It took a little while for Arizona State Basketball to reach their potential, but this Arizona State basketball season looked like it was on its way to being the best yet under Bobby Hurley.
Arizona State Basketball wasn’t able to claim a signature win during non-conference play, failing to beat Colorado, Virginia, Saint Mary’s, or Creighton before they got to Pac-12 play. That left them with a 9-4 record heading into conference play and with work to do to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
Their early conference schedule also didn’t do them any favors. In their first four games, they had to travel to Oregon and Tucson and had to play Colorado a second time. They lost all three of those games and won a game against Oregon State in the middle of those three to get themselves to 1-3. From there, they turned things around.
The Sun Devils won nine of their next 10, including wins over Oregon, Arizona, USC, Stanford, and UCLA. That run put them in a strong enough position in the NCAA tournament field that they were still projected to get a 10 seed even after losing games against USC, UCLA, and Washington at the end of the year. They also still managed to claim the 3rd seed in the Pac-12 tournament and were scheduled to play Washington State in the quarterfinals before the tournament was canceled.
I actually think that if the NCAA tournament had happened, the Sun Devils would have been a surprise team to make a run. In the Busting Brackets mock tournament, our writers picked Houston to beat them in the round of 64, but that is one of the few picks I actually disagreed with.
In that matchup, I think the Sun Devils would be able to keep Houston off the offensive glass, which is a key piece of their offense. I also think ASU could speed the game up, forcing Houston into turnovers and get Remy Martin and Alonzo Verge rolling.
From there, they would draw Creighton, who they were very competitive against in December. Both teams have improved since then, but now the Sun Devils have 4 reliable scorers they can turn to and still have a big advantage inside. I think they could take that matchup too and head to a Sweet Sixteen matchup against Maryland.
That would be where the run would end as Maryland’s stingy defense would just make it too difficult for the Arizona State to score consistently. That would bring an end to their season, but a trip to the sweet 16 would absolutely be a season worth celebrating for the Sun Devils.