Arizona State's NCAA Tournament Hopes Remain Bleak, Yet Still Alive
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TEMPE -- The Arizona State Sun Devils (11-9, 2-5 Big 12) are taking on the surprising UCF Knights on Tuesday night in Orlando - in a matchup that was a follow-up to an 82-68 triumph over Cincinnati last Saturday.
Arizona State entered Tuesday with the profile of a solid basketball team, as they are slotted in at number 87 in the official NCAA NET rankings as of Tuesday morning behind an effective offense and shaky defense.
Arizona State on SI examines the shaky grounds that Bobby Hurley's team stand on - as far as the NCAA tournament is concerned - heading into the final six weeks of the regular season.
What is Arizona State's Standing as Potential NCAA Tournament Squad?
ESPN's bracket expert Joe Lunardi updated his projected tournament bracket as of Tuesday - with Arizona State nowhere to be seen.
The Big 12 conference as a whole currently have seven current representatives in the field, which will be discussed shortly.
As far as non-conference opponents are concerned, Arizona State defeated Texas (last four in), as well as Santa Clara (first four out), and dropped games against a pair former Pac 12 squads in USC/UCLA.
Arizona State on SI discusses the upcoming games against projected tournament teams below.
Saturday: Arizona (1 seed)
The Sun Devils and Wildcats close out the two-game series between the two programs in Tempe this week.
Arizona remained undefeated on Monday, as they defeated Brigham Young in a tightly contested road game - the Wildcats' 21-0 start has been spearheaded by one of the best forward/center rotations in recent memory.
February 17: Texas Tech (3 seed)
Texas Tech owns three of the best wins in all of division one this season - as they defeated Duke, Brigham Young, and Houston thus far. Grant McCasland's team has only dropped games to Illinois, Purdue, Arkansas, and Houston as well - which displays that they aren't susceptible to losing to unranked opponents.
March 3: Kansas (4 seed)
Kansas has rebounded nicely from a relatively tepid start to the season, as the Jayhawks have won four in a row since their last loss to West Virginia.
Darryn Peterson is quite possibly the best freshman in the country, while Flory Bidunga has broken out as one of the standout bigs in the Big 12 in his sophomore season.
Kansas does have an exceptionally challenging schedule in the weeks before this game, as they play Brigham Young (once), Texas Tech (once), Houston (once), Iowa State (once), and top ranked Arizona (twice) ahead of the March 3 meeting in Tempe.
March 7: Iowa State (2 seed)
Arizona State closes out the regular season with a road game against one of the more outwardly impressive teams in the entire country thus far in 2025-26.
Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger continues to reinvent himself after a disappointing loss to end last season in the tournament - this Cyclone team has a strong chance to be the best one of his five-season tenure in Ames.
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.