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Former Pac-12 basketball teams face daunting travel schedules this season

Matte Jr
Former Pac-12 basketball teams face daunting travel schedules this season

If you thought the football travel schedules were bad for former Pac-12 football teams, wait until you see the basketball schedules.

The 2024-25 college basketball season begins Nov. 4, but Arizona State is already hitting the road this weekend — in part to prepare for the rigors of its Big 12 travel schedule.

The Sun Devils are flying to the East Coast this weekend to face Duke in a special preseason matchup. At Big 12 Basketball Media Day, Bobby Hurley said he purposely scheduled more non-conference games to prepare his team for the realities of the Big 12.

“We want to get our players used to these trips,” Hurley said. “We’re playing four non-conference home games. I’m not sure any other power conference team would play that small amount of home games. We should be battle-tested at neutral sites and in away games. You can certainly look at the Duke game this weekend and then you can go right into game number three at Gonzaga We put ourselves in some challenging situations against some really good teams on the road.

12 Great Long But Manageable Road Trips

Morgantown, West Virginia, is a long drive to Arizona State, Arizona, BYU and Utah.

Morgantown, West Virginia, is a long drive to Arizona State, Arizona, BYU and Utah. / Images by Ben Queen-Imagn

Playing in the Pac-12 last season, the Sun Devils’ longest trip was to Seattle to play the Washington Huskies. From Phoenix to Seattle is about 1,100 air miles and a three-hour flight. Flights to Pullman to play Washington State and Portland to play Oregon and Oregon State were about 1,000 air miles and less than three hours.

All other trips were relatively short, which will not be the case in the Big 12.

ASU doesn’t play UCF this season, which helps. Phoenix to Orlando is a long plane ride and 1,850 air miles. The Big 12 Sun Devils’ longest road trip will be at Cincinnati (about 1,600 air miles) on Saturday, Jan. 18, followed by a game at West Virginia on Tuesday, Jan. 21. will likely require the Sun Devils to remain in the box on Sunday and Monday.

Then there are trips to Kansas (1,000 air miles) and Kansas State (950 miles), as well as back-to-back road games at Oklahoma State (Sunday, Feb. 9) and Texas Tech (Wednesday, Feb. 12).

Definitely tougher than the Pac-12, but manageable.

Stanford and Cal have difficult paths

Stanford coach Kyle Smith will have to crisscross the country in his first season in the ACC.

Stanford coach Kyle Smith will have to crisscross the country in his first season in the ACC. / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

The Big Ten and ACC schedules are out of control.

UCLA, ranked No. 22 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, will play Big Ten Conference road games at Nebraska, Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue and Northwestern.

But that doesn’t hold a candle to Stanford and Cal. In their first season in the ACC, the Cardinal will play Clemson, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, North Carolina, SMU, Georgia Tech, Duke, Notre Dame and Louisville. Cal will play Pittsburgh, Clemson, North Carolina, NC State, SMU, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville and Notre Dame.

Stanford struggled in the Pac-12 last season (8-12) with a schedule that featured 18 games in the Pacific time zone and two in the Mountain. How do you think they will do in eight away games three time zones away?

More analysis from Arizona State and the Big 12

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