Who will Arizona play in Big 12 men's basketball tournament?
The good news: Tommy Lloyd's Arizona Wildcats (20-11, 14-6) earned a double-bye in the Big 12 men's basketball tournament, which means they don't have to play until the quarterfinals on Thursday.
The not-so-good news: Arizona will likely have to face preseason national championship favorite Kansas again in the quarterfinals. And the tournament is in Kansas City, which is basically a home game for the Jayhawks.
Kansas beat Arizona 83-76 on Saturday behind 33 points and 10 rebounds from 7-foot-2 fifth-year senior Hunter Dickinson. Kansas coach Bill Self relentlessly attacked mismatches in the paint and Dickinson shot 15-of-23 against the Wildcats much smaller defenders.
Henri Veesaar, a 7-foot redshirt sophomore, is the only Arizona defender long enough to bother Dickinson's array of post moves and spot-up jumpers. But Veesaar got into foul trouble, leaving 6-foot-8 junior Tobe Awaka and 6-foot-8 freshman Carter Bryant on Dickinson for long stretches of the game.
The Jayhawks will likely finish with the No. 6 seed in the Big 12 Tournament and are projected to play Cincinnati in the second round on Wednesday. The winner of that game will play Arizona in the quarterfinals — which means Lloyd has four days to figure out how to defend Dickinson.
If Arizona can beat Kansas in the quarterfinals, they will likely face Texas Tech in Friday's semifinals. Here are the projected quarterfinal matchups.
Note: All matchups will be finalized once games conclude around 10 p.m. MST Saturday.
Arizona needs to win at least two games in the Big 12 Tournament to stay on the 4 or 5-seed line in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats have lost five of their last eight games and back-to-back losses to Kansas would likely drop them to a No. 6 seed at best.
Selection Sunday is March 16 and the NCAA Tournament starts March 18 with First Four games.
