Arizona men's basketball: Scouting report for Big 12 title game against Houston

No. 3 seed Arizona (22-11) vs No. 1 seed Houston (29-4) | Big 12 tournament championship game | T-Mobile Center, Kansas City | 3 p.m. Saturday | ESPN | 1290-AM

PROBABLE STARTERS

ARIZONA

G Jaden Bradley (6-3 junior)

G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)

F Anthony Dell’Orso (6-6 junior)

F Trey Townsend (6-8 senior)

C Tobe Awaka (6-8 junior)

HOUSTON

G Milos Uzan (6-4 junior)

G LJ Cryer (6-1 senior)

F Emanuel Sharp (6-3 senior)

F Terrance Arceneaux (6-6 sophomore)

C Joseph Tugler (6-8 sophomore)

HOW THEY MATCH UP

How they got here: Arizona went 14-6 in the Big 12 to finish in a third-place tie, then beat sixth-seeded Kansas 88-77 on in the quarterfinals Thursday and second-seeded Texas Tech 86-80 in the semifinals on Friday.

Houston went 19-1 in the Big 12 to win the regular-season title by four games, losing only by a point to Texas Tech in Houston on Feb. 1. The Cougars then beat No. 16 seed Colorado 77-68 on Thursday in the quarterfinals and No. 4 seed BYU 74-54 in the semifinals on Friday.

This season: Arizona held Houston to 36.0% shooting in the first half while taking a five-point halftime lead during the teams’ only meeting this season, at McKale Center on Feb. 15, and led with seven minutes to go. But LJ Cryer hit a pair of 3-pointers within 45 seconds to give Houston a 53-48 lead with 5:15 left and the Cougars didn’t trail after that in their 62-58 win.

Series history: The Cougars’ win on Feb. 15 gave Houston a 7-6 lead in the series and a 2-0 edge in the Tommy Lloyd era, counting Houston’s 72-60 win over Arizona in the 2022 NCAA Sweet 16. Before that, Arizona swept a home-and-home series over Houston in 2007-08 and 2008-09.

What’s new with the Cougars: Running the nation’s second-most efficient defense, Houston didn’t even let BYU score for the first 6:44 of their semifinal game Friday and never trailed while holding BYU to just 31.7% shooting including 6-for-28 from 3-point range.

The Cougars have kept drowning opponents with the country’s fifth-slowest tempo and fourth-ranked 3-point shooting percentage (39.8). Not only have they won eight straight since beating Arizona on Feb. 15 but Houston has won 25 of its past 26 games overall.

While Houston wing Emanuel Sharp missed all six shots he took at McKale Center in his second game back after missing two games with a foot injury, he’s been on a roll so far in the Big 12 tournament. Sharp hit 4 of 7 3s against Colorado and 5 of 7 on Friday against BYU and is now hitting 43.3% from long range.

Forward J'Wan Roberts did not play against BYU on Friday after missing the second half of Houston’s win over Colorado on Thursday with a sprained right ankle. Roberts told the Houston Chronicle that “it’s painful but I should be good” for Friday, yet Roberts did not play and his status for Saturday remains uncertain.

Key players

Houston – LJ Cryer

While Sharp can hit shots from deep, sometimes whether you guard him or not, Cryer is also a significant threat to Arizona because of his speed and ability to get the shot off quickly. The Wildcats have struggled to defend the 3-pointer in several recent games, and the Cougars are the best-shooting 3-point team they have faced.

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Arizona – Caleb Love

Since going 2 for 10 from 3 at Iowa State two weeks ago, Love has made 12 of 23 shots from beyond the arc. It’s a pretty good time of year to begin heating up.

SIDELINES

Passing the mic

Instead of holding player interviews separately from that of UA coach Tommy Lloyd as Arizona did through the regular season, Big 12 procedures call for the head coach to be joined on the podium by a player or two at the same time.

That’s put Lloyd in a position he does not like.

“Talk to these guys,” Lloyd told media Thursday, motioning toward Trey Townsend and Henri Veesaar after they helped Arizona beat Kansas. “I'm boring. They were the guys out there performing today. I was just able to enjoy the show.”

After making an opening statement and answering four questions Friday after UA’s win over Texas Tech, Lloyd tried again, gesturing toward Caleb Love and KJ Lewis this time.

“Get these guys some questions,” he said. “They're the ones that played their asses off.”

Straining the friendship

Longtime friends and coaching teammates for the USA Basketball Junior National team program – and facing a difficult assignment ahead this summer in the FIBA U19 World Cup – Lloyd and Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland have now had to face each other three times in the last two months.

“I don't think over the course of our 20-plus year friendship we would have ever thought this,” Lloyd said. “So that's different. We're probably not talking as much as we once did, but we still catch up every week.

“I thought this morning it's really cool we're playing for the third time. The only time you're going to play for the third time is going to be in the postseason…. I'm proud of him. I'm proud to compete against him. I'm proud of our guys for finding a way to get us over the top tonight.”

Lloyd is now 2-1 against McCasland, beating TTU at McKale Center on Feb. 8 and again Friday at the T-Mobile Center.

McKale Midwest (sort of)

For the first time ever this season, the Big 12 tournament semifinals didn’t feature any of three teams within a three-hour drive of Kansas City: Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State.

That left a vacuum inside T-Mobile Center that Arizona fans partially filled. About half of the arena’s 18,000 seats appeared to be empty for Friday’s late game featuring UA and Texas Tech, but the Wildcats appeared to draw at least 2,000 fans, the largest fan contingent on hand.

Moving on

The Big 12 honored a total of 34 players between its all-conference teams and honorable mentions earlier this week, and UA point guard Jaden Bradley wasn’t one of them.

He said after Friday’s game that didn’t bother him.

“I try not to worry about that stuff,” Bradley said. “I'm excited for my teammates getting those awards. I just stay the course, and my goal is win games, win championships. We’ve got an opportunity to do that.”

Numbers game

1: Arizona loss in 10 conference tournament games under fourth-year coach Tommy Lloyd, a Pac-12 Tournament semifinal loss to Oregon last season.

1: Henri Veesaar’s two-way efficiency rank among Arizona players this season, according to Evanmiya.com

27: Dollars (plus fees) per seat for the cheapest pair of lower-bowl tickets for Saturday's championship game on Seat Geek as of early Saturday morning (a total of $85.56 including fees for two tickets).

— Bruce Pascoe