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Monday, February 18, 2013
 Analyzing ASU's remaining schedule
By Joe Kaiser

 After losing three of its first four games in February, Arizona State notched a monstrous overtime road win over Colorado on Saturday. For now, the Sun Devils appear to be on the good side of the tournament bubble, but several remaining games could seal their fate.

ASU entered last week as the first team on Joe Lunardi's "first four out" and followed it up with a bad loss at Utah and the big W in Boulder. It will certainly be key for Herb Sendek's club to keep its focus this week with two very winnable games at home against Washington State and Washington. If the Sun Devils can take care of business with victories in those games, they'll enter the final three games of the season riding a three-game winning streak and a 21-7 overall record.

If the Sun Devils can find a way to win at UCLA on Feb. 27 or at Arizona on March 9, it will go a long ways to improve their at-large chances. Without a win in either of those games, ASU may still be able to get in if it can beat WSU, UW and USC and add a few wins in the Pac-12 tournament. Such a scenario would put them at 24-10 on the season and give the selection committee a lot to think about. Here's our own Eamonn Brennan with the importance of Saturday's win over CU.

Eamonn Brennan
Saturday's win was huge for ASU's RPI
"What a wacky week for the Sun Devils. After last week's three-point home loss to Stanford, ASU fell at Utah, which is better than it was last season (by a lot) but still not one of the 100 or even 150 best teams in college basketball. The only way Arizona State could erase the damage of that defeat was with a big, unlikely win at Colorado -- itself coming off a 13-point win over Arizona -- which, of course, is exactly what happened. Given Colorado's top-20 RPI, ASU's victory in Boulder puts a check in all the boxes the committee holds dear and should help the Sun Devils' own No. 76 RPI to boot."