Arizona men's basketball holds off Houston to win Big 12 Tournament championship

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jaden Bradley grabbed the rim with a bandage over his left wrist and index finger, then snipped the nets with his right hand.

That might have pretty much said it all.

Once again during their remarkable 32-2 season Saturday, the Wildcats found a way to get it done, beating Houston 79-74 to win the Big 12 Tournament at T-Mobile Center even as Bradley was compromised in the second half with a jammed left index finger.

With their senior leader in and out after halftime, UA's freshman core of Brayden Burries, Koa Peat and Ivan Kharchenkov finished the job. Burries and Peat had 21 points, with Burries hitting two game-sealing free throws with eight seconds left, while Kharchenkov had 12 points and seven rebounds.

"Just very humbled, honestly," Burries said as he walked to the interview room with another piece of net in his hat, after the Wildcats snipped the McKale nets just 12 days earlier when they won the Big 12 regular-season title. "We got a great group of guys and it's always fun to win games."

Humbled was pretty much the way UA coach Tommy Lloyd described it, too. Having often spoken about looking up to more established coaches in the Big 12 -- and noting how Houston thumped his top-seeded Wildcats in the 2022 Sweet 16 -- the Wildcats have now beaten Houston twice in three weeks.

Also: They beat Houston on Feb. 21 when Peat and reserve forward Dwayne Aristode out, gaining control of first place in a conference regular season race they went on to win, and they beat Houston on Saturday when Bradley was hurt and even center Motiejus Krivas smashed his face into an opponent's shoulder.

"I think the objective is simple, let's see if we can win it game by game," Lloyd said of the Big 12 Tournament. "These guys did an incredible job of that. It was quite a ride the last three days. I'm just really proud of these guys."

At 29-2 entering the Big 12 Tournament, the Wildcats hardly needed to win or even be in the championship game in order to get a No. 1 NCAA Tournament game.

Also, playing three conference tournament games in three days can put wear and tear on a team, so if they are games you don't need. .. well, Lloyd noted, "a lot of people have a lot of opinions on how you should handle this, and we felt like our health was good."

It was until Bradley collided with Houston's Emanuel Sharp at almost the same spot on the right wing where he hit a buzzer-beating game winner the night before against Iowa State.

Bradley left the floor for three minutes off the game clock, and immediately had X-rays taken. When they came back negative, Bradley returned to the game with a wrap over his left wrist and additional bandaging on his left index finger.

"It's a little jammed but we got in there, they took a look at it and nothing was wrong," Bradley said. "Ice will to take care of it and it's get ready for March Madness."

Bradley will do so with not one but two MVP awards collected over the past six days. On Monday, Big 12 coaches voted him the conference's Player of the Year and on Saturday he was named MVP of the Big 12 Tournament.

Burries, who had 21 points against both UCF and Houston, was also named to the all-tournament team, along with BYU's AJ Dybantsa, Houston's Joseph Tugler and Iowa State's Milan Momcilovic.

Bradley did have to suffer some pain along the way. He grimaced notably after suffering the injury, and left with trainer Justin Kokoskie in a move that could have brought back memories of how UA starters Oumar Ballo and Kerr Kriisa were banged up during their 2023 Pac-12 Tournament championship -- and the Wildcats lost to Princeton in the NCAA Tournament first round five days later.

"You hope for the best," Lloyd said, when asked about seeing Bradley leave the court. "I know how tough JB is, and unfortunate things can obviously happen in those scenarios. But they went in... and when the doctor came out with a smile on his face -- before he said anything to me -- I was a little bit relieved."

Still, Lloyd said, he was also mentally occupied by figuring out how to win the game, whatever Bradley's situation might be. Bradley went out with 17:40 left to play, and UA was actually up by 15 when he returned with 14:35 left.

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But Bradley said it "felt a little different" playing upon his return, and he did not score the rest of the way, missing two shots and turning the ball over -- although that was against a collapsing Houston defense that might have forced a turnover against a healthier player.

"Crazy defense," Bradley said of that play. "You get in tough spots sometimes."

The turnover came at a tense time for the Wildcats, when the Cougars had gone on a 12-0 run to cut UA's lead to just three points.

After Bradley's turnover, Houston made it a 14-0 run when Mercy Miller made a layup that made it 59-58.  But the Wildcats went back ahead 69-62 less than three minutes later after Kharchenkov drove in for a layup and made two free throws on UA’s next possession.

With 59 seconds left, Bradley drove in for a layup with his right hand that missed, and Houston responded with a 3-pointer from Milos Uzan that cut UA’s lead to just 75-72 with 52 seconds left.

But Motiejus Krivas hit a pair of free throws with 22 seconds left and Burries sealed it when he hit two more free throws with eight seconds left.

The win moved Arizona into Selection Sunday at 32-2, virtually assured of the No. 1 seed in the NCAA West Region and first-round game Friday in San Diego against a No. 16 seed. The Cougars dropped to 28-6, still likely at least a No. 2 seed — and, possibly an assignment in the South region that would put them in Houston if they reach the second weekend.

While Arizona held Houston to just 38.9% in the second half, the Cougars hit 50% before halftime -- but so did Arizona, thanks in part to Bradley.

Bradley started Saturday's game exactly where he left off Friday. His buzzer-beating 17-foot jumper put UA past Iowa State in the semifinals, and he hit two 3-pointers and made a layup over the first seven minutes of Saturday's game to help UA take a 14-10 lead. Bradley totaled 13 first-half points on 4-for-7 shooting to help UA take a 44-36 halftime lead.

Meanwhile, Burries broke out after going 0-for-7 from the field in the Wildcats’ semifinal win over Iowa State and missing his first three 3-pointers on Saturday. He scored 10 points in the last three minutes of the half, and finished the half with 12 points on 4 for 7 shooting, then added nine more points after halftime while also taking over at point guard while Bradley was out.

Arizona's 44 points before halftime were the most by any team in the first half of the Big 12 championship game since Kansas had 48 in a 90-83 semifinal win over Colorado in 2011.

It was another show of dominance in a league that the Wildcats left no doubt about this season. Picked to finish fourth, Arizona won the regular-season title by two games over Houston, then wound up getting past Houston again in a tournament the Cougars have reached the past three championship games in.

Those facts were not lost on Lloyd. He said he realized upon joining the Big 12 before last season that he was suddenly looking up to Houston.

But on Saturday, after the Cougars had cleared off the court, Lloyd was looking down.

From the top of a ladder, holding another snipped net and waving it around.