February 21, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Cougars guard Milos Uzan (7) shoots against Arizona Wildcats guard Anthony Deloso (3) in the second half at the Fertitta Center. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-Imagn Image Any team with national championship aspirations is guaranteed to enter March Madness after a loss.
It promises to be a top-flight headliner Saturday evening as top seed Arizona and No. 2 seed Houston face off in Kansas City, Missouri, in the Big 12 Tournament championship game.
Both schools are on a short list of teams that could realistically be last in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
Arizona (31-2) ranked second in the nation, and Houston (28-5) was close behind in fifth place.
The Wildcats beat the Cougars 73-66 in the regular season on Feb. 21 in Houston.
Anthony Dell’Orso had 22 points in the contest for the Wildcats. He was more effective in Arizona’s 82-80 semifinal win over fifth-seeded Iowa State on Friday.
Dell’Orso scored a season-high 26 points and hit a career-high six 3-pointers in 29 minutes off the bench.
“When you see a few guys go down, you get more and more confident,” Dell’Orso said of his 10-of-14 shooting effort. “As I said before, it’s like filming in the ocean and I feel like I can’t miss it.”
The biggest success came from Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley, who broke through the solid defense of Iowa State’s Killyan Toure and knocked down the winning outside shot as time expired.
Bradley admitted his shot wasn’t part of the plan.
“I just went with the flow,” Bradley said. “It was a crazy shot. It was great defense.”
Bradley’s winner set up a rematch between the Cougars and the Wildcats, who lost in last season’s NCAA title game to Florida. Arizona has won 8 games in a row.
“We’re in a position to win a championship, but we don’t get many opportunities to do that during the season,” Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd said. “So (Saturday) is worth giving your best.”
Houston advanced to the conference tournament title game with a 69-47 win over third-seeded Kansas.
The Cougars held the Jayhawks to 24.6% shooting, including 6 of 31 (19.4%) in the second half.
“We’ve been a good defensive team for a long time and we’ve played against a lot of really good offenses that have had a lot of bad possessions,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Sometimes you give the defense credit and sometimes kids miss shots, but I thought our defense was connected.”
Kingston Flemings scored a game-high 21 points and fellow freshman Chris Cenac Jr. had 17 points and tied a career-high 14 rebounds.
“Going into the game, coach told me I just had to be confident and shoot when I got the ball,” Cenan said. “So I hit the ball with confidence, believed in the work I put in every day, and just kept going.”
The Cougars lost three straight, including a loss to Arizona in mid-February, but bounced back with five straight wins.
Sampson likes where his team is right now with the NCAA Tournament just around the corner.
“We won a few games early on, but we weren’t very good,” Sampson said. “But I was okay with that because I knew that January would eventually turn into February and February and March and I knew that if I had kids who came in every day with the right attitude and the right mindset and had great character, I could focus on coaching basketball.”
“If you’re worried about attitude and effort, you’re not coaching basketball. You’re the disciplinarian. And we don’t have a discipline problem in Houston.”
–Field level media
