2026 PHILLIPS 66 BIG 12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 14, 2026

Tommy Lloyd

Brayden Burries

Jaden Bradley

Koa Peat

T-Mobile Center

Arizona Wildcats

Postgame Press Conference

Arizona - 79, Houston - 74

TOMMY LLOYD: I want to say thanks to the Big 12 for hosting a great tournament and for Kansas City for being a great place to host the tournament.

We're getting comfortable here fast, and that's a good thing. These seasons, you kind of break them down into your early preparation, summer work, fall work, and then you're kind of your non-conference games, and then your conference season, and then your conference tournament.

So every one of these is a little milestone along the way. We really wanted to win the Big 12 regular season championship. That was important to us. I thought our guys did an incredible job of digging deep when we had some injuries and we we're playing really thin. And we hit the toughest part of our schedule, and the guys just persevered and found ways to win games and capture the regular season championship.

And then you come into the tournament. And a lot of people have a lot of opinions on how you should handle this. And we felt like our health was good, and you're always knocking on wood with that.

And once you put up a bracket and your team's in a kind of win-or-go-home tournament, I mean, I think the objective is simple: Let's see if we can win it game by game.

These guys did an incredible job of that. It was quite a ride the last three days. And I'm just really proud of these three guys next to me and the guys in the locker room.

Q. A lot of your buckets came from just straight ball movement and getting open. Seemed like you guys were on one accord. Could you talk about the team chemistry and trust you have?

JADEN BRADLEY: We've been playing with each other for a while. We know each other and want the ball and need the ball. But playing against Houston, it's never easy. So you know you've got to move it, you gotta find each other and create plays for each other.

Brayden was hitting shots, and Koa was getting to the rim and Ivan was getting to the rim. All our guys contributed tonight.

BRAYDEN BURRIES: What J.B. said, but we've got a lot of guys on the team that can get theirs. When somebody drives and they've got two on them, it makes it easier for the next guy and you just make a nice read, honestly.

KOA PEAT: Same thing they said, honestly. They covered it.

TOMMY LLOYD: I thought we said we can't say the same thing. You can't say that.

KOA PEAT: We have a great group of guys want everybody to be successful. Just making the right plays, making the right reads every time down the court. It's not going to be perfect, but just playing off each other and we're just flowing. And Coach put a great offense in for us. So we just played together and hit the open man.

Q. This league is an absolute monster. What does it say about your team to win the regular season and now finishing it out with the tournament title?

TOMMY LLOYD: What I'll say, just for me and my experience as a coach, I was at a place, we were kind of on top of the conference a lot. And when we got in the Big 12, you know, I learned real quick that we were looking up and chasing a program, and it was Houston.

Not that we were fixated with the chase, but it gave us a great barometer for what we felt like we had to do to improve our program to see if we could put ourselves over the top. So I'm thankful for Houston and the competition they give us.

And, listen, I know that there's going to be numerous battles in the years to come with that program. And we welcome that. We welcome that, and I'm sure we won't come out on top all the time.

So, yeah, I mean, what it says is Arizona basketball is a special program. It always has been. And these guys are -- it's their time in the program now, and they're honoring the legacy in a really special way.

Q. Regardless of you saying you're competitors obviously, but this is a game you're probably going to be a No. 1 seed either way. When J.B. goes out like that, do you have any twinge or concern, or did you even need to be here --

TOMMY LLOYD: I mean, you hope for the best. I know how tough J.B. is. Listen, unfortunate things can obviously happen in those scenarios, but they went in and I think they looked at it real quick. And when the doctor came out with a smile on his face, before he said anything to me, I was a little bit relieved.

But at that time I think we were up 14 or 15 or something, at that time. I'm figuring out how can we manage this game without J.B. to get over the top and win it. J.B. helped us get a big lead. Let's see if we can bring it home. That's where my mind was.

Q. Can you talk about the depth of this team? Because obviously Dell'Orso had a huge game yesterday. He wasn't much of a factor today. Koa and Brayden really stepped up today when yesterday wasn't really their day. You've got so many guys capable of big games on any given day.

