Preview: Washington State-Arizona State

Both Washington State and Arizona State will be looking to return to winning form early Saturday evening on the Sun Devils' campus in Tempe.

#24 ASU were upset by the Washington Huskies. The sixth-ranked Cougars fell to Arizona. One team will be headed to a second consecutive conference loss while the other will defend their national ranking.

Arizona State had their worst shooting performance of the season against the Huskies, making a dismal 32 percent of their attempts from the field. The Sun Devils played decent defense, forcing the Dawgs to be almost as inept from the field, holding them to percent accuracy.

Jeff Pendergraph, an anchor for ASU, averaging 14 points and 7 rebounds a game, had a sub-par game Thursday. That included 6 turnovers, something uncharacteristic for the 6′ 9″ junior forward. Freshman guard James Harden turned in a decent game, matching his season average of 17 points. Harden poses big time trouble for any team with his awesome shooting touch and excellent court sense. This kid is a player. Speaking of players, the Sun Devils landed another good one in freshman Ty Abbott. Though Abbott is from Phoenix, he was going to play for New Mexico. He took recruiting visits to both UW and WSU, so he is no stranger to either teams coaching staff. Eventually, he stayed home opting for ASU after there was a coaching change at New Mexico.

vs

Site: Wells Fargo Arena, Tempe, AZ

Tipoff: 4pm

Television: Fox Sports Net

Online: Gametracker

For several seasons, the ASU basketball program was languishing in the bottom half of the PAC-10. Last season under new Coach Herb Sendek, that trend continued only in terms of their win-loss record. In the second half of the season, Sendek had the Sun Devils playing some pretty good team basketball. The Carnegie-Mellon graduate, has made a solid mark in college basketball coaching. He began his head coaching career in 1994 at Miami University (Ohio). Earning the Conference Coach of the Year that first season. Does that sound familiar Cougar Nation? Two years later he moved up to NC State, and took the team to the NCAA Tournament each year of his last five, also earning the ACC Coach of the Year. This season he has the Sun Devils playing great basketball with a very young squad. Though they may fall from the Top 25 after their loss to Washington, make no mistake, Coach Sendek has his team playing well every game.

The Sun Devils are scoring 71 ppg while giving up an average of just 60 points. Those are some pretty good stats. That is how you earn national recognition.

Unfortunately for ASU, it is unlikely that the Cougars will falter again on offense the way they did in the second half against Arizona. They have plenty of game to win in Tempe, and will definitely be hungry to start another winning streak. This game will be a matchup of experience versus youthful talent. That should be a difference maker that favors the Cougars.

Prediction: WSU 75 - ASU 68

GO COUGS!!!