No. 4 Arizona (24-2, 11-2) at No. 2 Houston (23-3, 11-2) | Fertitta Center, Houston | 1 p.m. | ABC | 1290-AM
Probable starters
ARIZONA
0 G Jaden Bradley (6-3 senior)
5 G Brayden Burries (6-4 freshman)
18 F Ivan Kharchenkov (6-7 freshman)
30 F Tobe Awaka (6-8 senior)
13 C Motiejus Krivas (7-2 junior)
Key reserves
3 F Anthony Dell’Orso (6-6 senior)
15 F Sidi Gueye (6-11 freshman)
21 G Evan Nelson (6-2 senior)
HOUSTON
4 G Kingston Flemings (6-4 freshman)
7 G Milos Uzan (6-4 senior)
21 G Emanuel Sharp (6-3 senior)
11 F Joseph Tugler (6-8 junior)
5 C Chris Cenac (6-11 freshman)
Key reserves
1 F Isiah Harwell (6-6 freshman)
14 C Kalifa Sakho (6-11 senior)
24 F Chase McCarty (6-5 freshman)
How they match up
The series: The Cougars have won three straight, dating back to their 72-60 win over the Wildcats in the 2022 NCAA Sweet 16. They also beat UA twice last season, 62-58 at McKale Center and 72-64 in the final of the Big 12 Tournament. Before that, Arizona swept a home-and-home series over Houston in 2007-08 and 2008-09. The Wildcats haven’t played at Houston since winning that 2007-08 game, 85-71.
Houston overview: Just a bucket shy of winning it all last season, the Cougars just might make it back to the NCAA title game for another chance to give veteran coach Kelvin Sampson a title. Despite losing key players L.J. Cryer and J’Wan Roberts from last season, the Cougars added a well-regarded freshman class of guard Kingston Flemings, guard Isiah Harwell and center Chris Cenac to a strong returning core of guards Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp, plus forward Joseph “JoJo” Tugler.
The Cougars beat Auburn in Birmingham, Ala., during their fourth game of the season, but otherwise played a relatively soft nonconference schedule. But they’ve cruised through most of Big 12 play so far, losing only by four points at Texas Tech on Jan. 24 and 70-67 at Iowa State on Monday. Like Arizona, Houston is in the middle of a tough stretch, sandwiching its home game with the No. 4 Wildcats between road games at No. 6 Iowa State and at No. 8 Kansas on Monday.
Houston is winning games the way it always does under Sampson: It is disruptive defensively, ranking seventh in overall defensive efficiency, holding opponents to just 45.9% from two-point range and ranking ninth nationally in defensive turnover percentage (taking the ball away on 22.0% of opponents’ possessions.
They also wear opponents down on offense. While the Cougars’ 3-point shooting has slipped from 39.4% last season to 34.1% this season, they make up for it by shooting better from two-point range (53.3%), taking care of the ball and ranking 23rd in offensive rebounding percentage.
Houston ranks third nationally in offensive turnover percentage, losing the ball on just 12.6% of its possessions. Within that, the Cougars are seventh in offensive block percentage (having their two-point shots blocked just 6.4% of the time) and sixth in offensive steal percentage (7.0).
The Cougars’ physical style can translate into fouls, however. Sharp’s foul trouble in the second half at Iowa State appeared a key reason for the Cougars’ loss. The Cougars rank eighth to last nationally in the ratio of free throws taken to field goals taken (just 26.2) while their opponents have a ratio of 39.4. In Big 12 games, Houston averages 18.8 fouls per game and Sharp has fouled out in three of 13 games.
On the perimeter, Flemings’ emergence as an explosive point guard allows Uzan to play on or off the ball, with both of them averaging over four assists per game. Flemings is the Cougars’ leading scorer (16.6) overall and is the ninth leading Big 12 scorer in conference games at 17.9 points.
Sharp is averaging 16.1 points in Big 12 games and shooting 35.5% from 3, while Uzan is a 40.6% 3-point shooter in Big 12 play. A five-star recruit, Cenac is a double-double threat inside while Tugler makes drivers think twice about even getting close to the basket: The 6-8 power forward ranks 36th nationally in steal percentage (8.8) and 57th in block percentage (3.9).
He said it: “Honestly, their deal is really simple. They're a great offensive rebounding team. If they don't turn the ball over and they get shots on goal, I think they feel like getting a shot up on goal is step one, and it goes in great, if it doesn't, that's OK. They’re gonna hedge their bet by pounding the offensive glass. And turnovers are really detrimental, so they’re really committed to not turning the ball over.
