How Arizona Can Solidify Outright Conference Crown in Final Week

No. 2 Arizona clinched a share of the regular season Big 12 title with a dominant win over No. 14 Kansas on Saturday, but there is more to play for in the season's final week.

With a two-game lead, the Wildcats can clinch the conference title outright, needing just one win against either No. 6 Iowa State on Monday or Colorado on Saturday. It's Arizona's first conference championship since joining the Big 12 and its third under current head coach Tommy Lloyd, winning the PAC-12 in 2022 and 2023.

Big one on Monday. pic.twitter.com/LYNZlGkJEn
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) February 28, 2026

Achieving the Goal

The conference championship was one of many goals Arizona has for this season, but the Wildcats want the satisfaction of sitting alone at the top.

"It's awesome but the job's not done," Lloyd said after the win over the Jayhawks. "I don't think you set a goal at the beginning of the year, 'Let's tie for the Big 12 Championship.' Let's see if we can win it. We've got a couple of games downt he stretch here to give ourselves an opportunity to do that. Let's focus on Monday and see if we can get it done on Monday. If we can't, we'll take a breath ahd see if we can get it done on Saturday."

Arizona began the year with 23 straight wins, making easy work of its early Big 12 opponents before reaching the part of its schedule that has often been referred to as "the gauntlet." During that time, which spanned about a month, the Wildcats have faced six top-20 teams, putting up a 4-2 record in such games.

It ends with another top-10 battle on Monday night, with the conference title there for the taking after conquering the conference.

“Big time crowd. I love you guys” 🫶

NEED YOU MONDAY!!! pic.twitter.com/10sIqvs9ql
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) March 1, 2026

"The Big 12's a monster. We know that, and we have to earn our keep," Lloyd added. "We know that we're going to be given nothing, and I don't say that in a bad way. We want to earn everything we get. If you can earn a conference championship, that's a good first step."

The Approach

Many teams can be tempted to look ahead at the schedule or even scoreboard watch or monitor the rest of the conference in other ways. There probably has been some of that going on behind the scenes because it's nearly impossible to avoid with any program, but Lloyd has tried to lead the team by focusing on each game as it comes. Whatever he's doing has been working, and the Wildcats recovered from a brief setback by knocking off two-time defending Big 12 champion Houston to put themselves in a realistic position to achieve their goal.

big 12 championshi — Feb 28, 2026; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Kansas Jayhawks guard Melvin Council Jr. (14) fouls Arizona Wildcats forward Ivan Kharchenkov (8) during the second half of the game at McKale Memorial Center. Mandatory Credit: Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images | Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images

"I tell our guys, 'We put ourselves in a position to be in position to win a conference championship. Let's go take advantage of the position we're in,'" the head coach explained. "How do you do that? You focus on the next game."

As cliche as that sounds, a focused, intentional, and well-executed approach can often be a separator between the elite teams and the true contenders, as they hone in on processes to earn the desiredd results.

"I know it's not sexy. It's not fun, but it's really cool," Lloyd said. "It's really cool to be present in the moment and lock in on doing something possession-by-possession, not being distracted by what happened in the past or what may happen in the future. Just being locked into the right now is a pretty cool place to be."

Right now, Arizona has a chance to win a conference championship. There may be more hardware coming down the line, but only if the Wildcats take care of the task at hand first.

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