The Arizona Wildcats were just 6-5 exiting their Christmas break, having slogged through nonconference play without a single win over a high-major team, when point guard Jaden Bradley threw it out there anyway.
“We want to win the Big 12,” Bradley said on Dec. 29, a day before the Wildcats hosted their first game in their new conference. “We’re excited.”
That notion appeared far less than likely at the time.
Ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll to start the season, the Wildcats fell out of the rankings after losing twice in the Thanksgiving-week Battle 4 Atlantis, then blew a 13-point second half lead in a mid-December loss to UCLA, all while being unable to settle on a playing rotation that worked consistently.
Four weeks later, having flipped their season around with a 7-1 start to Big 12 play, the Wildcats can be taken much more seriously.
But finishing the job means the Wildcats have to keep plowing through schedule that gets much tougher starting Monday, when third-ranked Iowa State enters McKale Center for a late-night ESPN showdown.
Six of UA’s seven Big 12 wins so far have come against teams currently sitting below the top seven in the league race, but six of their next eight are against teams in that top seven — and all those are before UA must play early March games at Iowa State and Kansas.
Also worth noting: That seventh-ranked Houston remains undefeated in conference play after winning at Kansas in double overtime on Saturday, while KenPom’s predictive engine has Houston (3), Kansas (7) and Texas Tech (11) all ranked above Arizona (17).
There’s a ton of competition ahead for the Wildcats.
So it was hardly a surprise, when asked if Monday’s game could become a statement toward a goal of winning the league, UA coach Tommy Lloyd bristled slightly.
“I’m not going to make it as our season hinges on Monday, but obviously it’s a great opportunity for our program,” Lloyd said. “We ain’t even thinking about winning the Big 12. Not yet. You got to earn that right. Anything else is just words. And I hate words. I like action.”
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd and the bench react to a traveling call against Baylor during the first half of their Big 12 game in Tucson, Jan. 14, 2025.
Lloyd’s hesitation also appeared understandable considering that Arizona needed a mid-second-half rally to pull out of a close game — at home — with a Colorado team that is winless in the Big 12.
“I think this team can be really good and we’ve all got to understand it’s not going to feel great all the time,” Lloyd said after Arizona beat the Buffaloes 78-63 on Saturday.
“We’ve got to make it feel a little bit better and I think we can do that – I think this team can be really good – but I’ve still got my sleeves rolled up, my head down and my butt up. I’m digging a ditch, you know?”
Lloyd went on, hammering on the present.
“That’s my mentality right now. I’m not thinking, ‘How good can we be?’ I’m not sitting there like, ‘Well, we could get to the second (NCAA Tournament) weekend.’ My mind is get through Colorado. Let’s find a way. And then we’ve got a great Iowa State team coming in here on Monday.”
While Colorado threw an unexpectedly fulltime zone defense and some baseline screens at the Wildcats that Lloyd said took a while to adjust to, Iowa State isn’t as likely to resort to desperation moves.
Arizona guard KJ Lewis (5) swats away a shot by Colorado forward Trevor Baskin (6) during the first half in their Big 12 game, Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 25, 2025.
The Cyclones just come at teams with what is perennially one of the nation’s best defenses, this time paired with a more offense led by a perimeter trio of Curtis Jones, Keshon Gilbert and Tamin Lipsey.
They can roll you over.
“They’re playing with a ton of confidence,” Lloyd said. “They’ve got a real identity, they own it and it’s been impressive. Those three guards in the backcourt are rock solid. Their bigs are tough. They’re formidable. And when when you have an identity, you have confidence, and you have veteran, experienced players that are used to winning, man, that’s a potent combination.”
But after seven conference wins, the Wildcats are expressing confidence, too. Guard KJ Lewis said their win over Colorado, in which UA pulled away from a close game in the final seven minutes, was a “little sample” of the potential the Wildcats had.
Saying the Wildcats had already seen a little bit of the Cyclones even before their Sunday preparation, Anthony Dell’Orso characteristically shot it straight.
“We’ve seen their base, what they’re trying to get and how we can play to our strengths against them,” Dell’Orso said. “But they’ve got to worry about us just as much as we’ve got to worry about them, and they’re playing us at home, so we have the advantage as far as I see it. It’s our job to defend home court.”
If they can keep defending McKale all season, along with a picking up few big road wins, the Wildcats could make a run for the Big 12 title or at least a double-bye in the conference tournament that is given to the top four finishers.
But it’s still January.
“If we get there, you know, it’ll be a hell of an accomplishment,” Lloyd said of the Big 12 title. “We’ll figure it out. If we don’t, we’re gonna fight to get in the NCAA Tournament and see what can happen there. But we’re not in the position as a program right now to be talking about winning the Big 12.”
