ASU AD Steve Patterson says the Pac-12 tournament is up for grabs

Mar 6, 2013, 6:01 AM | Updated: 6:05 am
LISTEN: Steve Patterson, ASU Athletic Director

The chances of ASU making the NCAA tournament may be slim, and a win in the Pac-12 tournament could be the Devils best shot of getting a bid on Selection Sunday.

But, the team’s athletic director Steve Patterson believes the Pac-12 tourney could very well be up for grabs, due to the parity in the conference.

“Certainly it’s disappointing to lose at UCLA and at USC but you look at this conference this year and I don’t know who wins the tournament,” Patterson said. “Everybody’s beaten everybody at some point and time. We’re going to go over there next week and you know darn well there is going to be a couple of upsets and once that happens everything breaks loose, who knows what happens.”

The Devils have one crucial game left before the Pac-12 tournament, and that comes on the road against their bitter rival Arizona. A win over the Wildcats could shake things up even further in the competitive conference.

Patterson made it clear how badly he wants to grab a win over the ‘Cats.

“We gotta go down there, win that one,” Patterson stated. “I want to win that one.”

While ASU remains on the bubble at 20-10 overall and 9-8 in Pac-12 play, Patterson said the team is taking it one game at a time.

“I think we just have to look at it one game ahead,” Patterson explained. “We’re going to look at U of A, then we’re going to look at the tournament, whoever we wind up getting matched up with we are going to go play and you look at who won it last year, nobody expected them to win it and they got into the tournament.”

ASU will likely have to follow the same path if they hope to go dancing.

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