For the Arizona Wildcats, the road to this point has been winding and rough. Hell, just go back a few months and some – many? – thought Arizona wouldn’t get this far and, well, with the record they have.
But, … They.Are.Here: in the championship game of the Big 12 Conference tournament facing regular season conference champion Houston, after defeating Texas Tech 86-80 on Friday night in Kansas City.
“We had a goal this year to get to this point, and we’re going to do our best and execute a game plan to try to go win,” said KJ Lewis at the postgame media room.
It will be Arizona’s attempt at winning its third conference title in four years and its first in the Big 12 after joining this season.
Arizona will attempt to avenge its defeat to Houston last month.
“It means a lot,” said Caleb Love, who had a game-high 27 points in the win. “We are playing for something bigger than ourselves, playing for players that played before us, and things like that. So, we take pride in it. We going to come in and play as hard as we can, try to execute the game plan as best we can, and we will see what the outcome comes from that.”
When @ArizonaMBB Caleb Love is taking great shots in the beginning of the game & has confidence is
— The cfb lliason (@realfbllliason) March 15, 2025of the best players in college basketball! You are seeing that tonight this game is all mental!
pic.twitter.com/s7mTqYbIzX
Kinda like they did on Friday night when a depleted Red Raiders team played without two of their top players, yet played admirably. Yet, wasn’t enough for Arizona, who got its great performance from Love added another two back-to-back performances by Trey Townsend and Lewis.
Townsend had double figures scoring for the third straight time, getting 15 points. Lewis added 12 points.
Like Thursday night against Kansas, UA handled Texas Tech early, struggled in the middle and then ran away with the win in the late stages of the game. During the halftime interview, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said it would be good if his team could wear their opponent out, given they were without Darron Williams and Chance McMillan, two of its top two scorers.
And, they did. It has shown enough moxie in tough situations to overcome rallies, tough times and, um, tough calls. And figure this: when was the last time you heard an opponent’s coach label Arizona as tough and physical? … …. … It’s been a minute – or two. But Friday night, Grant McCasland said it a couple of times.
“They’re a physical team,” he said. “But we made some pretty significant errors on scouting report things that we should know. The game happens fast, so give them credit, because Arizona has an extremely talented team. They’re aggressive and athletic and Tommy does a good job keeping the ball moving so it moves quickly.”
And that helped Arizona.
“I knew it was going to be a hard game,” Tommy Lloyd said in his postgame presser. “Our guys did a great job finding a way. It wasn’t easy. They were tough. They fought us every step of the way and they made those early 3s, and they did a really good job of putting foul pressure on us and getting to the free-throw line, and then they were great on the offensive glass.
“So all in all, I’m proud of our guys for hanging with it and making enough winning plays to come out on top.”
Now, a team that at times looked aimless and uneven has found its way into the title game of the Big 12.
They’ve been sound and solid the last two games. Dare I use the word momentum? No, I’ll use the word – run – as UA has played on the run and is now on a run, a two-game run that has it playing Houston Saturday afternoon.
“We could get our ass kicked,” Lloyd said. “I don’t know. So, we gotta come out and play tomorrow. It’s great to come down and get two really good wins against two really good teams.
“You beat Kansas in Kansas City, that says something. You beat Texas Tech that found a way to take second in the conference, that says something. Now we got the champ (in Houston). We’re staring down the champ, and let’s see what we got.”
