Bobby Hurley understands the monkey’s still on his back. He’s never swept a Pac-12 road series and he’s never beat Arizona. The first of those he nearly achieved last Saturday at USC, but a late 3-pointer from Bennie Boatwright kept the trend secure.

The latter, however, he’ll take a crack on Thursday.

And his seventh meeting against the Wildcats may the most winnable. Arizona is 14-7 with a 5-3 record in the Pac-12, boasting a resume that has them out of the NCAA Tournament field in most bracket projections.

Even still, Hurley stayed far away from any brash or bold claims.

“I don’t get hung up in like, ‘Am I getting closer to being as good as someone else?’” Hurley said. “I just try and focus on what we’re doing here.”

But in a sense, and at least for now, Hurley and the Sun Devils have closed the gap with their rivals down south. After its road spilt in Los Angeles, ASU is 14-6, tied with the Wildcats for third place in the Pac-12.

ASU, though, can hang its hat on a solid victory at UCLA and a close loss against the Trojans last weekend. Arizona’s fortune in L.A. was much different. Playing without center Chase Jeter, who averages 12.6 points and 7.2 rebounds a game and status for the ASU game is up in the air, the Wildcats were swept by a combined 44 points.

The margin of Thursday’s game will likely be much less. If for no reason other than it’s a rivalry game.

“The rivalry is always a little extra juice and the crowd is going to be what it is,” Hurley said. “There’s a lot of great things that go along with playing a program that’s had the track record, the tradition and the success that Arizona’s had.”

Phoenix native Zylan Cheatham remembers going to ASU, Arizona games as a kid and seeing the stands at a 50-50 split between red and blue and maroon and gold. Then last year, Cheatham got to watch from the bench.

He had trouble spotting red and blue shirts in the crowd.

“I think that environment was unbelievable,” Cheatham said. “Things like that are beautiful and us players love to see it. We pretty much expect a similar showing on Thursday.”

There’s something else that Cheatham and the Sun Devils are itching to see on Thursday as well: Man-to-man defense. Over the past few weeks, ASU’s Pac-12 foes have thrown a zone defensive look at it, forcing the Devils to change up their offense.

Arizona, though, likely won’t be doing that. Wildcat coach Sean Miller is known for a relentless man-to-man defense, a look that most teams dread facing. The Devils seem content in facing anything that isn’t a zone.

“I love it because it’s finally man,” Sophomore point guard Remy Martin said. “Seeing zone forever, I just love the man concept. I can’t wait to play them because it’s man and we get to play our style of play and play our game. Hopefully, they don’t go back to zone.”

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After coming back from an ankle injury in December, Martin has slowly begun to find the balance between shooting and passing in his role as a point guard. On Saturday against USC, the Chatsworth, California native had 10 points and seven assists.

All his mind floated to after the game and on Tuesday was the shot he missed with under 10 seconds left.

“I just feel like being the player I am, I just take accountability because I know I’m capable of making those shot,” Martin said. “Great players make those shots no matter what.”

That’s the life of the point guard, always looking at what needs to get better.

But, in a sense, that’s what ASU has been doing all season. It’s been no secret that Hurley has declared this team the best he’s ever coached. They’ve flashed what that looks like, in wins against Mississippi State and Kansas to name a few, but it comes in spurts.

It’s a process to reach their full potential.

Cheatham remembers saying earlier in the season that they were scratching the surface. He believes the Devils are past that now.

“I think we’re getting a lot better,” he said. “Our practices are a lot more intense. I think we’re playing smarter basketball now. We’re starting to realize what loses games. As bad as it looked losing that USC game, we learned so much from it.”

As Cheatham mentioned, ASU is still learning to win.

“We often rave so much about athleticism or his ability to shoot, but knowing how to win, to make winning plays when it matters is a really big part of basketball.”

Indeed it is. But if they still need to learn to win, the classes will be short. The Sun Devils only have 10 games left in the regular season and although they are in the projected field of 68 at the moment, a few losses in a bad Pac-12 conference can change that.

The Sun Devils have been big proponents all season long that they are a battle-tested team for some of the overtime games they’ve been in and the caliber of competition they played against in the non-conference schedule.

As the season winds down and their tournament hopes hang in the balance, the Devils will need those past games to start paying dividends.

“Experience is the best teacher,” Cheatham said.