A team with national championship aspirations is guaranteed to enter March Madness coming off a loss.
It promises to be a top-flight main attraction on Saturday evening as top-seeded Arizona and second-seeded Houston square off in Kansas City, Mo., in the championship game of the Big 12 tournament.
The two schools are on the short list of teams that realistically can be the last team standing in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
Arizona (31-2) is ranked No. 2 nationally and Houston (28-5) is close behind at No. 5.
The Wildcats defeated the Cougars in the regular season, 73-66 on Feb. 21 in Houston.
Anthony Dell’Orso scored 22 points in that contest for the Wildcats. He was even more effective in Arizona’s 82-80 semifinal victory over fifth-seeded Iowa State on Friday.
Dell’Orso scored a season-high 26 points and matched his career best of six point 3-pointers in 29 minutes off the bench.
“You see a couple go down and you just keep getting more and more confidence,” Dell’Orso said of his 10-of-14 shooting effort. “I said it before it’s like shooting in the ocean — you feel like you can’t miss.”
The biggest make came from Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley, who knocked down the winning outside shot as time expired over the tight defense from Iowa State’s Killyan Toure.
Bradley admitted that 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 earned the Wildcats a rematch with the Cougars, who lost in the NCAA title game to Florida last season. Arizona has won eight consecutive games.
“We put ourselves in position to win a championship, and you don’t get a lot of opportunities to do that over the course of the season,” Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd said. “So (Saturday) deserves our best effort.”
Houston reached the conference tourney title game with a 69-47 rout of 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 just had a lot of bad possessions,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Sometimes you credit the defense and sometimes kids just miss shots. But I thought our defense was connected.”
Kingston Flemings scored a game-best 21 points while fellow freshman Chris Cenac Jr. stepped up with 17 and tied his career-high 14 rebounds.
“Going into the game, Coach told me just come in and shoot with confidence when I get it and I’m open, let it fly,” Cenan said. “So I just shot the ball with confidence, trusted the work that I put in every day, and just kept going.”
The Cougars lost three straight games in mid-February — that stretch included the loss to Arizona — but have rebounded with five consecutive wins.
Sampson likes where his squad is now with the NCAA Tournament right around the corner.
“We were winning some games early, but we weren’t very good,” Sampson said. “But I was OK with that because I knew that January would get here eventually and turn into February and turn into March, and if you come in every day with the right attitude and the right mindset, and you have high-character kids, that you can focus on coaching basketball.
“If you are worried about attitude and effort, then you’re not coaching basketball. You’re being a disciplinarian. And we don’t have discipline problems at Houston.”
