Jaden Bradley Named Big 12 Player of the Year To Lead Numerous Wildcat Honorees

TUCSON, Ariz. – The Big 12 Conference announced the end of year awards for the 2025-26 season on Monday, as voted on by the coaches in the league, and Arizona senior point guard Jaden Bradley was named the Player of the Year after guiding the Wildcats to a 29-2 overall record and the Big 12 regular season championship.

Bradley is the 11th player in Arizona history to be named conference player of the year and the third in five seasons under head coach Tommy Lloyd. As a result of being named player of the year, Bradley also secures a spot in the Arizona Basketball Ring of Honor.

Another senior, Tobe Awaka, was a unanimous choice for Sixth Man of the Year and head coach Tommy Lloyd was named Big 12 Coach of the Year.

For Awaka, he becomes the third Wildcat in program history to earn top reserve honors alognside Jordan Brown (2020-21) and Pelle Larsson (2021-22).

It is the second conference coach of the year honor for Lloyd after he was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2022.

Joining Bradley on All-Big 12 First team was junior Motiejus Krivas and freshman Brayden Burries while Koa Peat earned third team honors and Awaka was honorable mention.

The Big 12 All-Defensive team included Bradley and Krivas while Burries was joined on the Big 12 All-Freshman team by Peat.

In the Lloyd era at Arizona, the Wildcats have had 18 all-conference selections – including honorable mention. And there have now been six freshmen in five years earn all-freshman recognition under Lloyd's watch.

Bradley is the unquestioned leader for Arizona and the driving force behind the Wildcats winning the regular season title by two games. He was a catalyst at both end of the court in the best conference in the country, averaging 13.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.4 steals in league play. The native of Rochester, N.Y. scored 17 or more points seven times in Big 12 play, including against Iowa State on March 2 to clinch the regular season title outright.

Awaka is the top offensive rebounder in the country, according to KenPom.com and averaged 9.6 points and 9.5 rebounds while playing 21 minutes off the bench. Although he did start three games while Koa Peat was injured, Awaka led the country in total rebounds coming off the bench. His 271 rebounds off the bench are the most by any bench player in the country since 2023-24.

For Lloyd, the 29 regular season wins are the most in Arizona history and his 141 career wins in his first five seasons as a head coach are an NCAA record. Arizona has a 15-2 record in Quad 1 games this season and are 10-2 against AP Top 25 teams. The Wildcats led the Big 12 in scoring, field goal percentage, field goal percentage defense and 3-point field goal percentage defense in league play and posted a league-best rebounding margin of +9.44.

As the No. 1 seed in the 2026 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament, Arizona will play on Thursday at 12:00 p.m. MST in Kansas City against either UCF, Cincinnati or Utah on ESPN or ESPN2.

Arizona's Conference Players of the Year
1987-88: Sean Elliott
1988-89: Sean Elliott
1992-93: Chris Mills
1994-95: Damon Stoudamire (co)
1997-98: Mike Bibby
1998-99: Jason Terry
2010-11: Derrick Williams
2013-14: Nick Johnson
2017-18: Deandre Ayton
2021-22: Bennedict Mathurin
2022-23: Caleb Love
2025-26: Jaden Bradley

2025-26 Big 12 Conference Postseason Awards

Player of the Year: Jaden Bradley, Arizona
Defensive Player of the Year: Flory Bidunga, Kansas
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Freshman of the Year: AJ Dybantsa, BYU
Newcomer of the Year: Melvin Council Jr., Kansas
Sixth Man Award: Tobe Awaka, Arizona*
Most Improved: Christian Anderson, Texas Tech
Coach of the Year: Tommy Lloyd, Arizona

All-Big 12 First Team
Jaden Bradley, Arizona
Brayden Burries, Arizona
Motiejus Krivas, Arizona
AJ Dybantsa, BYU*
Emanuel Sharp, Houston
Kingston Flemings, Houston*
Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State
Flory Bidunga, Kansas
Christian Anderson, Texas Tech
JT Toppin, Texas Tech*

All-Big 12 Second Team
Richie Saunders, BYU
Baba Miller, Cincinnati
Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Milan Momcilovic, Iowa State
Darryn Peterson, Kansas

All-Big 12 Third Team
Koa Peat, Arizona
Cameron Carr, Baylor
Rob Wright, BYU
Themus Fulks, UCF
Xavier Edmonds, TCU

All-Big 12 Honorable Mention
Arizona: Tobe Awaka
Baylor: Tounde Yessoufou
Cincinnati: Moustapha Thiam
Colorado: Isaiah Johnson
Houston: Joseph Tugler, Milos Uzan
Kansas: Melvin Council Jr.
Kansas State: PJ Haggerty
Oklahoma State: Parsa Fallah
TCU: David Punch
Texas Tech: Donovan Atwell
West Virginia: Honor Huff
Utah: Terrence Brown

All-Defensive Team
Jaden Bradley, Arizona
Motiejus Krivas, Arizona
Emanuel Sharp, Houston
Joseph Tugler, Houston
Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Flory Bidunga, Kansas*
A tie resulted in an extra position on the team

All-Freshman Team
Brayden Burries, Arizona*
Koa Peat, Arizona
AJ Dybantsa, BYU*
Kingston Flemings, Houston*
Darryn Peterson, Kansas*

All-Newcomer Team
Cameron Carr, Baylor
Themus Fulks, UCF
Baba Miller, Cincinnati
Melvin Council Jr., Kansas
Donovan Atwell, Texas Tech

Jaden Bradley Named Big 12 Player of the Year To Lead Numerous Wildcat Honorees

Players Mentioned

Tobe Awaka

Jaden Bradley

Brayden Burries

Motiejus Krivas

Caleb Love

Koa Peat

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