Bobby Hurley's team on the bubble in NCAA tournament Bracketology update
Arizona State is searching for a signature win — and Saturday presents a great opportunity.
The Sun Devils welcome rival Arizona to Desert Financial Arena for an 11 a.m. MST tipoff in a game with significant NCAA tournament implications.
Arizona (14-6, 8-1) comes into the game ranked No. 13 in the NCAA NET Rankings, which means it's a Quadrant 1 opportunity for ASU. A Quad 1 game is a home matchup against a top 30 team in the NET, or a road game against a top 50 team in the NET. In order to have a chance to get into the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the Sun Devils need to pick up more Quad 1 wins.
Arizona State's NCAA Tournament Chances
Arizona State (12-8, 3-6) is currently ranked No. 58 in the NET and is 2-7 in Quad 1 games. The Sun Devils' two wins came against No. 21 Saint Mary's and No. 43 West Viriginia.
Beating Arizona would easily be Arizona State's best win of the season, and would vault them up the NET Rankings.
In order to get into the NCAA tournament, ASU likely needs at least five Quad 1 victories and needs to be ranked in the top 30 of the NET.
Fortunately for the Sun Devils they play in the Big 12, which gives them multiple opportunities to play their way into March Madness. Starting Saturday, ASU will have six Quad 1 opportunities over the next five weeks.
Sun Devils On March Madness Bubble
In ESPN's latest Bracketology predictions, released Friday, Arizona State is listed among the "first four out" in Joe Lunardi's field of 68. The other three teams in that category are BYU, Xavier and VCU.
That puts Bobby Hurley's team squarely on the bubble — which is a great sign. ASU is just 3-6 in the Big 12 and has not played its best basketball of the season yet. If the Sun Devils can get healthy and finish the regular season strong, they have a great shot of getting into the tournament.
Getting healthy is Arizona State's biggest issue, though. The Sun Devils are coming off a gritty 70-68 road victory over Colorado where they played without five-star freshman Jayden Quaintance (ankle) and lost leading scorer BJ Freeman to an upper leg injury. Freeman played just four minutes, which forced Hurley to use a six-man rotation for most of the game.
It's unclear if Quaintance and Freeman will be ready to go on Saturday, but the Sun Devils will need both of them back in the lineup quickly if they hope to make a run at the NCAA tournament.
More Arizona State & Big 12 Analysis
Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.