ASU in, Arizona out of most NCAA Tournament brackets after L.A. trip

By Thursday night, after the Arizona State Sun Devils and Arizona Wildcats meet in Tempe, both teams will have played half of their Pac-12 schedules.

The impact of that game will weigh heavily on each of the rivals’ NCAA Tournament hopes.

They are fighting for their postseason lives in a maligned conference that is legitimately at risk of sending just the conference champion to the Big Dance. The Arizona schools find themselves squarely on the bubble heading into their matchup after the Sun Devils split visits to the Los Angeles schools. Meanwhile, the Wildcats were thoroughly blown out by each of USC and UCLA.

Both Arizona State and Arizona are 5-3 in conference play and 2.5 games back of the Pac-12-leading Washington Huskies, who at 7-0 also sit ahead of the USC Trojans and Utah Utes (5-2 Pac-12 records).

Once again, the formula for NCAA Tournament selection has changed with RPI out and NET rating in, joining the quadrant system to help the committee make its picks. Read more about the selection process here.

With the help of BracketMatrix.com and the NCAA’s website, here’s a look at the NCAA Tournament résumés for ASU and Arizona, and where they are being projected heading into their game at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The rivalry game will be simulcast on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station and ESPN 620 AM. Pregame coverage will begin at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN 620 AM.

Arizona State NCAA Tournament résumé

Overall record: 14-6

# of brackets included in BracketMatrix.com brackets (out of 86): 64

BracketMatrix.com composite seed (average seeding): 11 (10.92)

Highest seed: 9

NET ranking: 62nd

Strength of schedule: 59th

Quadrant 1 record: 3-2

Quadrant 2 record: 3-2

Quadrant 3 record: 2-1

Quadrant 4 record: 6-1

Arizona NCAA Tournament résumé

Overall record: 14-7

# of brackets included in BracketMatrix.com brackets (out of 86): 32

BracketMatrix.com composite seeding (average seeding): First four out (10.81)

Highest seed: 6

NET ranking: 67th

Strength of schedule: 88th

Quadrant 1 record: 1-4

Quadrant 2 record: 2-3

Quadrant 3 record: 6-0

Quadrant 4 record: 5-0

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