Arizona State Basketball: 2019-20 keys in home matchup against Arizona

Arizona State Basketball got themselves back in the win column last Saturday, but they still find themselves fighting for their NCAA tournament lives a week later.

It’s been an up and down year (and month) for the Sun Devils. Arizona State Basketball entered 2020 with a 9-4 record and still looked a real contender for a spot in the tournament. Since then, they opened the new year with an embarrassing loss to Arizona by 28 points. They bounced back from that with a solid road win over Oregon State and even though they lost at Oregon in their next game, they were still competitive and looked like they were starting to turn things around.

Then they finally got to play their first home Pac-12 game of the year and wasted it with an awful offensive second half against Colorado. In their last game, they bounced back from that loss with a dominant win over Utah. Now they find themselves in a situation where they need to avenge that loss to Arizona in order to keep their hopes alive for March.

Arizona’s chances at the tournament, and even of winning the Pac-12, are much clearer than ASU’s. Since their trouncing of the Sun Devils down in Tucson, they lost both of their games in Oregon but managed to take Oregon to overtime and then had a very successful homestand. On that homestand, they won their last 2 games, beating both Utah and Colorado pretty convincingly. That win over Colorado was particularly important because it was only their second of the year over a team currently in the top 25. It was also enough to catapult them back into the rankings after they fell out last Monday.

These two teams meet with a lot at stake. Arizona State needs this win to keep their tournament hopes alive and to keep their rival from having bragging rights for this season. U of A needs it to keep themselves in the top 25 and keep them within a game of the top of the Pac-12. This should be an action-packed battle in Tempe on Saturday night.