TOUGH STRETCH: The Sun Devil men's basketball squad (7-13; 3-7) plays its fifth of five straight games against ranked teams when it hosts the Arizona Wildcats on Monday, Feb. 7 (7 p.m./FS1) with Alex Faust and Casey Jacobsen on the call. No Pac-12 team has played five straight games against ranked teams since 2001-02 season when ASU played six straight.
AFTER SATURDAY: The Sun Devils now have eight wins over Associated Press top three teams in their history, and four in the past 41 years (1981-92 to present). Two of them were by a Bobby Hurley-coached squad over Kansas and then the UCLA win on Saturday. Bill Walton has been on site for all four of them.
ASU WINS OVER ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP THREE TEAMS
ASU 87, #3 UCLA 84 3 OT (Feb. 5, 2022)
#18 ASU 80, #1 Kansas 76 (Dec. 22, 2018)
#16 ASU 95, at #2 Kansas 85 (Dec. 10, 2017)
ASU 69, #2 Arizona 66 (2 OT) (Feb. 14, 2014)
#5 ASU 87, #1 Oregon State 67 (Mar. 7, 1981)
ASU 95, #3 USC 78 (Dec. 1, 1971)
ASU 68, @#2 USC (Dec.12, 1970)
ASU 89, #3 Michigan 87 (Dec. 27, 1965 at Portland/Far West Classic)
DEFENSE NOTE: ASU is holding opponents to .398 shooting (469-1179) from the field, its best defensive effort since the 1971-72 team held opponents to .399 (797-of-1997).
ASU 87, #3 UCLA 84 (3 OT/FEB. 5): In one of the best games Desert Financial Arena has ever hosted since it opened in 1974-75, ASU and No. 3 UCLA traded buckets for 55 minutes before ASU put the game away with a 13-point third overtime and won 87-84. ASU held the Bruins to .372 from the floor (29-of-78) and put six players in double digits, led by Marreon Jackson scoring 24 off the bench while Jalen Graham posted his seven straight solid game with 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. ASU's bench outscored UCLA 27-8 in a game where there were 16 ties and 10 lead changes. UCLA's biggest lead was seven, while ASU led by 11 just four minutes into the second half. The teams only commited 20 turnovers (UCLA 9, ASU 11).
LAST MEETING -- @#3 ARIZONA 67, ASU 56 (JAN. 29): ASU jumped out early and was ready to play with leads of 15-8 (12:53) and 28-20 (4:10) in a game that was tied at the half, but could not overcome 17 turnovers and 17 Arizona offensive rebounds in a 67-56 loss. ASU led more than Arizona (18:54 to 16:54) and held UA to 3-of-23 (.130) from the three-point stripe. DJ Horne led ASU with 17 points (15 in the first half) while Jay Heath added 10. Jalen Graham added nine points and eight boards.
JALEN SOLID: One good thing that came out of the Colorado Jan. 15 loss was the play of Jalen Graham, who had a then career-high 16 points in just over 19 minutes, including 6-of-7 from the free throw line. He then had 12 points in just 14:23 (foul trouble) in the Jan. 17 win over Utah including the game-winner with four seconds left. On Jan. 22 at Stanford he was 8-of-13 from the floor and again had 16 points and tied the game at 76 with under seven seconds left. After averaging 4.8 points in his first 11 games this year (and 5.2 points in first 60 games of career) he is averaging 14.7 points in the past seven games. The USC (19 points at home and 15 points on road), UCLA (16 points), Stanford (16 points), Colorado (16 points) and Utah (12 points) games are six of the top 10 scoring games in his career. In the first 60 games of his career, he averaged 5.2 points, but in the past six he is at 14.7.