Being a bubble team, Arizona State (20-10, 11-8 Pac-12) has no room to be giving teams second chances.
The win over Arizona was an incredible start to the final stretch of the season, but that showing had to be parlayed into another strong performance against No. 4 UCLA (26-4, 17-2 Pac-12) Thursday night. A win would likely punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. A loss would be acceptable, given the difficulty of the matchup, as long as the Sun Devils were competitive.
Only about one half of play in ASU’s 79-61 loss to UCLA Thursday night could be deemed competitive.