Just five days before Jaden Bradley left for Israel to begin playing exhibition games with his new Arizona Wildcats teammates in August 2023, the Alabama transfer learned he might also soon be doing so in a new conference.
The Pac-12 had blown up and four refugees including Arizona leaped into the Big 12’s lifeboat.
For men’s basketball, at least, it was seen as an upgrade.
“I was just excited,” Bradley said Sunday, at Arizona’s weekly news conference. “As a basketball player you want to play the best of the best and we’re definitely getting that for 20-plus games.”
There’s not much disputing that. While the SEC has arguably moved ahead of the Big 12 as the nation’s toughest conference this season, the Big 12 currently has five teams ranked in the AP Top 25 while Kenpom has seven teams including Arizona in its top 25 — and has the entire 16-team conference among its top 104 teams.
Twenty potentially grueling games, more well-attended arenas and more wintry travel, all ahead.
Starting it all Monday, when Arizona will host TCU at McKale Center is a big enough deal that UA coach Tommy Lloyd likened to another holiday.
“It’s a little bit like Christmas Eve — when you’re a little kid growing up, you’re excited,” Lloyd said Sunday. “And we’re excited. When you’re looking forward to something so long, and you’re right there … it’s Big 12 Eve for us.”
Of course, the Wildcats have an internal reason to be motivated. Instead of powering through a difficult nonconference schedule to prepare for the Big 12, they went just 6-5 and didn’t beat a single high-major team.
Ranked No. 10 to start the season, Arizona lost to Duke and Wisconsin on-back-to-back Fridays in November, then dropped two of three in the Battle 4 Atlantis – and also coughed up a 13-point second half lead in a 57-54 loss to UCLA on Dec. 14.
“Everybody knows we didn’t have the start that we wanted and it definitely adds a sense of urgency for our team,” Bradley said. “But we’re excited to go in the Big 12. Every night is going to be a battle. We want to win the Big 12 and we’re excited.”
Wildcats guard Jaden Bradley (0) dribbles by Thunderbirds guard Hercy Miller (15) during the game in McKale Center, Dec. 7, 2024.
Lloyd gave the Wildcats four days off after their Dec. 21 win over Samford, then reassembled them on Thursday for four straight days of preparation before Monday’s game.
Bradley said he used the time off to visit family in North Carolina and “tried to stay off my feet a little bit,” knowing what was ahead. The other Wildcats weren’t available for comment but Lloyd said they came back in good spirits and, at least gradually, worked themselves into a practice groove.
“I think this is my 26th year coaching at this level and that first practice after Christmas break is never pretty,” Lloyd said. “But once you kind of get through that … I think the guys are excited about the opportunity ahead. They’re excited to have a fresh start.”
At the same time, the Wildcats are still figuring out their most effective rotation. The potential loss of center Motiejus Krivas due to a foot injury has set into motion a number of moves, including pulling 7-foot freshman Emmanuel Stephen from a redshirt season, as Lloyd continues to brace for not having Krivas the rest of the season.
Lloyd said Sunday he didn’t have a definitive update on Krivas, who missed most of the preseason and was sidelined again before the UCLA game after playing in eight games.
And, when asked Sunday if Krivas might have surgery, Lloyd indicated it was possible.
“I think a lot of things are on the table with that,” Lloyd said. “I think that’s what J-Rock (trainer Justin Kokoskie) and the medical crew and his family and him are working through.”
A 7-2 sophomore from Lithuania who has attracted NBA Draft attention, Krivas was one of the centerpieces Lloyd expected to have while crafting a roster that would transition from Pac-12 regular-season champions last season to expected Big 12 contenders this season.
“I feel good, but we always want to have a team that’s physically capable of competing with anybody, and hopefully you have a team that has enough depth to absorb an injury or foul trouble,” Lloyd said.
“Obviously, we love size, we love physicality, we like good athletes. To me, that’s high level college basketball. So we’re going to first and foremost build a roster looking for some of those components.
“But we understand that with the physical nature and defensive prowess of this conference, you have to be great defensively, and you’re going to have to be able to compete physically. We tried to address those things.”
Lloyd has emphasized toughness in recruiting and coaching especially since Arizona was manhandled in a Sweet 16 loss to Houston at the end of his first UA season in 2021-22.
Coincidentally, the Wildcats will be opening Big 12 play against a TCU team that nearly out-toughed the Wildcats in a preceding second-round overtime game in San Diego.
Veteran coach Jamie Dixon has an entirely different Horned Frogs roster today but still features the nation’s 17th most efficient defense.
“Jamie — there’s no tricks up his sleeve,” Lloyd said. “What it is, is rock solid. They’re a great defensive team.”
In another coincidence, or maybe not, Houston will now be in the Wildcats’ faces again after having shifted over from the American Athletic Conference to the Big 12 in 2023.
Duke guard Cooper Flagg drives around Arizona guard Jaden Bradley, left, and Motiejus Krivas, middle, during their game on Nov. 22. The freshman Flagg is averaging team highs in scoring (16.3), rebounds (8.6) and assists (3.5).
Then there’s Iowa State, ranked No. 3 in the AP poll, plus Kansas, Baylor, Cincinnati and others to come in Big 12 play, including a West Virginia team that already beat Arizona in the Bahamas.
The Wildcats were picked to finish fifth in their new league and, while catching a glimpse or two of the league’s other teams on television during the past two months, Lloyd has had a chance to ponder how it all could play out.
“You look at them and you’re like, ‘Man, they’re really good. Like, how are we going to score on them?’” Lloyd said. “That’s right where your mind goes.”
But this is what they signed up for. Or at least what their school signed them up for, with the leap into a new league.
Lloyd insisted that leap ended with an embrace.
“We’re not going into this thing half-hearted,” he said. “We’re all in. We’re fired up to be in the Big 12. It’s here.
“We’ve been talking about this conference stuff for way too long. Let’s play the games.”
