight conference games compared to 22 in the first 12.
March Trey?
In four seasons at Oakland, Trey Townsend averaged more than 15 points per game in March including a career-high 38 against Milwaukee in the Horizon League title game in 2024. He then scored 17 in the Golden Grizzlies’ upset of Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before dropping 30 in an overtime loss to NC State in the second round.
Those were all in a completely different role than Townsend has with Arizona, where he’s gone from starting to coming off the bench in five of the last six games. The last of those, at Kansas, saw him score 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including 3 of 4 from 3 after making only eight triples all season.
“I just thought he was assertive,” Lloyd said of Townsend. “When he struggled at times this year, he’s kind of been caught in between a little bit. At Trey’s size, and at this level, I think you have to have a little bit of a go for it mentality, and I think in Kansas he went for it. Trey’s a guy who, over the course of his career, has played big in big games, so I’m always going to give him an opportunity in those games. I thought he was a real difference maker for us, in the second half of that game, especially.”
Venue vibes
T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was affectionately known by UA fans as “McKale North,” but the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City may feel like a road game if Kansas is the quarterfinal opponent. The Jayhawks’ campus is only 40 minutes away, and their fans usually buy up most of the tickets with Iowa State fans getting a large chunk as well.
Arizona will have its section, but this won’t be the same environment that it’s used to in a conference tournament.
