GAME INFORMATION
Date: Thursday
Time: Noon
TV: ESPN
TV Talent: Dan Shulman (PxP), Jay Bilas (Analyst)
Radio: Wildcats Radio 1290-AM
Radio Talent: Brian Jeffries (PxP), Reggie Geary (Analyst)
Phase Two of Arizona’s season begins Thursday at noon when the top-seeded Wildcats face No. 8 UCF in a Big 12 tournament quarterfinal game at Kansas City.
Arizona (29-2) earned the regular-season title in the Big 12, the toughest conference in the country, in Phase One of the 2025-26 season.
Phase Three, the final progression, starts next week when No. 2-ranked Arizona will be a projected No. 1 seed will attempt to advance to the Final Four and national championship game for the first time in 25 years.
“I live this life, I’ve chosen this profession, and I know what comes with it,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “We have big dreams and big goals, and I know how narratives get created. Most people creating those narratives don’t have to live what I live. They have a million different things going on in their life, and I am just a basketball coach.”
A very good basketball coach.
Arizona is one of three Big 12 teams ranked in the top seven of the AP Top 25 poll and among five in the top 16. The Wildcats won their first 23 games before losing back-to-back contests to Kansas and Texas Tech in the second week of February — their only losses to this point.
Arizona won the last six games of the regular season, a gauntlet that included victories over ranked teams BYU, Houston, Kansas and Iowa State. The Wildcats beat Houston on the road when the Cougars were ranked No. 2.
Still, that phase of the season is complete.
Arizona has unfinished business from Lloyd’s previous four years — a journey that has helped construct the high level of success so far this season.
The Wildcats have not advanced past the Sweet 16 in Lloyd’s previous four seasons and were unceremoniously eliminated by No. 15-seeded Princeton in the 2023 first round.
“I know as a coach you get to Final Fours and win championships and you’re in a certain club,” Lloyd said. “If you don’t, you’re the guy who couldn’t win the big one. That’s really lazy and easy to do, so I don’t pay any mind to it.
“If we fall short or something like that ever happens, I am tough enough to handle it and love my job enough to get up and do it again.”
The Wildcats have more depth than Lloyd’s previous teams with seven players averaging 8.7 or more points a game.
The third-leading scorer Jaden Bradley — with 13.4 points a game and a team-high average of 4.6 assists — was named Big 12 Player of the Year.
UCF (21-10) is an NCAA Tournament bubble team that helped its cause with Wednesday’s 66-65 overtime victory over ninth-seeded Cincinnati.
The Knights trailed by eight with 2:17 to play in regulation before going on an 8-0 run to force overtime. Their biggest deficit was 12. It was their fifth double-digit comeback win of the season.
“I thought our guys had to fight back on numerous occasions, and I thought they were able to do it,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “But this team has done this all season long, just their competitive spirit. It showed in the summer. It showed up again (Wednesday), just their will to win.”
Jamichael Stillwell produced 17 points and 15 rebounds on Wednesday, and Riley Kugel scored 15 points. Kugel averages a team-high 14.7 points per game.
The Knights, 16.5-point underdogs against Arizona, can gain confidence from being competitive against the Wildcats on Jan. 17 when they lost 84-77 at Orlando, Fla. Themus Fulks scored a career-high 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field for UCF while Bradley led Arizona with 23 points.
“We know it’s a big game because we’re playing in it,” Stillwell said. “So we’ve just got to come in dialed in and be ready for a fight.”
Stillwell, a 6-foot-8 forward hobbled by a reported ankle injury, was listed as questionable entering the Big 12 tournament but still played 33 minutes against Cincinnati.
He averages 11.8 points and 7.8 rebounds a game and shoots 51.4 percent from the field.
Arizona Notable
Arizona’s 29 wins set a program record for regular season wins. The school record for wins in a season is 35. … Prior to 2025-26, Arizona has appeared in a conference tournament 27 times and advanced to the championship game 14 times, winning the title nine times. … The Wildcats are 9-2 in conference tournament games under Lloyd, the most wins among all major conference schools since the start of the 2021-22 season. … Lloyd has 141 wins as a head coach, an NCAA record for most wins in his first five seasons. … Bradley is the third Arizona player in five years under Lloyd to be named conference player of the year, joining Bennedict Mathurin and Caleb Love. … Seven of the eight regular rotation players for Arizona have scored 20 or more points in a game this year. After his 31-point effort at Colorado, freshman Brayden Burries joined classmate Koa Peat in the 30–point club, making Arizona the only team with two freshman that have topped 30 points in a game this season. Burries is a Third-Team All-American, according to Field of 68. He has scored 20 or more points 11 times this season, and leads the Wildcats in scoring (17.5) and steals (25) in conference games. … Six different Arizona players have made 100 or more field goals this year, one of seven schools in the country and the only major conference school to achieve that. … Motiejus Krivas has a career-high 57 blocks this season, with 32 of those coming in Big 12 play. He has blocked at least one shot in each of the last six games and 26 of 31 games overall this season. The junior only played eight games last year before a foot injury ended his season. …Tobe Awaka has 13 games with 10 or more rebounds this season to lead the team. He plays an average of 21.5 minutes per game and grabs a rebound every 2.25 minutes.
UCF Notable
UCF is one of 34 Division I teams with five or more Quad 1 wins. The Knights are one of 35 teams with at least 10 total quad 1 and quad 2 wins. … The Knights have recorded three ranked wins this season, which ties the mark for best in program history from the 2023-24 season. … Stillwell’s 17-point, 15-rebound double-double against Cincinnati marked his eighth double-double of the season, with his rebound tally marking the most by any UCF player in a Big 12 tournament game. … Stillwell transferred to UCF with Fulks from Milwaukee. Fulks is one of only two players in the Big 12 with at least seven games with 10 or more assists. Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson has reached the feat eight times this season.
Recommended for you
