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Probable starters

ARIZONA

0 G Jaden Bradley (6-3 senior)

5 G Brayden Burries (6-4 freshman)

18 F Ivan Kharchenkov (6-7 freshman)

0 F Koa Peat (6-8 freshman)

13 C Motiejus Krivas (7-2 junior)

Key reserves

3 F Anthony Dell’Orso (6-6 senior)

30 F Tobe Awaka (6-8 senior)

2 F Dwayne Aristode (6-8 freshman)

ASU

5 G Moe Odum (6-2 senior)

2 G Anthony Johnson (6-3 senior)

1 F Santiago Trouet (6-11 sophomore)

23 F Allen Mukeba (6-8 senior)

35 C Massamba Diop (7-1 freshman)

Key reserves

15 G Noah Meeusen (6-5 sophomore)

14 C Andrija Grbovic (6-11 junior)

4 G Bryce Ford (6-4 junior)

How they match up

The series: Arizona swept the series last season, winning 81-72 in Tempe and 113-100 at McKale Center, to improve to 163-86 against its in-state rival. UA has now won five straight since Desmond Cambridge hit a half-court buzzer-beater to beat the Wildcats 89-88 on Feb. 25, 2023, at McKale.

ASU overview: With little to lose in the final season of his contract, ASU coach Bobby Hurley overhauled the Sun Devils’ roster (again) last spring and led them to a 9-2 start this season, with wins over Texas, Oklahoma and Santa Clara. But the Sun Devils lost four straight — to UCLA, Oregon State, Colorado and BYU — before winning their first Big 12 game this season against Kansas State on Saturday in Tempe.

Relying heavily on veteran guards Moe Odum (a transfer from Pepperdine) and Anthony “Pig� Johnson (NAIA Cumberlands), plus 7-1 freshman Massamba Diop, the Sun Devils remain aggressive on both sides of the court.

Defensively, they can rattle opponents, getting them to turn the ball over on 19.7% of their possessions (the 55th-best defensive turnover percentage), and rank 26th in the frequency of opponent turnovers that don’t result from a steal (9.5%). Thanks largely to Diop, who ranks 59th individually in Division I by blocking 8.5% of opponents’ two-point shots when he’s on the floor, the Sun Devils block 13.4% of opponents' twos.

Offensively, ASU shoots a respectable 53.8% from two-point range, and the Sun Devils know how to get to the line, ranking 40th in the ratio of free throws taken to field goals taken (43.1). Odum shoots more than half of his shots from beyond the arc, hitting 3s at a 35.1% rate, while drawing 4.9 fouls per 40 minutes — and making 86.8% of his free throws when he gets to the line.

Johnson gets to the line even more frequently, an average of 7.3 times a game and shoots free throws at a 76.9% rate. He ranks fifth nationally in fouls drawn per 40 minutes at 8.7.

With the Sun Devils fighting an injury bug, Hurley used just seven players on Saturday against Kansas State, with Odum playing 38 and even Belgian backup guard Noah Meeusen playing 31. Guard Bryce Ford, a former Phoenix Pinnacle High School standout who transferred back home from Toledo and became ASU’s fourth-leading scorer so far this season, has missed the past four games with an injury. But the Arizona Republic reported that Hurley said he is “day to day" and that reserve forward Marcus Adams, who has missed two straight games, is unlikely to return before next weekend.

Key players

ASU

Moe Odum

Odum wasn’t one of the 15 players who received WCC honors last season at Pepperdine, but Kenpom (and Hurley) saw through that. Odum ranked No. 1 nationally in Kenpom’s assist rate metric and was fourth in raw assists (264). He averaged 31.5 points and 9.3 assists in four WCC Tournament games before taking his sparkplug ways to Tempe.

ARIZONA

Anthony Dell’Orso

The Wildcats don’t shoot 3s often, but when they do, they like to have Dell’Orso humming. The Aussie shooter broke a slump with a 3-for-6 3-point effort at TCU, and he’ll have a chance to break a personal ASU slump this time: He was a combined 1 for 8 from 3 against the Sun Devils in two games against them last season.

Sidelines

Legislature pep talk

Invited to speak to the Arizona House of Representatives on Monday for their Opening Day Ceremony in Phoenix, UA coach Tommy Lloyd brought his usual personality: He started by thanking House Speaker Steve Montenegro for an introductory "hype speech," told ASU football coach Kenny Dillingham he "crushed it" with his preceding address, joked that the "first order of business" should be to turn the heat up inside the Arizona State Capital room and wondered whether he actually had his speech written out in front of him.

