Arizona State will attempt to end a four-game losing streak at home against rival Arizona on Saturday when the teams meet in their first matchup as Big 12 opponents.
Tip off is at 11 a.m. and the game will be televised on CBS.
The Sun Devils (12-8, 3-6 Big 12) have not beaten Arizona in Tempe since the 2019-20 season, when Arizona freshman Carter Bryant was in the eighth grade.
Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley is 2-7 against the Wildcats at home and is 4-15 overall against the archrivals since his hire in 2015-16.
Hurley believes Arizona State’s difficult schedule that has included 12 games away from Tempe (7-5 record) as opposed to eight games at home will help his team be mentally prepared against Arizona.
The Wildcats (14-6, 8-1) have struggled on the road this season with a 4-5 record (3-2 in true road games and 1-3 in neutral games).
“We played a lot of hard games on the road already in the Big 12 and non-conference neutral sites,” Hurley said. “These guys are learning to fight together.”
Arizona State won at Colorado 70-68 on Tuesday despite playing mostly a six-player rotation with Jayden Quaintance staying home with an ankle injury and BJ Freeman leaving after playing four minutes at Colorado with a deep thigh bruise.
Adam Miller (a former Arizona recruiting target under Sean Miller) and Alston Mason played 39 minutes each and led the team with 18 and 17 points, respectively.
The availability of Quaintance and Freeman against Arizona is undetermined.
Arizona’s last game was Monday when Caleb Love made a 55-foot shot at the buzzer in regulation to force overtime against No. 3 Iowa State.
The Wildcats scored the last 11 points in overtime to beat the visiting Cyclones 86-75.
Love was 1 for 10 from 3-point range before making the miraculous shot.
He then hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions in overtime while Bryant added another to cap Arizona’s first win at home over a top-5 opponent as an unranked team since beating No. 3 UCLA in 1979 with Fred “The Fox” Snowden as coach.
“Caleb did a great job,” said Tommy Lloyd, who is 6-1 against Arizona State, including 3-0 at Tempe. “I love that kid. I’m here with it. I’m here for him. That’s my job. My job is not to run away from the players that I’ve helped choose to be part of this program.”
NOTEWORTHY
… If history is any indication after two previous historic spectacular plays/shots that enabled Arizona to win miraculously (similar to Love’s shot against Iowa State), the Wildcats should be competitive at ASU. After the length-of-court pass from Steve Kerr, the layup that was made by Craig McMillan to beat Oregon State in 1986, Arizona beat Oregon by 15 points at McKale Center. Following Miles Simon’s 65-foot shot that beat Cincinnati, Arizona took UCLA to the limit at Pauley Pavilion before losing 76-75.
… If Arizona beats Arizona State, it will likely become ranked again in the AP Top 25 next week. The Wildcats have only been ranked four weeks this season and not since Nov. 25. It’s the least amount of weeks Arizona has been ranked in a season since the 2011-12 team that finished 23-12 was ranked only three weeks and not after Nov. 21. The 2011-12 team is the one that lost to Bucknell in the first round of the NIT at McKale Center.
… The Wildcats rank first in the Big 12 in scoring at 79.6 points per conference game.
… The game has the interesting twist of former Arizona commit Joson Sanon with Arizona State after de-committing from the Wildcats and signing with Hurley after Love announced last spring that he would return to Lloyd’s program. “They had let us know that if (Love) came back, that coming to Arizona might not be in the cards,” said Lloyd during his press conference. “We totally understood that.” Sanon has averaged 11.8 points per game, shooting 44.9 percent from 3-point range — prompting Hurley to call him the best shooter he has coached. Sanon has played inconsistently after an ankle injury that sidelined him for five games. He scored only eight points off the bench in a loss last week against Iowa State.
… Over the last 10 games — Arizona is 4-6, averaging 68.1 points, 31.0 rebounds, 12.4 assists, 5.4 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 43 percent from the field. Their opponents have averaged 70.8 points per game. Arizona is 9-1, averaging 81 points, 34.4 rebounds, 17.9 assists, 8.3 steals and 4.6 blocks per game while shooting 48.4 percent from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.1 points.
Recommended for you
