Jaden Bradley capped an incredible final six minutes for Arizona and Iowa State by making a shot at the buzzer to send the Wildcats to the Big XII Championship Game with an 82-80 victory over the Cyclones in the conference tournament semifinals.
Bradley began his game-winning play near halfcourt, drove to his right in front of the Arizona bench and landed on the right baseline for another memorable finish to give the Wildcats one of its most memorable wins in recent years.
ESPN ran replays from the traditional game view from the side, then showed a shot from halfcourt and a third came from under the basket. Matt Norlander of CBS Sports was sitting on the baseline to the right of the Arizona bench, right in front of Bradley and took a video of his view of the winning shot that he posted to X.
Bradley became the closer with Brayden Burries held to three points and on the bench for the final 6:01. Burries was held to single digits for the first time in six games with only three points against Iowa State on Friday night.
While Bradley made the game-winning shot, it was Anthony Dell'Orso who led Arizona with 26 points on 10 out of 14 from the field, six out of nine three-point shots and five rebounds and a steal. Dell'Orso helped Arizona rally from a 14-2 deficit and he made four three-point shots with two rebounds in the final 10:46 of the game.
GAME OF THE YEAR (so far) https://t.co/6NrUTszSsc
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 14, 2026
Bradley continuing to thrive in clutch time
Bradley is averaging 3.4 points in the final five minutes when games have a margin of five points or less, which College Basketball Analytics defines as clutch time. Arizona was able to close out high-leverage games in November largely because of Bradley making big shots in clutch time.
The Big XII Tournament will prepare the high-level teams in the conference better for the NCAA Tournament than any other league. The Big XII leads all conferences with five teams in the Associated Press Top 16. Arizona defeated all of those teams this season except for Texas Tech.