{"id":659742,"date":"2026-03-15T15:13:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T15:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/659742\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T15:13:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T15:13:27","slug":"how-arizona-became-the-most-consistent-team-in-college-basketball-and-a-big-12-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/659742\/","title":{"rendered":"How Arizona became the most consistent team in college basketball \u2014 and a Big 12 champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the men\u2019s NCAA Tournament Selection Show and bracket reveal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 After Jaden Bradley hit a buzzer-beater and Arizona beat Iowa State in one of the most epic games<\/a> of the college basketball season Friday night, Arizona returned to the Hotel Phillips in downtown Kansas City and found the hotel staff had left a message on the whiteboard in the team\u2019s meeting room.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations, Wildcats!\u201d<\/p>\n

Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd walked up to the board after dinner, grabbed the eraser and cleared it, then picked up the marker and wrote his own message: \u201cNow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, it was story time.<\/p>\n

Five years ago, Lloyd was on staff at Gonzaga when Jalen Suggs hit a half-court buzzer-beater to take down UCLA in the Final Four. Two nights later, the same energy didn\u2019t carry over in the championship game against Baylor, and Gonzaga lost its first and only game all season.<\/p>\n

Arizona, on a high like no other, had a point to prove. Could it turn the page?<\/p>\n

Lloyd got his answer in the Wildcats\u2019 79-74 win over No. 5 Houston in Saturday\u2019s Big 12 championship game. Arizona (32-2) flipped the script from a year ago, when Houston (28-6) won the Big 12 regular season and tournament, the latter coming at Arizona\u2019s expense. This year, the second-ranked Wildcats won both and will be a No. 1 seed when the NCAA Tournament bracket is unveiled Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Cougars, who were one shot away from winning a national championship last April, deserve an assist for the juggernaut Lloyd built this year.<\/p>\n

Last season, Arizona led Houston by 7 points in Tucson in mid-February and had a 1-point lead in the Big 12 championship with 5 1\/2 minutes left. And then \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThey kicked our ass in the last five minutes of both games,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cSo, we knew we had to get more endurance and sustain our effort and energy longer and be able to win these tight games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last spring, Lloyd landed five-star recruits Brayden Burries and Koa Peat. In July, he signed Ivan Kharchenkov, one of the top international prospects in the class, to join a core that included seniors Anthony Dell\u2019Orso, Tobe Awaka and Bradley. Last year\u2019s Wildcats were built around star Caleb Love, who had a high usage rate and was always going to have the ball down the stretch of close games. This team would be built on its depth.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, too much talent can be its own challenge. Lloyd figured out how that would go when he approached Dell\u2019Orso and Awaka, both starters last year, before the season opener against Florida and asked if they\u2019d be OK coming off the bench<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a decision,\u201d Dell\u2019Orso said. \u201cEither I\u2019m gonna accept it, or I\u2019m not gonna accept and (it\u2019ll) probably be the detriment of my own career. So, I chose the smart path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Awaka is nearly averaging a double-double \u2014 9.7 points and 9.6 rebounds \u2014 and points out he\u2019s putting up the best numbers of his career. Dell\u2019Orso has also increased his scoring average \u2014 from 7.2 to 9.1 PPG \u2014 and has carried the offense in some big games lately, as he did Friday night when he buried six huge 3s and led the Cats with 26 points. The five starters all average double figures, but no one has a high usage rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not built around one guy,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cIt\u2019s built around a group.\u201d<\/p>\n

That formula has turned Arizona into the most consistent team in college basketball. Evan Miyakawa, who runs the basketball site evanmiya.com<\/a>, tracks \u201ckill shots,\u201d which are any run of 10-0 or better. Going into Saturday night, the Wildcats had allowed only one kill shot all season, the fewest in college basketball, and that came in mop-up duty in a blowout win over Norfolk State in November.<\/p>\n

Saturday, Arizona was in control and led by 15 in the second half after Motiejus Krivas made a hook shot with 14:04 left. Over the next 7 minutes, 24 seconds, Arizona went cold and Houston went on a 14-0 run to cut the lead to 1. Bradley, who won Big 12 Player of the Year and ended up winning Big 12 tournament MVP, injured his wrist early in the second half. He had returned, but he was struggling and had zero points, zero assists and three turnovers after halftime.<\/p>\n

Instead of freaking out, Lloyd, one of the most stoic coaches in college basketball, told his players to \u201cjust take a breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wildcats always have enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the most emotionally intelligent coaches I\u2019ve been around,\u201d Awaka said. \u201cThe way that he has built his culture is around love \u2014 love of the game and love of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The response? Arizona scored on six of its next seven possessions and outscored Houston 17-14 over the final six minutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Bradley stood at the podium to be interviewed for winning tourney MVP, he said that no one on Arizona\u2019s team cares about the accolades or who scores the most points.<\/p>\n

\u201cCelebrate your teammates\u2019 success,\u201d Lloyd tells them, \u201cas much or more than your own.\u201d<\/p>\n

That has allowed the Wildcats not to get in their feelings when someone has an off night, and the maturity showed against Houston. Burries, who scored 3 points on 0-of-7 shooting in Friday\u2019s classic, was the one to finally end Houston\u2019s second-half run with a wrong-footed, and-1 runner, and he finished with 21 points on just 10 shots. Peat, who also struggled Friday and had just 4 points against Iowa State, also responded with 21 points in the championship game.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yesterday they did nothing,\u201d Lloyd said of his five-star freshmen. \u201cThat\u2019s the sign of a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n

That team, Lloyd was told before he headed into the winning locker room, has the highest floor of anyone in college basketball. The Wildcats haven\u2019t really had a bad night. Even when they lost two games in the second week of February, both were close \u2014 at Kansas, 82-78, and in overtime against Texas Tech, 78-75 \u2014 and those losses followed a 23-0 start.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats have won nine straight since. Saturday, they became the first team ever to beat 12 ranked opponents before the NCAA Tournament. They have a top-five offense and a top-five defense. Then, of course, they are the team that is best at preventing kill shots in college hoops.<\/p>\n

As Lloyd walked away, he held his left hand out at his side, palm down.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteady,\u201d he said. \u201cRebounding and defense does that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, on to the next thing.<\/p>\n