Men's hoops Saturday game vs. nationally-ranked Xavier begins FSN and FSN Arizona schedule

Saturday's 2 p.m. men's hoops game against nationally ranked Xavier (7-1) begins a solid stretch of television games for the Sun Devils on both FSN and FSN Arizona. Saturday's tilt is one of six games set for a FSN broadcast, while FSN AZ has another nine on the schedule. All ten games between Jan. 26 and March 1 will be on either FSN or FSN Arizona.

Ted Robinson and Marques Johnson will have the call Saturday as the Sun Devils make their first appearance on FSN against the Musketeers. Xavier, coached by former Herb Sendek assistant coach Sean Miller, has made the NCAA Tournament seven of the past 10 years and has won at least 20 games nine times in the past 10 years. It will be the first non-conference ranked opponent at Wells Fargo Arena since No. 18 UTEP beat ASU 60-55 on Dec. 22, 1983.

ASU's next television game after Xavier will be Saturday, Jan. 5, at 2 p.m. against Oregon State on FSN, in the second Pac-10 game of the season. ASU opens the Pac-10 season vs. nationally-ranked Oregon on Jan. 3.

ASU's Jan. 9 game against Arizona will be the first FSN Arizona game of the season with Trey Bender and Tom Kuyper calling the action. Tip time is 7:30 p.m. FSN Arizona will then broadcast the games at Stanford (Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. MT), vs. Washington State (Jan. 26 at 5 p.m. MT), and at USC (Saturday, Feb. 2, at 7:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. MT). The Jan. 31 UCLA game in Los Angeles will be televised on a tape-delay in Arizona at 11:30 p.m.

FSN will then pick up the Sunday, Feb. 10, game in Tucson against Arizona at 12:30 p.m. MT.

ASU's next six games will be on television, as Stanford on Feb. 14 will be a FSN game at 8:30 p.m. MT and Cal on Feb. 16 will be at 4 p.m. on FSN Arizona.

ASU's games on the Washington road trip in late February will both be on TV. The Feb. 21 Washington State game in Pullman will be on FSN Arizona at 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT while the Feb. 23 game against Washington in Seattle will be a 3 p.m. PT/4 p.m. MT tip on FSN.

ASU's Feb. 28 game against UCLA will tip at 8:30 p.m. on FSN Arizona while the Mar. 1 game against USC, which is the final home game of the year, will either tip at 2 p.m. on FSN or at 4 p.m. on FSN Arizona. Tip time will be known in mid-February.

ASU's games at Oregon (March 6) and the season finale at Oregon State (March 8) will be determined in February as well.

All games in the Pac-10 Tournament March 12-15 will be broadcast on FSN except the championship, which will be on CBS.

ASU already has made appearances on ESPN2 (vs. Illinois on Nov. 19 and vs. LSU on Nov. 21) and on ESPNU (vs. Princeton on Nov. 20 and at Nebraska on Dec. 2_. At least 19 of ASU's 31 games will be televised this year.