Arizona State heads to McKale Center on Saturday to take on No. 18 Arizona. It takes place at 4:30 p.m. EST and you can see it on FSN. The Sun Devils fell to the Wildcats 71-54 on Jan. 19 and are 5-5 against them over the last four years.

Arizona State is in sixth place in the Pac-12 and would love to gain ground on Arizona, who sit in fourth place.

In spite of 23 points and seven rebounds from Jahii Carson, the Sun Devils came up short 57-56 against USC on Mar. 2. He leads the team with 17.8 points per game and 5.0 assists per game. For the Wildcats, Grant Jerrett finished with 14 points and five rebounds in the 74-69 loss to UCLA on Mar. 2. He is averaging 5.3 points per game in addition to a team-best 0.9 blocks per game. From a tempo-free perspective, Arizona is strong in defensive rebounding percentage at 73.0. This is good enough for first in the conference and 23rd in the nation.

Arizona StatSmack

  • Arizona State has an average margin of victory of 7 over Arizona in 19 wins since 1980.
  • Evan Gordon is ranked 7th in the Pac-12 in three-pointers and 8th in the Pac-12 in steals.
  • Carrick Felix is ranked 8th in the Pac-12 in rebounds and 6th in the Pac-12 in steals.
  • The Arizona State assist leader (Jahii Carson, 151 assists) has more assists than the Arizona assist leader (Nick Johnson, 91 assists).
  • Arizona State has come back to win after being down at half against Arizona five times since 2007.
  • Jahii Carson is ranked 47th nationally in points and 3rd in the Pac-12 in assists.
  • The Arizona State rebounding leader (Carrick Felix, 251 rebounds) has more rebounds than the Arizona rebounding leader (Kaleb Tarczewski, 168 rebounds).
  • Arizona has to pay up to win. The coach for Arizona State has a much lower base salary than Arizona ($1,220,000 vs. $2,300,000).
  • Jordan Bachynski is ranked 3rd nationally in blocks.
  • The Arizona State scoring leader (Jahii Carson, 535 points) has more points than the Arizona scoring leader (Mark Lyons, 438 points).