TOMMY LLOYD: Well, you know, it gives us a good margin for error, where we have so many guys we can count on. And obviously Koa and Brayden didn't have their best games yesterday, and, who knows, for various reasons. Let's give Iowa State probably some credit for that.

Deli was incredible. Without him, we're not up here right now. And then Deli doesn't have a great game today. And Koa and Brayden kind of get it going in the game and maybe didn't get off, either to a great start. But they just hung with it, hung with it and did their damage over the course of the game.

I'm really proud of Brayden. I haven't seen Brayden shoot too many air balls. He had a couple of them to start the game. And for a freshman in this setting, to do that and then come out and still end up with great numbers, over 20 points and hit some huge 3s at the end of that first half that kind of allowed us to have that eight-point lead -- and then we talked about hitting first and second half and we did.

We came out and they called a timeout right away, like, a 4-0 run. And I think we were able to kind of build a lead that allowed us to kind of withstand the run they made at us.

Q. We hear President Yormark say this is the second-best basketball league in the world. After winning the regular season tournament and the main championship and a tournament championship I was going to ask, how does this competitiveness and going through this gauntlet prepare you and give you confidence going into March Madness coming up?

TOMMY LLOYD: These guys will tell you, we're pretty boring. We're kind of a one-game-at-a-time team. And we're going to get home tonight and probably figure out a good recovery plan. And, honestly, we'll figure out who we play tomorrow, and I'm hoping for a good practice on Tuesday. And we kind of just approach it like that.

So I think just staying in the moment. This team's done a great job and it's something we talk about a lot is not getting -- there's no reason there's nothing to protect in the Big 12 anymore. That's already been accomplished.

Now, what's next? What's next is the NCAA Tournament, and then we're going to figure out who's in our crosshairs, and then we'll just focus on that and try to advance as far as we can in that tournament, one game at a time.

JADEN BRADLEY: Just like Coach said, we talk about beginner's mindset a lot. Towards the end of the season, sometimes it's tough. You do the same stuff over and over again. It kind of gets boring.

But we always come in with a fresh mindset willing to get better. Just want to do the right thing for each other. That's kind of the mindset that we come in with.

Q. Brayden and Koa, what can you guys say about Jaden Bradley, and how much have you leaned on his leadership this year?

BRAYDEN BURRIES: He's a dog, honestly. But he's a great guy. He's a great leader. He's a great person. Not only is he a great basketball player but he's a great person outside, off the court. I'm so thankful for him.

KOA PEAT: I'll say the same thing. Big 12 Player of the Year for a reason. Really proud of Jaden, I see him put all the work in early mornings and late nights in the gym with T.J. and by himself sometimes.

So I'm just really proud of Jaden. Like Brayden said, he's a mentor off the court. And I really look up to him. He's one of my best friends since I've been a freshmen here at Arizona.

Q. That Ivan stretch -- the banked-in 3, gets downhill twice, had a defensive rebound in there -- how huge was that?

TOMMY LLOYD: Crazy Ivan. He's really come on. He's been a good player for us all year. But this last, I don't know, eight or 10 games, we've counted on a little bit more playmaking for him.

He's fearless. He really is fearless. Sometimes it's gotten him in a little bit of trouble. But you love that attribute in a player. You love a guy who is not afraid of the moment.

And these other guys are getting so much attention, sometimes he becomes the pressure outlet. He had some good match-ups today, especially when Koa was in foul trouble at the 4.

And the banking and the 3, we did bank in two shots, so I want to admit there's a little bit of luck in this as well. Let's not act like those were planned.

But you just want to put yourself in position to win. And if you get lucky, I mean, play the hand you're dealt. And we've been on the other side of that other times as well.

So Ivan was great. He kind of took over that little stretch of the game there when it got close. And I think Brayden got an and-1 and Ivan made a couple of plays. And the next thing you know we're looking up and it's seven- or nine-point lead, and we've just got to figure out how to close it out.

Q. Brayden, Coach mentioned you had that air ball, but after the day you had yesterday and just having that air ball, where does that mentality change for you? Is it just as simple as one shot goes in and all of a sudden you get going? Or it's the shooter-shoot thing? What is that mindset that you have to just keep on going?

