Considering what happened last week to Arizona State, playing its second game in three days might be cause for concern.
Coming off one of the best defensive performances in school history and facing one of the nation's worst offenses could help assuage those worries.
The No. 20 Sun Devils visit slumping Oregon on Saturday in a matchup of the best and worst shooting teams in the Pac-10.
Two days after having no trouble winning 90-60 at Stanford, Arizona State allowed the opposition to shoot a season-high 58.0 percent from the field in an 81-71 loss at California on Sunday. The only other time all season the Sun Devils (13-2, 2-1) gave up more than 75 points was their only other loss - 87-78 to Baylor on Nov. 28.
However, they easily recovered with a 69-38 win over Oregon State on Thursday. The Sun Devils, the nation's second-best shooting team at 51.8 percent, hit 65.1 percent on Thursday, led by James Harden's 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting.
The Sun Devils led by 15 at the half before going 16-of-18 from the floor after the break.
The offensive display was only outshined by the effort on defense. The Sun Devils came into the game as one of the Pac-10's top scoring defenses, allowing 59.8 points per game. The Beavers' 38 points were the fewest Arizona State has surrendered to a Pac-10 opponent in its 31 years as a conference member.
"I thought our guys really dialed into what we needed to do defensively this evening," coach Herb Sendek said.
With so many positives to take away from the victory - which improved Arizona State to 7-0 at home this season - perhaps overlooked were the struggles of Jeff Pendergraph, the Sun Devils' second-leading scorer and team leader in rebounds.
Sendek had said before the game that Pendergraph is suffering from a sprained MCL in his right knee and also a strained left foot. The senior forward, who is averaging 13.8 points and 7.1 boards, did not score in the first half Thursday and was held to seven points and four rebounds for the game.
"I'm sure he's been sore," Sendek said. "He's been less than 100 percent. But you can't detect that from the way that he's carried himself. I think that's really been good for our team."
Even without Pendergraph at the top of his game, the Sun Devils figure to have an easy time Saturday. Oregon (6-9, 0-3) has lost three straight and is shooting a league-worst 41.3 percent, third-worst in the country among teams from major conferences.
Arizona State hopes this game serves as little more than a tuneup for a stretch of three road games in seven days. The Sun Devils visit Southern California and No. 10 UCLA next week before facing Arizona.
The Ducks lost at Arizona in their most recent game, 67-52 on Thursday after scoring just 19 first-half points. Oregon was 4-of-22 from 3-point range in that defeat and is shooting 39.4 percent from the field over the last three games while averaging only 62.7 points.
Michael Dunigan and Matthew Humphrey led Oregon with nine points apiece Thursday while leading scorer Tajuan Porter finished with a season-low two points on 1-of-7 shooting.
Arizona State has lost five of the last six against Oregon, but the one win in that span came last season in Tempe, 62-54.
