Members of the ASU women's basketball team have been talking about having a "March mentality" for the past few weeks.
And now that the calendar has officially turned to the third month of the year, the Sun Devils (20-9, 14-4 Pac-10) are arguably playing their best basketball of the season heading into this weekend's Pac-10 Tournament in San Jose, Calif.
"They just feel good about themselves right now," ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said of her team.
ASU is currently on a four-game winning streak after easily taking care of Washington State and Washington at home two weeks ago and sweeping UCLA and USC on the road last weekend.
Though it may not have seemed like it at the time, Turner Thorne said the Sun Devils' 79-57 loss at Stanford on Feb. 16 might have been the turning point for ASU.
"Losing in that way, on that stage … these kids have a lot of pride and high expectations, and I think that affected them in a good way," she said.
Turner Thorne said she knows the road will only get tougher from here on out, starting with the first game of the Pac-10 Tournament Saturday against Washington.
"March basketball can be pretty darn ugly," Turner Thorne said. "Everybody knows what everybody's going to do. It's smashmouth [basketball]; not a lot [of fouls get] called."
No national tournament yet
Even though Selection Monday is less than two weeks away, Turner Thorne said she hasn't spent much time worrying about where the Sun Devils would fit into the NCAA Tournament picture just yet.
"I really have not even thought about it," she said. "Do I think we're going to get a No. 3 seed like we did last year? No. We can help ourselves this weekend by playing well and advancing in the tournament."
The Sun Devils currently have an RPI of 32 and are projected to be a No. 7 seed in the latest version of ESPN's mock bracket.
Reach the reporter at: gina.mizell@asu.edu.
