First off, I wanted to say I was impressed with the way the Sun Devils dug themselves out of a terrible start against California to make it a close and exciting game. That type of effort will lead to victories down the road, but ASU does not have a go-to scorer who can make the big shot. Ty Abbott and Trent Lockett have shown flashes, but neither steps up consistently.
Both ASU and Tulsa are 8-7 on the season, and have lost close games against decent competition. The Golden Hurricane's faltered against Arkansas-Little Rock, but have won 3 of their last 4 games and will cause trouble for ASU tonight in Tempe.
I'm hopeful that the Sun Devils can turn it around tonight in preparation for their big game against the Arizona Wildcats in Tucson on Saturday, but they will need to play strong team defense and give Ruslan Pateev a break. Pateev gets slaughtered in the post without help defense, and the zone should offer ample help.
The winner of this game gets a nice out of conference feather in their cap. The loser drops to .500 and it really starts to look ugly. Will ASU rise to the challenge?