10. Arizona State (4-6, 1-1)
Last week: Defeated Grand Canyon 67-62
This week: Creighton
The Sun Devils have won two straight and are set to play a Creighton team that just took down the then ranked BYU Cougars. Bobby Hurley’s team is still without Marcus Bagley, who didn’t travel with the team to the Bahamas and sat out for their wins against Oregon and Grand Canyon.
Arizona State badly needs the wing back as their offense has looked dreadful during his absence. The team is averaging 55 points per game on 32.9% field goal shooting in the month of December, making 10 of 68 attempts from outside.
9. California (6-5, 0-1)
Last week: Defeated Idaho State 72-46, Defeated Santa Clara 72-60
This week: Dartmouth
California has shown some signs of life over the last couple of weeks. The Golden Bears defeated a very decent Broncos team, albeit without their best player. Mark Fox has his team playing the best defense they’ve played in his three seasons with the program, as they’ve done a great job guarding their assignments, contesting shots, and preventing second chance looks (Cal ranks fourth in opponent offensive rebound percentage in the country).