Mar 8, 2025; Lawrence, Kansas, USA; Arizona Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd watches game play during the second half against the Kansas Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Arizona was announced to be one of four teams to join the Big 12 Conference, basketball fans quickly began to visualize potential matchups between the Wildcats and Kansas in future tournament games.
Few could have anticipated that the game would be in the quarterfinals, however — or would be between two unranked teams. But that’s exactly what’s going to happen on Thursday night when sixth-seeded Kansas meets third-seeded Arizona.
Kansas (21-11) needed overtime to escape an upset attempt by UCF in a 98-94 victory on Wednesday.
The Jayhawks were led by Zeke Mayo with 24 points. Hunter Dickinson scored 23 points, AJ Storr had a season-high 19 and KJ Adams added 15.
“Well, we’re happy we won,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “We didn’t play our best, but I think they had a lot to do with that. When we had a chance to kinda break the game open, we didn’t take advantage of it.”
Kansas led by as many as 13 points in the second half, but UCF kept chipping away. Jordan Ivy-Curry’s 3-pointer in the waning seconds sent the game to overtime. Kansas had a chance to win it in regulation but didn’t get off a shot.
“We were running a play to get the ball to Hunter and they denied it,” Self said. “We threw the ball to KJ, which wasn’t the play, and KJ tried to do too much there.”
Arizona (20-11) was picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches’ poll, so the Wildcats’ third-place finish can be construed as positive. After a 4-5 start to the season, the Wildcats won 13 of their next 14 games to get back into the rankings.
But a 3-5 finish, including an 83-76 loss to Kansas in the final game of the regular season, dropped Arizona out of the poll again.
“I thought we played selfish,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “You’re not going to come to a place like Kansas and play selfish and be successful. We should have learned that lesson.”
–David Smale, Field Level Media