"I hope this isn't the Arizona State scouting report," Lloyd said.

But, while wearing a seldom-seen blazer, Lloyd was also quite serious. Having long emphasized the importance of building a strong and trustworthy culture within his program, Lloyd urged legislators to do the same and, in the process, help the state thrive.

"Arizona has all the ingredients to be the best place in the country to attract, develop and retain talent in athletics and academics and in the corporate world," Lloyd told the legislators. "But our true competitor, our true competitive advantage, will not be our weather or our geography. It will be our culture. It will be what it feels like on the inside. It will be whether people believe this is a place where leadership is steady, people are good, institutions are trustworthy, and success is pursued the right way.

"If we get this right, if we lead out of love, not fear, demand integrity and dream big, Arizona won't just be a magnet for talent. It will retain it, and those people who choose to live here will build something that benefits this state long after we are all gone as leaders in this state."

Toward the end of his speech, Lloyd also told legislators that "it's not about winning every game, it's about being undefeated at doing the right thing every time."

Wildcats near-unanimous No. 1

With Michigan losing to Wisconsin on Saturday, Arizona took a firmer grip on the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press Top 25 poll this week.

Arizona received 60 of 61 first-place votes, while Iowa State received the other one. It was the first time since Feb. 24, 2020, that the Big 12 has had teams in both the No. 1 and No. 2 spots.

The Wildcats and Cyclones, both 16-0, aren't scheduled to meet until March 2 at McKale Center, however.

Michigan (14-1) dropped from second to fourth while UConn (16-1) hopped up one spot to No. 3 and Purdue (15-1) stayed at No. 5.

Meanwhile, BYU (15-1) dropped from No. 9 to No. 11 despite beating ASU at home and Utah in a rowdy environment at Salt Lake City. Among other UA opponents this season, Texas Tech (12-4) dropped from No. 14 to No. 15, while Florida (11-5) stayed put at No. 19.

Kansas (27th-most points), UCF (34th) and Auburn (37th) also received votes. Arizona will play at UCF on Saturday at 2 p.m. Arizona time.

Bypassed again

For the fifth straight week, despite being unbeaten and holding the No. 1 ranking, Arizona players weren't named to any of the Big 12's five spots for weekly honors.

Arizona hasn’t had a Player of the Week since freshman forward Koa Peat shared the honor with Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson after the first week of the season, and hasn’t had a Newcomer of the Week since Peat won that one on Nov. 24.

Also, Arizona has not had a player named to the Big 12 "Starting Five" since Brayden Burries made it after scoring 28 points on Alabama on Dec. 13. The Starting Five includes the player and newcomer of the week, plus the next three top vote-getters.

This week, BYU's Richie Saunders was named the Big 12 Player of the Week while West Virginia's Honor Huff was Newcomer of the Week.

Saunders averaged 27.5 points and 11.0 rebounds in the Cougars' home win over ASU and a win at Utah while hitting a combined 8 for 15 3-pointers. Saunders had 31 points against ASU and a double-double in a hostile environment at Utah with 24 points and 14 rebounds.

Huff averaged 23.5 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 47.6% from 3-point range in West Virginia's wins over Cincinnati and Kansas.

Arizona nominated Motiejus Krivas for Player of the Week and Peat for Newcomer of the Week. Krivas had 25 points and 12 rebounds against Kansas State, plus eight points and 10 rebounds at TCU. Peat averaged 17.5 points and 8.5 rebounds while shooting 57.1% from the field over UA's two games.

The "Starting Five," which includes the player and newcomer of the week plus the top three additional vote-getters, included Diop of ASU, Kingston Flemings of Houston and Darryn Peterson of Kansas.

Diop averaged 21.5 points and 9.0 rebounds combined in an ASU win over Kansas State and a loss to BYU. He blocked five shots against Kansas State.

Flemings averaged 16.5 points and 6.0 assists in Houston's wins over Texas Tech and Baylor, while Peterson had 36 points in Kansas' overtime win over TCU and another 23 in the Jayhawks' loss at West Virginia.

Numbers game

8: Arizona’s rank in average height (6-foot-7.1), as weighted by minutes played in a Kenpom calculation.

11: ASU’s rank in average height (6-foot-7.0), as weighted by minutes played in a Kenpom calculation.

328: ASU’s ranking out of 365 Division I teams in minutes continuity, a Kenpom measure of how many of a team’s minutes are played by the same players from the previous season.

— Bruce Pascoe