The Territorial Cup: the quintessential rivalry within State 48. The hatred between Arizona and Arizona State, who will meet for the 249th time on Saturday morning. The Wildcats have taken the last three games, including a 85-67 victory in Tempe on Feb. 28, 2024.
Arizona (14-6, 8-1 Big 12) and Arizona State (12-8, 3-6 Big 12)
1 p.m. EST
CBS
The Wildcats have put together an extremely successful second half to their season and will be looking to ride the momentum from their monumental upsets over No. 3 Iowa State. Arizona has only lost one game since losing to then-No. 24 UCLA in mid-December, falling to a Texas Tech team amid conference play. From a seven-game winning streak before Texas Tech to a now three-game winning streak, Arizona has made some serious noise in the Big 12 with several upsets over ranked opponents.
Caleb Love continues to shine for the Wildcats. Despite a rough 5-19 shooting outing for 39 minutes of the contest against Iowa State, Love proves his grit as seen in his clutch last-second heave to send the game to overtime and two crucial overtime threes that would hand the game to the Wildcats. Love would finish the night with 22 points, 2 assists and 2 steals, in what culminated as his seventh 20+ scoring game of the season.
Arizona’s team has found its stride and has continuously put out some of its best performances in recent weeks. Arizona currently sits at 15 on the KenPom basketball rankings with a 16 overall defense and a 27 overall defense. Overall they sit fifth in the Big 12, with their only loss coming from a Texas Tech team placed at 11. Arizona sits in a similar spot in the NCAA’s NET Rankings at 13 overall, with four Quad 1 wins which ties it for second in the Big 12. These high ratings certainly haven’t been reflecting polling where Arizona still sits unranked with 47 votes received.
Tobe Awaka will be Arizona’s “Dark Horse” player, who has been hiding behind the scenes of this growing Arizona basketball machine with some dominant performances. Against Iowa State, the “Caleb Love Show” would overshadow Awaka’s stellar night of 17 points on 6-6 from the field and 5-6 from the free-throw line combined with his 12 rebounds. This outing would have Awaka up at 4 double-doubles on the year.
Against Colorado, Awaka received high praise from the opposition. “I thought Tobe Awaka was the difference in the game the way he rebounded the ball,” said Buffaloes head coach Tad Boyle.
The Sun Devils have been on the bubble for the NCAA tournament over the past few days despite battling injuries. This was exemplified on Tuesday night, where they beat Colorado 70-68 without freshman forward Jayden Quaintance ahead of tip-off and senior guard/forward BJ Freeman four minutes into the game.
In turn, the Maroon and Gold saw redshirt senior guard Adam Miller lead the way with 18 points and six assists. Senior guard Alston Mason also bolstered the backcourt with 17 points of his own.
Additionally, junior center Shawn Phillips Jr. stepped up in Quaintance’s absence with his first start since Mar. 13, 2024 against Utah, posting 13 points and eight rebounds. With many Sun Devils landing in foul trouble, freshman guard/forward Amier Ali played a career-high 26 minutes.
“I thought it was a gut check game for us,” Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley told reporters after the game. “Just where we are in the standings, (we) wanna try and climb ourselves out of the hole we kind of dug for ourselves…We’ve dealt with a lot of stuff with injuries. We’re still dealing with it. We really stepped up though.”
It is still unknown whether or not Freeman and/or Quaintance will play in some capacity on Saturday morning. But Arizona State will need them to continue its chase for the NCAA tournament. While beating Arizona would be a Quad 1 win, JBR Bracketology predicts that the Sun Devils need one extra win than expected to qualify.
Upset wins against the Wildcats are not unusual for the Sun Devils, with a few happening when the Wildcats were ranked in the Top 10. But with Quaintance and Freeman’s availabilities unknown, and freshman guard Joson Sanon not having the same production as non-conference play, Arizona should have its way against an Arizona State offense that has not put up more than 70 points in each of the past four games.
