@SunDevilWBB's Pac-12 Weekly Matchups Announced for 2020-21 Season
TEMPE, Ariz. – The Pac-12 Conference today announced the weekly conference matchups and site designations for the league's 2020-21 women's basketball season.
The announcement reflects the games being played and the home/away designations each week of the Pac-12 regular season. Specific dates and times for each game within a week will be announced after selections by the league's television partners are finalized.
Conference play in 2020-21 will transition to a 22-game, double-round robin schedule in an effort to maintain the most control over scheduling and environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The season is slated to span 12 weeks from Dec. 4, 2020 to March 1, 2021 with the 2021 Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament scheduled for March 4-7 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
The Conference was set to complete its 10-year rotation as part of its usual 18-game format in 2020-21, and future scheduling formats continue to be discussed.
All basketball competitions will be conducted in accordance with the Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee health and safety recommendations and guidelines, as previously announced on September 24 when the Pac-12 CEO Group voted to resume football, basketball and winter sport seasons.
ASU opens the first weekend of conference play at home against UCLA and USC (Dec. 4-7) before heading to Tucson for the first of its two Territorial Cup matchups against Arizona (Dec. 10-14).
The Sun Devils will continue their three-game road trip the following weekend with games at Colorado/Utah (Dec. 18-21).
After a break the for the holidays, ASU will kickoff the year 2021 at home with New Year's Day weekend matchups against Cal and Stanford (Jan. 1-4).
A road trip to the Pacific Northwest will follow for games at Washington and Washington State (Jan. 8-11) before returning to Desert Financial Arena to close out the first round of conference play hosting Oregon and Oregon State (Jan. 14-18).
ASU will start the second half of Pac-12 play with home games against Utah and Colorado (Jan. 22-25) and then will be on the road for its next four games at USC and UCLA (Jan. 29-Feb. 1) and at Oregon and State (Feb. 5-8).
ASU will then return home to host Washington and Washington State (Feb. 12-15) before going out to the Bay Area for rematches against Cal and Stanford (Feb. 19-22).
The Sun Devils will conclude the 2020-21 regular season campaign with a Senior Day matchup against Arizona (Feb. 26-March 1).
The nation's top-rated conference by RPI in three of the last five seasons, including the most recent 2019-20 campaign, the Pac-12 is again poised to pace the nation in women's basketball.
Sun Devil Women's Basketball has consistently been one of the most successful programs in the nation under head coach Charli Turner Thorne, who will be entering her 24th season at ASU. Last year, ASU won 20 or more games for the seventh-straight season and was ranked No. 25 in the final AP poll. The Sun Devils were preparing to make their school record seventh-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament before the cancellation of the season was announced by the NCAA on March 12. One of the biggest highlights of the 2019-20 season came in January when ASU defeated consecutive Top-5 opponents after knocking off then-No. 2 Oregon (72-66 on Jan. 10) and then-No. 3 Oregon State (54-47 on Jan. 12).