The No. 1 Arizona Wildcats blew out the No. 6 Iowa State Cyclones at McKale Center on Monday evening to clinch the Big 12 regular-season title. It was the Wildcats’ 32nd regular-season title and their third in five years under coach Tommy Lloyd.
The Wildcats head into the Big 12 Tournament as No. 1 seeds and are one of the favorites to make a deep run into the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
Analyst Details Arizona’s Pedigree
During Tuesday’s segment of the “Field of 68” podcast, analyst Jeff Goodman lavished praise on the Wildcats’ pedigree and dismissed the running narrative about their toughness.
“They’re grown men. They look like an NBA team when you watch them on both sides of the ball,” Goodman said. “You think of Arizona, you think West Coast, you think Pac-12, you think soft. This team is the furthest thing from soft. They’re MFers, that’s what they are on this team… Arizona continues to impress me.”
“I was late to the party because they didn’t shoot a lot of threes. Still don’t… I try to think about who do I want to see in the national title game this year, these three teams, I want all three (Arizona, Duke Blue Devils & the Michigan Wolverines) of them in Indy. I don’t even know who the fourth team would be at this point.”
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Alongside the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils, the Wildcats have been the most dominant team in the country as they seek to end their 29-year national championship drought at the 2026 March Madness.
Tommy Lloyd Blasts ‘Lazy’ Wildcats Narrative
During his postgame news conference after beating Iowa State, Tommy Lloyd blasted critics of Arizona’s toughness, a long-running theme since the Wildcats joined the Big 12.
“I think the narrative that we were soft is lazy,” Lloyd said. “Look at our stats. Look at our analytics. We’ve always been a great rebounding team… The Big 12 is the best basketball conference in the country. To win it by a couple of games, that’s pretty impressive.”
“If you want to be lazy and not pay attention and say we’re soft because we’re on the West Coast, be lazy. I’d love to play against you. We know we’ve got dudes, and we love this game. If you wanna compete at the highest level of college basketball, you have to go toe-to-toe…”
The Wildcats are fighting against the weight of history this year, as in 11 of the past 24 seasons, they’ve earned a No. 4 seed or better at the Big Dance. However, none of those teams reached the Final Four.
