Arizona State Basketball: 2019-20 keys for road matchup against Arizona
By John Vaccaro
Arizona State basketball bounced back from their two-game losing streak with a 17 point win over Texas Southern last weekend.
Arizona State Basketball will look to start 2020 the way they ended 2019 and kick off their conference schedule with a win. A hot start to conference play would help to negate their struggles late in 2019, which featured their destruction at the hands of Saint Mary’s and a tight loss to Creighton.
Getting a win over U of A to start the new year would give ASU a huge confidence boost and even give them hope that the brutal start to the conference schedule they are facing isn’t the death sentence it looks like right now. Their first six games of the Pac-12 season are absolutely brutal, featuring away games against Arizona, Oregon State, and Oregon and home games against Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.
Arizona is looking to bounce back from consecutive losses of its own in this game. Their end to 2019 saw them drop games against Gonzaga and Saint John’s, nearly dropping them out of the top 25. A loss to ASU in Tucson would certainly see them lose the number next to their name. U of A faces the same brutal schedule early in conference play that the Sun Devils do and would also see a boost valuable to their confidence with a win in this game.
ASU swept this series last season, with an overtime win in Tempe and an 8-point win in regulation down in Tucson. Arizona will be seeking revenge for those two losses from last season (and for their 3 consecutive Territorial Cup losses). ASU will be looking to score their first win over a ranked team this season and continue their run of success against their southern rival.