For the second year in a row, a team from the Big 12 Conference is headed to the Final Four.
On Saturday night, the 1 seed Arizona Wildcats used a tremendous second half to overtake the 2 seed Purdue Boilermakers in the Elite Eight and win 79-64 to make the final weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
It ends a 25-year drought for the Wildcats, who last made it to the Final Four in 2001. From 1988-2001 they made it four times under legendary coach Lute Olson.
The win comes as the team’s current head coach, Tommy Lloyd, is widely considered a front runner to become the next head coach at North Carolina.
On Saturday, Arizona trailed Purdue 38-31 at halftime but came out strong in the second half and took the lead at 44-43 with 14:34 remaining and never looked back.
Wildcats star freshman Koa Peat paced his team with 20 points to go along with seven rebounds and three assists, and three other Arizona players joined him in double figures.
The Wildcats dominated numerous notable statistical categories, including field goal percentage, free throws made, turnovers, fast break points and points in the paint.
Arizona joins Illinois in the Final Four, and four more teams — Michigan, Duke, UConn and Tennessee — will vie for the final two spots on Sunday.
The Wildcats follow the Houston Cougars, who represented the Big 12 in the Final Four in 2025 (they lost to Florida in the national championship game).
This marks the seventh time since 2016 that the Big 12 has had a team in the Final Four.
Outside of Arizona’s 4-0 record in the Big Dance so far this season, the Big 12 finished with a 7-7 mark. Of the eight teams from the conference that made the tournament, four — Houston, Iowa State, Kansas and BYU — underperformed based on their seed.
Only 9 seed TCU scored an “upset,” as it beat 8 seed Ohio State in the first round.
Here’s a rundown of the Big 12’s performance in the tournament this year:
- 1 seed Arizona: 4-0.
- 2 seed Houston: 2-1.
- 2 seed Iowa State: 2-1.
- 4 seed Kansas: 1-1.
- 5 seed Texas Tech: 1-1.
- 6 seed BYU: 0-1.
- 9 seed TCU: 1-1.
- 10 seed UCF: 0-1.