Sun Devils visit Colorado looking to salvage NCAA Tournament resumé

(Photo Credit: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)

Arizona State Men’s Basketball (11-11, 5-7 Pac-12) is a fast-sinking ship grasping for any lifeline to stop their current predicament. ASU have now dropped four straight and six of their last seven games. It’s a team quickly unraveling, hoping that its next matchup against Colorado (15-7, 6-5 Pac-12) on Thursday night offers some form of salvation.

Reclamation won’t be easy for the Sun Devils, as the Buffalos enter the game viewed as one of the nation’s borderline elite teams and sit firmly on the bubble for NCAA Tournament consideration. Despite losing its last game to Utah by five, Colorado still ranks No. 29 in the NET Rankings. This places them just inside the precipice of the all-important Quadrant 1 classification to the top 30 teams in the NET.

ASU will be entering hostile territory, as the Buffaloes are a perfect 12-0 at home this season. It will be going against an ultra-motivated opponent with seemingly no more margin of error if its March Madness hopes are to remain within reach.

While the Sun Devils won the initial matchup against the Buffaloes 76-73 back in early January, multiple factors suggest this game may not end with the same result. The most obvious is that the first game was played in Tempe, giving ASU a major advantage. The Buffalos are 1-6 away from home despite boasting a spotless mark when playing in the CU Events Center in Boulder.

On top of the overall challenge of having to win against a quality opponent with a raucous home crowd behind it, the Sun Devils will also have to contend with one of the conference’s most lethal offensive weapons.

Junior guard KJ Simpson ranks third in the Pac-12 in scoring, posting 19.5 points per game while also averaging the third-most assists, dishing 4.3 per night. What stands out is the combination of pure offensive output and lethal efficiency. Simpson’s 89.4 free throw percentage tops the conference and his 46.4 three-point percentage puts him fourth.

What’s already a daunting matchup may get even more intimating if the Buffaloes can get freshman Cody Williams — a projected top-10 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft — back from injury before Thursday night’s tip-off. The guard out of Perry High School in Gilbert has missed nine games all season, including the first matchup between ASU and Colorado and the Buffaloes’ last game against Utah. Colorado coach Tad Boyle is hopeful for Williams can return soon.

Williams was the No. 4 ranked 2023 recruit in the 247 Sports composite rankings and the highest-rated commit in Colorado basketball history. The 6-foot 8-inch guard can cause matchup issues for the Sun Devils all over the floor. Playing against an ASU team known to frequently deploy a shorter four-guard starting lineup, Williams will have the ability to rise up and shoot over any of the Sun Devil perimeter defenders.

It will likely take keen internal motivation and notable individual efforts in order for ASU to pull off an upset in Boulder. Graduate wingman Jose Perez, who is second on the team in points, will have to be brilliant on offense. Junior guard Frankie Collins, who leads the conference in steals per game, will need to be defensively stout. The two leading Sun Devils will also need a valiant effort from the rest of their group in order to begin the process of saving face on a quickly fading season.

The game will tip-off at 6 p.m. MST on FS1 from the CU Events Center in Boulder.