The warmup games are over. Now, it’s time for the University of Arizona and Arizona State men’s basketball teams to test themselves in the best conference in the country, the Big 12. It’s a new era as the two move from the Pac-12 to the 16-team Big 12.
Arizona (6-5) opens conference play Monday against TCU (7-4) at McKale Center while ASU (9-2) opens at Brigham Young (9-2) on Tuesday.
Competition in the conference should be as stiff as ever. The Big 12 has five teams ranked, led by No. 3 Iowa State. The others are No. 7 Kansas, No. 15 Houston, No. 17 Cincinnati and No. 25 Baylor. West Virginia, Texas Tech and ASU received votes.
Kansas, coming off a 23-11 season, is the preseason conference favorite, led by 7-foot-2 center Hunter Dickinson, who has already earned conference Player of the Week honors three times.
The state rivals open at different ends of the spectrum with ASU exceeding expectations and Arizona underperforming.
ASU coach Bobby Hurley has always played a tough nonconference schedule and this year was no different. The two losses for the Sun Devils were to No. 6 Florida and No. 14 Gonzaga, the first on a neutral court and the other a true road game.
The team is ignited by two true freshmen, 6-foot-9 forward Jayden Quaintance (9.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and guard Joson Sanon (14 ppg). Quaintance already has recorded three double-doubles and ranks second nationally in blocked shots with 38, four behind the leader, who has played two more games.
The team looks much different than last season with Sanon and Quaintance among nine newcomers and even looks different from two weeks ago. Guard Trevor Best has enrolled after graduating from high school early and, since Hurley had used only 12 of his 13 allotted scholarships, Best will be eligible right away.
It is a welcomed addition because Hurley has been using a rotation of just eight players and is short at the guard position with junior Austin Nunez out for the season with a foot injury.
Best comes to ASU from Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, N.C., where he was a teammate and close friend of Quaintance.
Meanwhile Arizona started the season ranked ninth, one of five Big 12 teams making the preseason poll. The Wildcats have yet to defeat a power conference opponent. Their wins are against Central Michigan, Samford, Southern Utah, Davidson, Old Dominion and Canisius.
The Wildcats are averaging 98.5 points per game in those six but only 70 in the other five games, which include Duke and UCLA. Fifth-year senior Caleb Love (15.2 ppg) is the team’s leading scorer. He’s tallied 57 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals in the past two games.
Houston (32-5, 13-5) is the reigning conference regular-season champion, finishing two games ahead of Iowa State (29-8, 13-5), but it was the Cyclones winning the postseason conference tournament at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, defeating the Cougars in the title tilt 69-41.
ASU’s first Big 12 home game is Jan. 4 when Colorado stops by Desert Financial Arena. A much-anticipated game comes Jan. 8 when ASU goes back on the road to face Kansas, a foe with whom it had dramatic nonconference wins over in both 2017 and 2018.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona, ASU men’s basketball set for 1st Big 12 conference season
