Michael Lev: Looking for Arizona’s next marquee rival in men’s basketball? It’s not ASU

Although both sides seem interested in keeping it going, the Arizona-UCLA men’s basketball rivalry likely will expire in March.

Could the Pac-12 powers agree to a home-and-home at some point? Sure. But for the foreseeable future, the series that has produced so many great games and indelible memories is coming to an end.

Who’s going to fill that void for the Wildcats in the Big 12? That remains to be seen. I have some ideas.

I know for certain who won’t: Arizona State.

That assessment isn’t based strictly on the McKale Massacre from Saturday night. After all, that game was less than a year removed from the McKale Miracle of 2023, when the outcome went the other way.

But even though one of those results set a record for the biggest margin of victory in series history, it’s the other one that was the exception in this so-called rivalry.

The Wildcats have won eight of the past 10 meetings with the Sun Devils. Both losses were by one point. And, yes, one of them required a 60-foot shot at the buzzer.

Six of Arizona’s victories were by double digits, including a 28-point blowout on one end and a 45-pound obliteration on the other. Only one was decided by fewer than nine points.

This isn’t just a recent trend. Since the 1983-84 season, Arizona and ASU have played 84 times in men’s basketball. The Wildcats have won 65 of those matchups.

That isn’t the stuff of rivalries. It’s the stuff of reckonings.

Some might call Saturday’s result extreme. Others would say it was inevitable.

“Just one of those days things went our way,” ever-respectful UA coach Tommy Lloyd said after the Wildcats’ 105-60 victory. “I’m sure in 10 days they’ll be ready for a little bit of redemption.”

I’m not so sure.

Normally feisty ASU coach Bobby Hurley’s postgame tone tilted more toward resignation than frustration. Simply put, the Sun Devils weren’t in the Wildcats’ league. The only thing that will change a week from Wednesday is the venue.

A sampling of Hurley’s comments:

“This is an outcome that I feared could be a reality for us.”

“I understand what the rivalry means to Arizona State. But we had no answers tonight to what they were doing.”

“We were overwhelmed today. We were outgunned today. We had very little hope today. And then we didn’t win the effort game either. So that’s where it’s certainly on me. (Against) a team that is as explosive and as gifted and as well coached to play the right way (as Arizona is), if we’re not scrappier and winning all the effort plays then we have no chance to keep the game competitive. And that’s my fault.”

ASU’s struggles this season — the Sun Devils are 13-13, 7-8 in the Pac-12 — aren’t entirely Hurley’s fault. ASU lost multiple major contributors to the transfer portal, some because of NIL, some because of circumstances beyond Hurley’s control. (One example of the latter: DJ Horne transferred to North Carolina State for his final season. He’s from Raleigh.)

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance, Hurley unexpectedly had to rebuild. After starting Pac-12 play 4-0, ASU has lost eight of its past 11.

I asked Hurley to assess the state of the program — an admittedly difficult assignment with the reverberations of 105-60 still being felt in the hallway just off the McKale Center court. He wouldn’t go there. But his response was polite and professional.

“I’m gonna refrain from talking about the state of the program. I think that’s for other people to evaluate and make decisions on,” Hurley said. “I think we fought and scrambled to have the record we have, and we are what our record is this year. Just like my teams that have gone to the NCAA Tournament several times here have had good seasons and good records. We’re doing the best we can.”

The Sun Devils actually have achieved moderate success under Hurley. They made the NCAA Tournament three times during his first eight seasons (and might have made it a fourth time if not for the pandemic). That matches their total from the previous 22 seasons.

That run, if you want to call it that, might explain this line in a thoroughly reported and otherwise excellent piece by Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger about the future of college athletics:

“The Big 12 ... is arguably the country’s most competitive basketball conference, soon to grow even better with (the) additions of Arizona and Arizona State next year.”

That sentence implies that ASU’s men’s basketball program is on par with Arizona’s, or at least closer to it than those of Colorado and Utah, who also are joining the Big 12 next season. That’s simply not accurate.

Colorado has only one NCAA Tournament berth in the past eight seasons, but the Buffaloes have won 21-plus games four times during that span. Like ASU, Colorado might’ve made the tourney in 2019-20. This year’s team conceivably could have three first-round picks. The Sun Devils have had one first-rounder since James Harden.

Utah has a tougher case. The Utes have fallen off pretty steeply since the middle of Larry Krystkowiak’s tenure, when they earned consecutive NCAA bids in 2015 and ’16. They haven’t made it back since.

I’m still not sure ASU’s program is in a better place than Utah’s, though — especially with rumors swirling that Hurley is a candidate for the DePaul job.

Where will ASU land in the Big 12 pecking order — which is essentially a proxy for Arizona’s new rivalry rankings? Almost certainly closer to the bottom than the top.

Kansas is far and away the leading candidate to succeed UCLA as Arizona’s most marquee matchup. But you could also make a case for Texas Tech, Houston, BYU and a handful of others.

I’d like to see ASU crack that list someday soon. People ask me all the time: “Who are you rooting for?” I always say something to the effect of: “Drama. I want a close, competitive, interesting game.”

Saturday’s contest was none of the above. It was undeniably enjoyable for the McKale masses. But wouldn’t regular routs get old after a while?

The sweet spot, for me, is your rival being just good enough to where they believe they can win ... and then they don’t. The more pain the other side experiences, the sweeter victory tastes.

For better or worse, ASU is no threat whatsoever.

<&rule>

Photos: Arizona pound on on arch rival ASU 105-60, Pac-12 men's college basketball