Arizona State's surprising men's basketball team finds itself in the biggest game of the Pac-10 men's basketball season at 1 p.m. tomorrow when it plays the California Golden Bears for first-place in the conference.
The road game will be televised on Channel 34 (FSAZ), and may even make it into the flip rotation for coach potatoes flipping from the Olympics to the golf tourney up in Scottsdale (Waste Management Open--go figure!).
For a team universally picked to end up in the second division of the formerly feared league, the Sun Devils are making a good case for being chosen to compete in the NCAA championships next month, no matter what happens tomorrow.
But if ASU does beat Cal, it will take an unlikely one-game lead going in the final weekend of the regular season, when the southern California schools (UCLA and USC) come to Tempe.
Hero of last night's tough win over Stanford: Eric Boeteng, a big man who usually is "challenged" on the offensive end (translation: he's got little game). Boeteng, who sat the bench for Duke before transferring to ASU a few years ago, made each of the 11 shots he attempted -- a remarkable effort.
The Arizona Wildcats continued their late-season spiral by getting routed by Cal, 95-71. Things are looking bleak for the Cats and their 25-year streak of being in March Madness.
Short of winning the Pac-10 postseason tourney in a few weeks (we'll be there writing a missive or two for this blog), Arizona will be watching the big event from Tucson.
