Arizona State @ Oregon preview

Arizona State at Oregon

Last Meeting ( Jan 19, 2019 ) Oregon 64, Arizona State 78

If there’s an at-large Pac-12 team to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, Arizona State certainly has a case. The Sun Devils have won four of their last five and take that momentum on the road this week, beginning with Thursday night’s contest at Oregon.

Following home victories over Stanford (80-62) and California (69-59) last weekend, second-place Arizona State reached double-digit Pac-12 wins for the second time in the last nine seasons and gave itself a two-game cushion in terms of earning a top-four finish and a first-round bye in the conference tournament. And coupled with a non-conference resume that includes wins over Kansas and Mississippi State, the Sun Devils have put themselves in decent at-large shape should they fall short of winning the conference tourney in Las Vegas. “I think we have a strong NCAA Tournament profile, (but) you know we just have to focus on playing basketball and continue to try to win games,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley told reporters Tuesday in an on-air interview with 98.7 Arizona Sports. Oregon, meanwhile, is trending the opposite direction as the preseason Pac-12 favorite has dropped three straight to fall to 10th place in the conference at 6-8.

TV: 11 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network

ABOUT ARIZONA STATE (19-8, 10-5 Pac-12): The schedule isn’t in the Sun Devils’ favor as they close out the regular season with three road games, and a March 9 date at rival Arizona follows the two-game Oregon swing. Freshman guard Luguentz Dort scored a team-high 22 points in Sunday’s win over Cal and continues to pace the team with his average of 16.4 per game while senior forward Zylan Cheatham is averaging 11.7 points and a Pac-12-best 10.8 rebounds. Guards Remy Martin (13.0 points) and Rob Edwards (11.5) also are averaging double digits for Arizona State, which is scoring a conference-most 79.1 points per contest overall.

ABOUT OREGON (15-12, 6-8): The Ducks failed to bring home a victory on its just-completed three-game road swing, falling at Oregon State, USC and UCLA by an average of 13 points per contest. Freshman forward Louis King is the team’s leading active scorer at 12.3 points per game and he’s scored in double figures in 13 of the team’s 14 Pac-12 contests. Guard Payton Pritchard (11.8) and forward Paul White (10.7) also are averaging double digits, but Oregon is scoring only 68.1 points per game in conference play to rank above only winless Cal (65.2).

TIP-INS

1. Oregon has prevailed in 11 of the last 13 meetings, but Arizona State rolled to a 78-64 home win on Jan. 19.

2. Cheatham had 17 points and nine rebounds in the first meeting to pace five Sun Devils in double figures while Pritchard scored a game-high 20 for the Ducks.

3. Arizona State owns a Pac-12-best average rebounding margin of 6.1 while Oregon ranks seventh at 0.9.

PREDICTION: Oregon 74, Arizona State 72