Arizona's buzzer-beating epic win over Iowa State delivers Big 12 what it sorely needed: the Game of the Year - CBS Sports

KANSAS CITY — Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark made a tough decision late Thursday night that guaranteed widespread reaction across the country, hardly all of it laudatory.

Less than 24 hours later, Yormark was rewarded for his goodwill gesture.

Despite the hype, marketing and promotion over the Big 12's LED glass floor, the league and its commissioner were the subjects of routine mockery after sporadic slippage and one legitimate injury interfered with the basketball through the first three days of the men's tournament.

Yormark swallowed his pride and decided to unplug the digital floor in exchange for good ol' American hardwood.

"We have a tremendous final four tomorrow night," he told me late Thursday night. "That should be the story."

Instead of a story, the Big 12 and college basketball were delivered an epic in Friday night's opening semifinal between No. 1 Arizona and No. 7 Iowa State. The Wildcats' buzzer-beating 82-80 win was nothing less than arguably the best game of this splendid season. Arizona senior/Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley hit a fallaway 17-footer from the wing at the buzzer over an immaculate defensive effort from Cyclones freshman defensive stud Killyan Toure. When the ball swished, that shot and this game buried the previous three days worth of chatter about the court.

"It was a crazy shot," Bradley said. "It was great defense."

This is how you flip the script.

JADEN BRADLEY GAME-WINNER TO ELIMINATE IOWA STATE IN THE BIG 12 TOURNEY 🔥

THIS IS MARCH 🤯 pic.twitter.com/IQ98ZFWvEg — ESPN (@espn) March 14, 2026

That's an instant all-time highlight.

We've got to look at that again.

Here it is from a different angle — my angle. In a bout of serendipity, Bradley's beautifully clutch finisher happened right in front of press row, on the baseline. I'll never forget this moment.

HOLY S— pic.twitter.com/67SxBHykcN — Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 14, 2026

Adding to the frenzy and upping the cosmetic appeal on Friday night's all-timer was the lack of timeouts called in the final frantic minutes, especially in the closing possessions. Arizona's Tommy Lloyd had multiple in his pocket and didn't use them.

"It set the stage for something epic to happen," Lloyd told told CBS Sports in the coach's locker room after the game. "In those games, you feel like Will Ferrell in Old School, where he gets up there and he's doing the political argument against like James Carver, or something like that, and he kind of blacks out."

The game was so great, Lloyd blacked out a little bit himself. The moments kept hitting, bursting with dramatics, the big shots happening a pace too quickly to ingest them all properly. It's a wonder nobody was seen streaking down the streets of Kansas City Friday night.

Bradley being the hero was apt. BYU superstar AJ Dybantsa led the nation in scoring and was the Big 12's most reliably great player, but the league's coaches voted for who they believed was the best player on clearly the best team.

"I thought it was pretty tough for him the last couple days to win an award like that," Lloyd said. "It is big, and he's not a guy that tries to take up any extra space in the room. He's not about individual things at all. And then to have people come back at him and say, 'No, you shouldn't have got it.' I think that's a tough space to put a young guy in. Even giving him the MVP trophy before the game yesterday is kind of weird. He hasn't experienced anything like that and he just wants to be one of the guys. And then for him to come out and put a stamp on it, and a game like this, I think, is really cool."

The frenzied finish that flooded into Bradley's winner was a work of art. Arizona and Iowa State combined to make a shot on their final 11 possessions, including seven in a row from 3-point range. Arizona finished with 1.24 points per possession to ISU's 1.21.

"It's like shooting in the ocean, you feel like you can't miss," Arizona's Anthony Dell'Orso said.

"I think it's an amazing feeling," Iowa State All-American Joshua Jefferson said of playing in a 40-minute masterpiece.

The night just as easily could have gone his team's way.

"They were able to make one more play tonight," Iowa State coach TJ Otzelberger said. "Just like they're Final Four contenders, so are we."

The Cyclones got off to a 14-2 start and they also had a flurry 9-0 run to end the first half that had the joint blaring thanks to three 3-pointers from Cyclones senior forward Milan Momcilovic.

"Larry Bird showed up," Lloyd told me. "Thank God, the half ran out."

Momcilovic sank eight 3-pointers, becoming just the fourth player in the history of the Big 12 Tournament to make so many triples in one game.

"Great player, crazy shooter," said Bradley.

This article is republished...