ASU Basketball: Breaking down Arizona win, Pac-12 Tournament chances

TEMPE, ARIZONA – JANUARY 31: Head coach Bobby Hurley of the Arizona State Sun Devils reacts after the Sun Devils beat the Arizona Wildcats 95-88 in overtime of the college basketball game at Wells Fargo Arena on January 31, 2019 in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images)

The Pac-12 Tournament Bracket

Entering the week, there was a chance teams ranked three through 10 could finish with identical conference records. That didn’t happen, but things turned out rather favorably for ASU.

The #Pac12Hoops Tournament bracket is set.

Arizona State will face the winner of UCLA-Stanford in the quarterfinals Thursday at 6 p.m. PT. https://t.co/FKhS77Rbdb
— Devils In Detail (@Devils_Detail) March 10, 2019

The Sun Devils’ first matchup in Las Vegas will come against No. 10 Stanford or No. 7 UCLA. They beat both by double digits at least once, executing some of their better performances of the season.

Assuming they advance, the Sun Devils would face either Utah, Oregon or Washington State. ASU played each school in the past month – beating only Utah – but did take down the Ducks by 14 earlier in the season. Assuming the Devils put behind their disastrous outing against the Cougars, they lucked out here by avoiding a red-hot Oregon team through two rounds.

Best-case scenario, ASU advances to face Washington in the championship round. That would qualify as a neutral-site Quadrant 1 game while likely assuring an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

However, that’s not something Hurley would like to leave to chance.

“I’m just going to Vegas with these guys and feel great about that,” he said. And (we’re looking) to push to try and compete for a championship.”

Against top-tier competition, the Sun Devils have proven to succeed. But they also did last season. Even with three productive seniors in Tra Holder, Shannon Evans and Kodi Justice, prior success couldn’t save them from getting sent home by Colorado in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament.

ASU also has experience of tournament success in Las Vegas, winning the Continental Tire Invitational a year ago and the MGM Resorts Main Event this season. In these brackets, the Sun Devils beat two ranked teams (No. 15 Xavier, No. 15 Mississippi State), a Kansas State team that went to last year’s Elite Eight and Utah State, who recently won a share of the Mountain West title.

With how inconsistent ASU has been, there is no guarantee how far they’ll go. But at the very least, they’re playing well and have a favorable bracket.

That will give them at least a chance.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.