The University of Arizona men’s basketball team (16-0, 3-0 in Big 12) returns home after a road victory against TCU to face their rivals ASU (10-6, 1-2 in Big 12). The teams will meet Wednesday, Jan. 14 at 8:30 p.m. in McKale Center. This game is a red out, so fans are encouraged to wear red and show out for the first home game of the new semester. 

Arizona is looking to defend their No. 1 ranking in the AP polls against their rivals.   

History vs ASU

The two teams have a long history as rivals dating back to the 1913-1914 season. The Wildcats won the first eight games against the Sun Devils. Since then, the Wildcats and Sun Devils have played each other 250 times. The Wildcats have won 163 of those games. 

Most recently, they played March 2025 in McKale Center, where Arizona took a home court victory 113-100. Arizona is looking to extend their winning streak over ASU to six straight on Wednesday. 

Arizona this season

Arizona is still dominating at the top of the AP poll for the sixth consecutive week. This is the second-longest streak in program history. The longest No. 1 streak was in the 2013-2014 season when Arizona held the spot for 8 weeks straight. With the way Arizona is playing, the record is within reach.

Freshman forward Koa Peat has been a standout so far during conference season. He has scored 52 points averaging 17.3 per conference game. Following Peat is another star freshman guard Brayden Burries who has recorded 51 points averaging 17.0 per game during conference play.     

ASU this season 

The Sun Devils enter this game off a win against Kansas State University last Saturday, Jan. 10 on their home court in the Desert Financial Arena. This game snapped a four-game losing streak. It was also their first Big 12 conference win of the season and it was a close victory of 87-84. 

The frontrunners this season are senior guards Maurice Odum and Anthony Johnson. Odum leads the Sun Devils with 263 points, averaging 16.4, followed by Johnson’s 239 with an average of 14.9. 

Freshman center Massamba Diop will be Motiejus Krivas’ competition as he has grabbed 89 rebounds so far this season. He has 34 offensive and 55 defensive rebounds and averages 5.6 per game. 

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