JADEN BRADLEY: I think it's just having confidence and believing in the work that you put in. And then like you said, after the two air balls I shot I came to the bench and Coach came to me, he said he still believed in me. And I'm just thankful for that. Teammates came to me, still believed in me. And I was just thankful for them, honestly.

And, like, the mindset I just think was just, a miss, (indiscernible) two options -- either you make it or you miss it no matter how close you are, so just believe in that.

Q. J.B.'s been with you since, I believe he was a sophomore. Can you talk about his evolution from then into where he is right now?

TOMMY LLOYD: J.B. gets a ton of credit. J.B.'s a guy who has always been on the scene. He was a state champion in North Carolina. He goes to a great prep school at IMG. He's a McDonald's All-American. So he's been around the block.

No one knows how these careers are going to go. He goes to Alabama. I don't think he has a bad experience. He has kind of an up-and-down freshman year, but he decided it wasn't for him, and we were lucky to get him.

He came to us, and we were trying to figure out what we were still doing and building our program. So that first year, you know, he played a really important role off the bench for us.

But what he did, he was working behind the scenes. And he really just refined his game. And he's got some -- that shot he hit yesterday, guys, like, I mean I'm not going to say I've seen him hit it a lot. But I've seen him get that pull-up going right and get a little momentum and swing through with that leg a number of times.

He's just become a refined basketball player. For a guy like him when maybe things don't happen as fast as you want, to be steadfast and continue to work and get better, it says a lot about their character. This guy's going to play basketball for a lot of years to come. And he's going to have a great career.

Q. From when you transferred from Alabama, can you feel your maturity, the difference between when you first went to Arizona to where you are right now?

JADEN BRADLEY: For sure. I know my path wasn't going to be easy. I had a great time at Alabama. It just wasn't for me. Arizona was great. I believed in the coaches. They believed in me. They really turned my career around, and just the fundamental piece. Coach is always talking about the little details, the swivels, pocket passes. At first you look at him like, I don't want to do that stuff. But it really helps my game. And the small stuff is really going to help in the long run.

Q. Coach, you talked about yesterday the figure-it-out philosophy that you guys have. And I'm wondering if you can speak to kind of this group and how they've embodied it and what you've seen here over the past couple of games with that mindset. Obviously a tough start to the Iowa State game. You had the Houston stretch here. There might have been times where other coaches may have decided to call a timeout or switch up schematically but you kind of let your guys, for lack of a better word, figure it out. Just want to see if you can talk about that.

TOMMY LLOYD: Yeah, I just have so much trust in them. Listen, I don't think it's bad to be on the court, trying to figure it out when things aren't going your way. I think that's really important. Because, like, you're only going to play good when things feel like they're going your way? I mean, that's just not reality.

So our guys are really tough and they persevere. I really value those timeouts at the end of the game because they really help. Like if we burn them today, the game could have been different.

So I have enough trust in these guys to hang with it and make the plays at the right time, and these guys do a great job.

Of course, we call set plays, but a lot of what we do is just concepts. And these guys do a great job putting their own spin within the concepts that we have and kind of that's the figure-it-out stuff, the beauty of it.

To me, that's the hardest thing to play against. When you have a team that really isn't like just rigid. There's a looseness to how they play and a randomness to how they play, but they also have a real identity in where their strengths lie.

These guys have that. That's why I trust those figure-it-out moments with those guys because I think it's really hard to play against.

We sub Koa in the game, ran an out-of-bounds play with, I think, we had like 11 on the shot clock. I mean Koa did his deal. He got right to one of those little middies in the paint going to his left shoulder. It was big time, big-time play.

And those guys, you know J.B. figured it out last night at the end of the game. He waved everybody away, and it was his time. And Brayden, you know, just how he's grown with handling those ball screens, he was good today playing with pace and coming off those ball screens and kind of got us a lot of options and created some long rotations for them. And so these guys did an amazing job of figuring it out. And that's a great attribute to have.