ASU Basketball: Breaking down Arizona win, Pac-12 Tournament chances
By Trevor Booth
ASU basketball closed its regular season with a 72-64 win at Arizona. How does this set the Sun Devils up for the Pac-12 Tournament?
Arizona State’s NCAA Tournament bubble appears to be growing thicker.
Yesterday, the Sun Devils (21-9, 12-6 Pac-12) took down Arizona (17-14, 8-10) at McKale Center, 72-64, to conclude the 2018-19 regular season. The victory gave ASU its first sweep of the Wildcats since 2008-09 and its first win in Tucson during the Bobby Hurley era.
After recording a career-high 31 points against UA on Jan. 31, Remy Martin was sensational again. The sophomore guard contributed an all-around effort of 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists while hitting clutch shots throughout a 17-10 run in the final seven minutes.
The win was ASU’s fifth in its last six games, a sharp contrast from losing six of its final seven a season ago. While the Sun Devils haven’t made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances since 1980-81, Hurley believes this year’s team is better equipped for March.
“I feel like this team is surging more and has the potential to do that more than last year’s team did,” he said Thursday. “I thought to a degree, and I didn’t discuss it much, we might have been trying to hold on to everything we had done, particularly in the non-conference whereas this year has greater upside.”
ASU locked up the No. 2 seed in this week’s Pac-12 Tournament following last Sunday’s 74-71 triumph over Oregon State. But with a 12-6 conference record, the Sun Devils now control sole possession of their standing.
That is one of the factors that gives their coach confidence for a tournament resume.
“I knew coming in, that if we got this one, there would be no doubt,” Hurley said. “I really feel strongly that we have a great record in conference play – in a power conference, we’re No. 2, in sole possession of that. We have three wins in the non conference that you can’t take away from us.
“And we don’t have a bad record. There’s a lot of teams with bad records. We have a good record, we have quality wins and we’re at 12 wins in our conference, so you can’t really ask for more.”
ASU’s No. 2 standing in the Pac-12 ties highest in program history. The last time the Sun Devils ranked second was in 2010, when they were bounced by Stanford in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals.
Holding a 4-16 all-time record in the tournament, ASU will need to rewrite history to succeed this weekend. Before then, let’s take look at yesterday’s victory and how it set the Sun Devils up for a postseason run.