Major Observations for Arizona State's Stretch Run in Big 12
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TEMPE -- Life comes at you fast - this absolutely can be applied to the 2025-26 Arizona State men's basketball program heading into the home stretch of the season.
Bobby Hurley's 11th season started incredibly promising, as the chippy squad went into the tail-end of non-conference play sporting a record of 9-2 - which included victories over Texas, Oklahoma, and Santa Clara during the stretch.
The Sun Devils moved to 2-7 in Big 12 play with an 87-74 defeat at the hands of the Arizona Wildcats on January 31 - ASU on SI maps out what looms ahead for the program over the final nine games of the season.
Time is Running Out for ASU
Hurley gave a damning assessment of where Arizona State is at this point of the season when asked if he believes if things are being "put together" heading into the final month of the regular season.
"It's kind of too late to put things together, I would say. But like, more or less like, we've been scrappy. You know, we compete, you know, we've beaten, beaten Texas, Oklahoma, being Santa Clara, close games, fortunate to win a couple of them, we've kind of done as good as we can do. We played as good a basketball as this team was probably capable."
The margin of error is ever so slim for Arizona State, as the ultimate hope this season was clearly to be competing for an appearance in the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2022-23 season.
The widely-accepted win benchmark for Arizona State to be considered an at-large candidate is 18, which would mean that they must win seven of their final nine regular season contests to even earn a reasonable chance.
Big 12 Brutality Continues
The Big 12 does no favors to the Sun Devils in that pursuit, as the team is set to square off against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, Kansas Jayhawks, and Iowa State Cyclones between now and March 7.
Hurley must lead Arizona State to a win in at least one of the ranked matchups, as well as a virtual necessity to go undefeated in the other games against Utah (twice), Colorado, Oklahoma, State, TCU, and Baylor.
This daunting stretch presents several opportunities to pick up wins, but the road trip to Texas, pair of ranked battles to end the season, and facing a Utah squad that has improved since December will serve as roadblocks.
Rotation Limits Continue to Plague Sun Devils
It appears as if the eight-man rotation that Arizona State has employed over the last several weeks will be a reality that is reconciled for the foreseeable future.
Marcus Adams Jr. and Adante Holiman are vital players on the roster that don't appear any closer to returning, which has defeated Hurley's purpose of building a team that is deeper compared to what was seen in previous seasons.
While the eight players currently in the rotation all provide positive value, it's a task in and of itself to compete for a full 40 minutes against Big 12 competition with this roadblock in mind - something that Hurley alluded to after the Arizona loss.
Read more on the bold strategy that head coach Bobby Hurley employed with comments on 1/21 here, and on why Arizona State may have saved the season with the win over Cincinnati on Saturday here..
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Kevin Hicks is an Arizona State alumni and now serves as the Arizona State Beat Writer On SI.