The Big 12 men’s basketball tournament championship game is set as the top seeded Houston Cougars will take on the No. 3 Arizona Wildcats.
Houston leaned on their suffocating defense along with 60 combined points from Emmanuel Sharp, LJ Cryer, and Milos Uzan to roll over BYU in the semifinals. Kelvin Sampson is now just one win away from leading his team to their first Big 12 tournament championship to go with their back-to-back regular season titles in their second year in the league. Arizona used their high powered offense in the late night semifinal matchup to defeat a banged up Texas Tech team. Caleb Love scored a game high 27 points with 17 of those coming in the first half.
This will be the second matchup of this season between these two programs. Houston came away with a four point victory in a low scoring game on the road last time out. The Cougars have all but locked up a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament while Arizona is around the 4-5 seed line.
Despite being two of the top programs in the sport over the past decade, this is not your typical Big 12 title game with Houston who is in their second year in the conference and Arizona as a first year member.
How to watch Arizona vs. Houston
- Date: Saturday, March 15
- Time: 6:00 p.m. ET
- Venue: T-Mobile Center
- How to Watch (TV): ESPN
- Streaming: fubo TV
- Arizona record: 22-11 (14-6)
- Houston record: 29-4 (19-1)
Arizona vs. Houston odds, spread and total
Odds provided by FanDuel Sportsbook
Moneyline
- Arizona +255
- Houston -320
Spread
- Arizona +7.5 (-110)
- Houston -7.5 (-110)
Total
- 133.5 (over -115/under -105)
Arizona injury report
- Motiejus Krivas, C: OUT (lower leg)
Houston injury report
- J'Wan Roberts, F: Doubtful (ankle)
- Ramon Walker, G: Out (hand)
- Jacob McFarland, C: Out (leg)
Houston and Arizona series history
- Houston all-time record vs. Arizona: 7-6
Arizona vs. Houston prediction
Arizona has one of the best offenses in college basketball and it has been functioning at a high level as of late. Houston may just have the perfect remedy for that though with their slow, half court, and defensive style of play. The Cougars have been the best team in the Big 12 all season, with their lone loss in conference coming by one point in OT to Texas Tech, and I see that dominance showing on Saturday night.
Good defenses have given the Wildcats problems all season and no one is better on that side of the ball than Kelvin Sampson’s team. In all of Arizona’s wins this season they have scored at least 72 points while Houston has given up that or more just five times.
Not having big man J’Wan Roberts is worrisome, but they looked fine without him on Friday. Look for the Cougars scoring trio to stay hot this week and lead Houston to their first ever Big 12 conference tournament title.