POP Goes the Bubble
And just like that, the thoughts of whether we had to beat Washington to make the tournament are quieted. In what can only sum up our season, ASU lost in a frustrating fashion in the first round of the Pac-10 Tournament to Stanford. 17 turnovers will doom any team, especially a team that relies on defense and long possession offense. So can we still make the dance? Unlikely.
Washington beat OSU tonight in a close game and likely jump the Devils as one of the last four teams in. ASU looked pathetic on the court and didn't prove to anyone that they wanted to be out there. The team that played tonight doesn't deserve to be in the tournament.
So bring on the NIT. I hope we play the freshmen. It's time for them to get some "big" game experience as we need them to carry this team next year. With some maturity and their athleticism, the Devils will likely be in competition for one of the top 3 spots in the Pac-10. In what was an all around frustrating push to make the tournament, we can only sit and wait. I know for one thing, I don't have my hopes up.
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The Return: Bracketology Report
While I'll quickly admit that it has been more laziness than anything else thats kept me from writing up a bracketology report. It's back. We've been in and out of the last four in, last four out, next four out over the past few weeks . With Thursday rolling around, my excitement for basketball is in full swing. Right now, Lunardi has us as a 12 seed against the Aggies of Texas A&M.
Can we beat the Aggies? The 22-8 Aggies have quietly put together a great season. Their worst loss was to the Washington Huskies, proving how well they have played. But if UW can beat them, so can we. And we will. Our defense is something unseen to the Big 12 outside of Baylor and we all saw how tough it was for Baylor to pull the win off in Tempe. Shipp comes off the bench to help carry us into the 2nd round like he has done much of the past few weeks.
2nd Round... Rematch. Bring on SDSU. Yep you've got it. 12 seed vs. 13 seed. Who wins? ASU handled the Aztecs from tip off to the last horn. No reason to think that it wouldn't happen again. Abbott and Kuksiks team up to shoot lights out from the outside and carry the Devils to the oh so sweet 16. How are the Devils, predicted to be 7th/8th/9th in the Pac-10 in the Sweet 16? Destiny. Herb Sendek.
3rd Round....Rematch. Bring on Syracuse. Can we win? Nope. Not a chance. They are even better than last year and we are significantly less talented. Talent wins out in the tournament and while we might hang with them for a half, they'll blow us away by the end. There is no way around it. Syracuse to the Final Four.
For now...BEAT THE CARDINAL!
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Sun Devils Breakdown: NCAA Tournament Profile, 3/7/2010
If you were watching the halftime show on CBS during the break of the Florida/Kentucky game, you would have seen something very rare: media love for Arizona State.
Seth Davis has picked us as one of the "last four in" on national television. While I don't personally believe we have to worry too much about the bubble as long as we win one or two in Los Angeles, this media boost doesn't hurt our chances.
As for the rest of the statistics...
Record = 22-9
Pac-10 Record = 12-6
RPI = 52
SOS = 72
Signature Wins (RPI 1-30) = None
Quality Wins (RPI 31-100) = San Diego State (RPI 33), Washington (RPI 49), @Arizona (RPI 86)
Bad Losses (RPI 101 or greater) = @UCLA (RPI 145)
"Quality" Losses (RPI 1-50) = Duke (RPI 2) Baylor (RPI 8), @BYU (RPI 23), California (RPI 19), @California (RPI 19)
UPDATE (7:36 PM): Joe Lunardi has put us into the field as well.

You can see video of this as proof here. Go Devils!
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ASU Wins Again, Now 22-9: Bubble Watch Update
Good day to be a Devil fan.
Several "bubble teams" were burst today, but thankfully ASU was not one of them. Take a look at ESPN's bubble watch:
1. Rhode Island shockingly lost to hapless UMass, which should take them out of the picture.
2. Dayton lost a tough home game to St. Louis, and they are 0-2 on the final weekend of the season.
3. Mississippi State got taken to the house by Tennessee and with their terrible SOS should be done.
4. Cincinnati is now out of the picture after a 74-47 pasting at the hands of Georgetown.
5. UConn, who can't seem to lose enough games, may have finally exhausted its chances with a loss to South Florida today.
6. Georgia Tech lost to Virginia Tech (at home, which is a bad sign)
I truly believe that the Devils will go dancing, especially if they can win a few games in the Pac-10 Tournament. I don't believe the hype that the P10 is a one-school conference - I'm siding with 2 or 3 depending on who wins the tournament.
As for those who say California isn't a lock - give me a break. They have won the Pac-10 regular season title. That is quite enough.
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VOTE on SB Nation Pac-10 all-conference teams!
Last year, we CougCenter.com authors put together our inaugural Pac-10 all-conference awards. As we were working on this year's edition, a thought hit us.
What if we did a fan vote across all the SB Nation Pac-10 sites?
Here's your chance to get your voice heard. After the text is a link to a form you can fill out to submit your votes. It's pretty lengthy, but you have to fill the whole thing out for your vote to be counted.
Just a few points of clarification.
- We're asking for your home blog because it might be interesting to see how certain fan bases vote.
- We're asking for your SB Nation user name because it will hopefully help keep us from getting spammed. Don't worry, we won't share how you voted, unless ...
- If you leave a comment and we use it on the results post, we'll attribute it to your user name. If you don't want that to happen, don't leave any comments.
- Base your selections on performance in conference, not the whole year.
- This is an all-conference team, therefore, you are asked to select players who would actually comprise a basketball team. None of this wishy-washy, best five or 10 players regardless of position crap the actual conference does.
That's about it. We'll post the results on our site next week.
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ASU Beats USC 59-54, Moves to 21-9 on the Season
Good win for the Sun Devils tonight. ASU moves to 21-9 on the season, and one step closer to the big dance. Rihards Kuksiks performed nicely, scoring 24 points and shooting 6/9 from behind the stripe.
Saturday at 1:00 is Senior "night", and Glasser, Shipp and Boateng will be honored pregame. Lets show up and support our surprisingly decent basketball team.
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Outmanned, Outcoached, Outplayed: California Romps ASU to Win Pac-10 Title
California took home their first Pac-10 title in 50 years today, handily beating our Sun Devils 62-46 today in Haas Pavilion.
It was truly a tale of two halves. In the first half, ASU came out shooting a very high percentage inside the arc, taking into the break a 30-29 lead. By the end of the game, however, the Sun Devils shot 40% from the field, including an abysmal 3-22 (13.6%) from long distance.
California is a strong, physical team with a lot of talent. ASU is a system team that needs space to operate on the offensive end. The Devils had no answer for the plethora of offensive options that the Bears threw at them.
If ASU would stop running their screens on offense and actually institute some playcalling, we might have seen a closer game today. I personally think Mike Montgomery outcoached Herb today - but at the same time, we're looking at a sold out crowd, an emotional senior game, and a whole lot of blue and gold confetti.
It just wasn't our day. All the Devils can do now is sweep the LA schools next weekend at home, and hope for the best come Selection Sunday.
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ASU Takes on California in Possible Pac-10 Title Game
Huge game today against the Bears. Matt has been summoned to press row in Haas Pavilion, and will be providing us with coverage from the epicenter of California basketball.
I am ready to see Matt storm the court if we win today. Check out coverage of the game below:
Sun Devils vs Golden Bears coverage
Sun Devils vs Golden Bears preview
Lets have a quality discussion today. Go Devils!
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