The Orange has been down to seven available rotation players, with the two bench players battling through nagging injuries, since February.
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The Orange face sixth-seeded TCU at approximately 9:40 p.m. Friday in a Midwest Regional first-round game at Detroit. Ayton was named the Pac-12 player of the year after averaging 20.3 points and 11.5 points in what will be his only season in Tucson, Arizona. Arizona made it in 2014 and 2015, OR the next two years. “We focus on the court, on the task at hand, this week, and we just take everything game by game”. “We’re all dialed in”. No one is expecting the Bulls to win so they can just go into the game and play basketball. Frank Howard got the rebound, was fouled and made both free throws to clinch it.
Down 58-56, as the last five seconds in the game ticked away, senior guard Shannon Evans II had a look at the basket from in-between the left corner and left wing that three-point specialists crave. However, junior forward De’Quon Lake scored a basket and Justice drained a 3-pointer as the Sun Devils held a 49-42 edge with 7:05 remaining.
Oshae Brissett had 23 points and 12 rebounds for the Orange, who only played until the second round in the ACC tournament.
Kodi Justice had 15 points for Arizona State, which hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2009. Many people predicted the Sun Devils would (and should) have been relegated to the NIT, but that was more wishful thinking on their part.
Not many teams can say they beat Xavier and they got a win at Kansas, nor boast a 4-2 record against teams with a BPI in the top 50 the way Arizona Sate can.
Texas Southern led by 10 at the half on Jefferson’s 17 points.
The Sun Devils’ selections mark the first time since 2014 that both teams are in their respective tournaments, and follows what has been an unforgettable season for ASU basketball, particularly for men’s hoops, which included an upset victory over the No. 2 ranked Kansas Jayhawks and a ideal 12-0 season start, the first in the program’s history.
But UA was placed in a tough South region that includes No. 1 overall seed Virginia and a possible second-round matchup with Kentucky. All four First Four games in Dayton ended up going under the total, three by significant margins. He said it makes it a lot easier to recruit players when you are consistently playing in big games like the NCAA Tournament. There is also a big, productive backcourt of Trier, a 6-5 junior, and 6-5 sophomore Rawle Alkins, both of whom have joined Ayton in saying they will enter the National Basketball Association draft after the season.
“We were joking around about that, because we don’t who to compare him to”, said Arizona guard Rawle Alkins following Arizona’s Pac-12 Tournament championship win over USC, March 10 at T-Mobile Arena.
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N.C. Central (19-16) was led by Raasean Davis with 19 points.
