ONE YEAR LATER, SUN DEVILS AND WAZZU IN LAS VEGAS: The No. 8 seeded Sun Devil men's basketball team (10-13; 7-10) will take on No. 9 Washington State in the first game of the 2021 Pac-12 Tournament at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Wednesday at 1 p.m PT/2 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Network, with Roxy Bernstein and Don MacLean on the call. This year marks the 24th Pac-12 Tournament and the fifth year at T-Mobile Arena. WSU and ASU were supposed to meet last year in the quarterfinals on Thursday after WSU had upset Colorado late Wednesday, but then the world stopped. ASU had two of the top scorers in the Pac-12 returning this year in Remy Martin and Alonzo Verge and signed top-30 players Josh Christopher and Marcus Bagley, but those four players have played in just seven games together and in just five since Nov. 27. Arizona State is 16-7 (.696) in two possession games the past two seasons, third-best in the league behind UCLA (16-4/.800) and Oregon (14-4/.778).
ONE YEAR AGO THIS WAS THE NOTE: ASU had been to four NCAA Tournaments (1995, 2003, 2009 and 2014) in 26 seasons (1992-2017) and had not been back-to-back since 1980-81. Remy Martin and Kimani Lawrence went to the Dance in each of their first two seasons (2018 and 2019) and were on way to a third last year, which would have been ASU's first three-year NCAA streak since the early 1960s.
ONLY MEETING (FEB. 27, 2021) -- ASU 77, WASHINGTON STATE 74 (OT): A fantastic overtime game had a great Sun Devil ending as Remy Martin hit a three with 0.4 seconds to lift ASU to the win over Washington State. Martin ended with 23 points, while Kimani Lawrence had 14. Jalen Graham added 11 points, 12 rebounds (six offensive) and four blocks, while Alonzo Verge Jr. had nine points, a career-high nine assists and six rebounds. Jaelen House had 10 points off the bench as ASU was without Marcus Bagley (ankle) and Josh Christopher (back).
RANDOM NOTE: ASU can get some points in a hurry. One of its best halves of hoops was at USC, when it was down 46-44 at the half. How good is that? ASU's 44 first-half points at USC was more than Stanford (42) and Utah (46) scored the whole game.
NOW THAT PAC-12 REGULAR SEASON PLAY IS DONE: All these statistics are for Pac-12 regular season games only...ASU averaged 73.59 in Pac-12 games this year, second in the league only to Arizona (74.85)...ASU shot .747 from the free throw line (fourth in the league)...ASU led the league in turnover margin (+3.88) and was second in steals (6.71) and A/TO ratio (1.25)...Remy led the league with 21.47 points per game...Remy led the league in 30-point games in conference tilts with 31 vs. Washington, 30 at USC and 30 vs. Oregon...Remy had 10 20-point games in Pac-12 play out of 17, which is two better than a trio of players.
KIMANI NOTES: Kimani Lawrence's 21 points and 20 rebounds Feb. 25 vs. Washington is the first 20/20 outing by a Sun Devil since Nov. 19, 1997 (Mike Batiste gave Wagner 36/20)...only 20/20 by a Sun Devil in a Pac-12 game...21 rebounds is second most by a Sun Devil in a Pac-12 game...past six games averaging 14.7 points and 8.8 rebounds...matched career highs in points (22) in the Feb. 23 win over Washington.
QUICK NOTES: Holland Woods is the only Sun Devil to play in every game...ASU is 16-7 in games of six points or less past two seasons...ASU leads the league in turnover margin (+4.35)...Jalen Graham's .573 field goal mark (67-of-117) is fourth-best in the Pac-12...ASU is 144-of-189 (.762) from the free throw line in the past 10 games...Sun Devils have been ready to play the past six, as they are averaging 37.8 points in the first half...Kimani Lawrence started the year 3-of-9 from the foul line but is 30-of-42 (.714) since...ASU has used nine starting lineups on the year.
CLOSE GAMES=WINS: ASU was 9-3 in games of 5 points or less last season and 8-2 in Pac-12 two-possession tilts (six points or less). It is 16-7 in games of six points or less the past two season
--MORE TO COME TUESDAY--