Sun Devils earn No. 5 seed

The Arizona State women’s basketball team played nine teams that made the NCAA tournament this season, including four Pac-10 foes.

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Videotapes of such teams are readily available during the season; so rare is the situation when the Sun Devils are unprepared for an opponent. On Sunday, it was announced that ASU is a No. 5 seed in the Tempe Regional. The Sun Devils will take on No. 12 seed Eastern Kentucky, a squad with which ASU said it is not yet familiar, in the first round in Fresno, Calif.

"I know absolutely, positively nothing about East-- ern Kentucky," ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. "I’m sure they’re a very fine team, and I’m also pretty sure we have no film on them upstairs."

Placement in the Tempe Regional means if ASU advances to the Sweet 16, it will play at home at Wells Fargo Arena. To do so, the Devils must beat Eastern Kentucky and the winner of No. 4 Notre Dame vs. No. 13 UC-Santa Barbara.

"I’m really pleased with our seed," Turner Thorne said. "I thought that’s what we earned.

"I think that we’d done everything that we needed to do to position ourselves to get a great seed in the tournament. I also think that we’ve done everything, including our run in the Pac-10 tournament, to position ourselves to be prepared to make the most of this opportunity."

The Sun Devils won two games in the Pac-10 tournament before losing to Stanford in Monday’s final.

ASU had a 7-8 record against teams that made the tournament, including an 0-3 mark against Stanford, which surprisingly got a No. 2 seed despite being ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Pac-10 teams USC, Oregon and Arizona join Stanford and ASU in the tournament. Though Oregon finished ahead of Arizona in the standings, it drew a No. 10 seed while UA drew a No. 9 seed by virtue of a higher RPI ranking.

"I’m really excited for the conference as a whole," guard Kylan Loney said. "I think that since the conference did so well in the preseason, it gave our fifth, UA, a chance to get in. They played teams in the Pac-10 that had great RPIs, so that probably helped a lot."

One advantage of the No. 5 seed for the Sun Devils is that they will play in Fresno, a much easier trip than other possible firstround sites such as Chapel Hill, N.C., or College Park, Md.

"It’s so cool to be going home," ASU forward and Hanford, Calif., native Jenny Thigpin said. "It’s a lot more convenient, travelwise. It’s great to stay home in the West Coast."