(Photo: ASU Athletics)
They lost their last five conference road games.
They lost by 21 in the second round of the Pac-12 Tournament.
They seemed destined for doom in their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009.
Yet somehow, the Arizona State men’s basketball team had everyone believing once again.
In a season with as many ups-and-downs as they endured, the Sun Devils had everyone believing in them for nearly 40 minutes on Thursday night in their second round game against the seventh-seeded Texas Longhorns. But once again, rebounding doomed the Sun Devils when Texas center Cameron Ridley collected an errant three-pointer and scored as time expired to lift Texas on to the next round.
Amazing though. For as terrible as they looked at times during this season, somehow ASU was able to get Sun Devil Nation believing in them again, clawing their way back into a game in which the team trailed by as much as 14.
When ASU center Jordan Bachynski threw down a thunderous dunk to give the Sun Devils a one-point lead with under a minute left, it looked like ASU was going to pull the upset.
After performing abysmally in its previous three games, the Sun Devils were actually on the verge of beating Texas. But that’s the beauty of the NCAA Tournament, it doesn’t matter what happened leading up to it. What matters is what you do once you’re there.
The tournament gives every team a clean slate once they get there. It doesn’t matter if you won your conference tournament coming in, like New Mexico, or if you lost four of the last five games, like St. Louis.
ASU got that clean slate, and almost took advantage of it. They nearly pulled off an upset that many doubted could possibly happen. But at the end of the day, “nearly” is the key word.
For as much as hope you give to the Sun Devil faithful, you need to play 40-full minutes of sound, fundamental basketball. If ASU had boxed out and rebounded that ball, the game heads to overtime. Maybe they still lose to Texas at that point, or maybe they complete the upset.
At the end of the day, ASU was a split-second short of giving hope to Sun Devil fans everywhere that no matter how bad they may play heading into the Tournament, anything can happen.
Either way though, they wouldn’t have beat Michigan.