Offensive rebounding is “an identity that they coach to every single day, and it's a value in their program. The way you combat it is you have to battle it back. You have to be great on the defensive glass, and you have got to be able to put bodies on bodies, to hold block outs when you're in a rotation. You’ve got to make sure if one of your bigs is coming over to protect the rim, that someone's rotating and choking down on their big guy. And you've got to be able to win loose balls. A lot of these rebounds are going to be tipped around. They're not just going to be clean, because there's going to be big bodies in there.” — UA head coach Tommy Lloyd
Key players
HOUSTON
Kingston Flemings
Houston guard Kingston Flemings (4) brings the ball up the court against BYU guard Kennard Davis Jr. (30) during the second half, Feb. 7, in Provo, Utah.
Actually just the third-highest rated of Houston’s incoming freshmen this season, behind Cenac and Harwell, Flemings has exploded, literally, into the college game with his ability to make plays at a high speed with minimal turnovers considering his pace. He’s the fifth-rated overall player in the country in Kenpom’s analytics-based ranking and is a national honors candidate.
ARIZONA
Jaden Bradley
McKale Center erupts after Arizona guard Jaden Bradley (0) sinks a three-point shot during the game against Oklahoma State at McKale Center, Feb. 7, 2026.
The Wildcats' floor leader is the guy they have turned to all season when the going gets rough. Bradley struggled offensively in UA's losses to Kansas and Texas Tech but is coming off a double-double in a 38-minute appearance against BYU. Rest is not an option.
Sidelines
Sampson says Cougars ‘poor’
You know that stuff about how a recruit picks a college maybe because he likes a campus, the coaches, maybe even the weather?
That’s not the reality Houston's Sampson spoke of recently.
“People ask about recruiting. Teams that have the best recruiting classes usually have the most money,” Sampson said earlier this month. “That's the way it is today.”
And even though Sampson managed to pull in the nation’s third-highest rated 2025 recruiting class, behind only Duke and Arizona, he indicated he’s not sure how much longer he can do such a thing in that environment he spoke of.
“We have a very poor athletic department,” he said. “We’re poor. We were poor when I got here and we’re still poor. … the way our recruiting is going we have to stop at some point, because we don't have enough money to keep bringing in really good players, and that's not easy for us to do.”
Sampson’s comment predictably received a mix of reactions. UCLA coach Mick Cronin jokingly Venmo’d him $1, while UA's Lloyd said it didn’t matter in one sense.
“That guy is such a good coach, he can win with anybody,” Lloyd said.
Houston’s athletic department budget was about $99 million in 2023-24, the most recent year available in the U.S. Department of Education database, while Arizona’s was $139 million, and some programs have budgets exceeding $200 million.
While UA and other high-major schools are now paying players the maximum of $20.5 million across all their sports from those budgets, outside-funded NIL deals often push individual player compensation packages even higher. Top college basketball teams have payrolls into the eight figures this season.
That’s a mind-boggling change for a coach who roamed the McKale sidelines once a season as Washington State’s coach in the 1980s and early 1990s.
“Even though we've been doing this NIL thing (since 2021), it still feels funny for me to even say that,” Sampson said. “It's like a culture shock that's coming out of my mouth, because for so many years it's illegal to do that. But it’s legal now. That’s why they call it NIL – now it’s legal.”
Bradley, Burries honored
Arizona guards Bradley and Brayden Burries were among the 30 players named to the Naismith Trophy's late-season team Thursday.
Burries has overcome a rough start to become the Wildcats' leading scorer with an average of 15.5 points a game, while Bradley is averaging 13.3 points and 4.7 assists with an assist-turnover ratio of nearly 3-1.
The Wildcats' backcourt duo was joined by seven other Big 12 players on the Naismith list: Texas Tech's Christian Anderson and JT Toppin, Kansas' Darryn Peterson and Flory Bidunga, BYU's AJ Dybantsa, Houston's Flemings, and Iowa State's Joshua Jefferson.
Gauntlet continues
With an assist from the Big 12 and the backloaded schedule it handed Arizona, the Wildcats will be facing their fourth straight game against a ranked opponent for the first time since 2001-02.
That season, just after the Wildcats had lost the bulk of their 2001 Final Four team to the NBA Draft, Arizona faced No. 2 Maryland, No. 6 Florida, No. 23 Texas, No. 8 Kansas and No. 5 Illinois.
The Wildcats beat all of them except Kansas, and went on to finish second in the Pac-10 and reach the Sweet 16.
But while that schedule was orchestrated by then-coach Lute Olson, this stretch is a result of the Big 12’s emphasis on pitting its best teams together more often after the Super Bowl, so as to maximize exposure and media partner preferences.
“It’s a smart business move, but I'm telling you, it's a lot for a program,” Lloyd said on his radio show. "If that's something that's going to continue, we're going to have to figure out how to navigate that a little bit.”
Numbers game
10: Conference Coach of the Year honors won by Sampson, from five different conferences.
25.8: Percent of Arizona opponents' missed shots that those opponents rebound (giving UA the 15th-best defensive rebounding percentage in Division I.
36.7: Percent of Houston missed shots that the Cougars rebound (giving UH the 23rd-best offensive rebounding percentage in Division I.)
— Bruce Pascoe
