For the previous 12 years, once Arizona completed its regular season schedule it turned its attention to Las Vegas, site of the Pac-12 Tournament. But those days are gone, and instead the Wildcats will be looking to spend as much time this coming week in Middle America.
The UA (20-11) has earned the No. 3 seed for the Big 12 Tournament, which begins Tuesday in Kansas City. The tourney will be held at the T-Mobile Center, not to be confused with the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas where the final eight iterations of the Pac-12 tourney were held.
The OFFICIAL 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Championship bracket. pic.twitter.com/X61MfbE7VJ
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) March 9, 2025
As the No. 3 seed, Arizona does not play until Thursday’s quarterfinals when it will face either No. 6 Kansas—whom it lost to in the regular season finale—No. 11 Utah or No. 14 UCF. Utah (16-15) and UCF (16-15) play Tuesday in the first round, with the Jayhawks (20-11).
Arizona’s opening game is the final one on the schedule for Thursday, slated for a 6:30 p.m. PT start and airing on either ESPN or ESPN2. If the Wildcats win they’d play in the late semifinal game Friday at 6:30 p.m. PT, with the championship set for Saturday at 3 p.m. PT on ESPN.
Houston (27-4) earned the No. 1 seed after going 19-1 in conference play including 10-0 on the road, with Texas Tech (24-7) getting the No. 2 seed. Teams seeded ninth through 16th would have to win five games in five days to earn the Big 12’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, while Arizona would only need to win three times in as many days.
Arizona is 42-16 all-time in conference tournament games, winning nine titles including in 2022 and 2023 under Tommy Lloyd, but those were all in the Pac-10/12. Kansas has the most Big 12 tourney titles with 12.