ASU Basketball: Sun Devils remain confident heading into Selection Sunday

The Arizona State basketball team is done. No, the season is not over, but the Sun Devils have done all they can do to make their case for an NCAA tournament at-large berth, an accomplishment that has eluded this team the past four seasons.

Following their 21-point loss to Stanford Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 tournament, the Sun Devils can do no more to help their cause, or hurt it. So the only thing the team can do is sit and wait till Sunday afternoon, when they will learn their fate.

"We're looking forward to it," coach Herb Sendek said about Selection Sunday."If you listen to all the pundits, there is every reason to feel confident. We have nine wins over top-100 teams. We play in a great league, but obviously we will have to wait like every other team until Sunday."

Despite Arizona State losing its final three games, and five of its last seven to end the season, the experts have the Sun Devils firmly in the field of 68. ESPN's Joe Lunardi has Arizona State as a No. 10 seed in his latest bracket.

CBS Sports bracketologist Jerry Palm also sees Arizona State as a No. 10 seed. Both writers moved the Sun Devils down one spot after their loss to Stanford.

"Honestly I have no clue," said Jahii Carson when asked if he feels Arizona State is in the tournament. "With March Madness, teams upsetting teams, teams winning their conference championships it's tough. I'm not the selection committee so I don't know, but hopefully we have a positive outcome and we are in the dance."

Positive outcomes have been hard to come by for the Sun Devils recently. Arizona State has not won a game since March 1. The Sun Devils are on their longest losing streak since early March of 2013.

"Our guys don't feel good right now," said Sendek. "We haven't played our best. It would be disingenuous of me to say that they don't hurt and feel disappointed about the way they played."

Against Stanford, Carson and Jermaine Marshall combined to start 0-9 from the field. Carson finished with 10 points on 4-13 shooting, Marshall tallied just four points on 2-8 shooting. Jordan Bachynski once against found himself in foul trouble and he was only able to contribute seven points and five rebounds.

"I have faith in our team. We are really strong guys mentally so I feel like we are going to respond in the right way," said Bachynksi. "We just need to get back to Sun Devil basketball. We when are playing our basketball we have no worries but we can't get comfortable. We need to play our way."

Arizona State will need to start playing Sun Devil basketball soon if they hope to reach the program's first Sweet 16 since 1995.

"I have been doing this long enough to see so many teams lose in the conference tournament and make a deep run in the NCAA tournament," said Sendek. "Things change quickly. We just have to go back and regroup and move forward."

Right now the Sun Devils are trying not to worry about what will happen on Selection Sunday. It is out of their hands and the team will try to worry only about what it can control.

"There is nothing I can do now, you can't really stress about stuff that you can't control and it's out of our hands," Bachynski said. "So hopefully nothing too crazy happens and hopefully we are in."

However, that doesn't mean the 7-foot-2 center won't be asking for a little divine assistance over the next few days.

"I'm going to be praying on Selection Sunday and everyday leading up to it," Bachynski said. "Hopefully our resume is what it needs to be and I'm just going to have faith that we are in."