Remember all the talk about how hard it is to beat a team three times in one season?

Turns out it’s true.

Arizona State’s stay at this year’s Pacific Life Pac-10 Tournament in Los Angeles was a brief one. The Sun Devils slogged their way to a 70-61 loss to 7th-seeded Stanford on Thursday night, eliminating them from the tournament, and possibly (probably) costing them an NCAA Tournament bid.

Honestly, this didn’t look like the same Sun Devils’ team we’ve seen for most of the 2009-10 season. They were listless and sloppy, committing 17 turnovers in the game. Their defense was pedestrian, as they allowed Stanford to shoot 54.8% for the game, and a blistering 61% in the second half.

Their top shooters, Ty Abbott, Rihards Kuksiks and Derek Glasser combined to go 14 for 40 (35%) from the floor. They talked about working the ball into senior post Eric Boateng, but he only got 4 shot attempts on the evening, even with Stanford’s bigs, Jack Trotter and Andrew Zimmermann, in foul trouble.

Their bench, outside of Jerren Shipp, did nothing. Freshman Trent Lockett had 5 fouls and 3 turnovers in 8 minutes.

In short, ASU played their worst game of the season on it’s most important night. Many, including some ASU players, thought the Sun Devils needed just one win over Stanford to push them into the field of 64 (65). Glasser was one of them. “I know if we lose on Thursday, we’re not in,” Glasser said on Tuesday.

Now, the Sun Devils are reduced to gathering around their television sets and crossing their fingers that some strange things happen this weekend that afford them an opportunity at the “Big Dance”. It’s more likely they’ll be headed to the red-headed stepchild of college basketball’s postseason, the NIT, for the 2nd time in three seasons.

This morning’s edition of ESPN’s Bubble Watch has Arizona State on the outside looking in after Thursday’s loss, but does point out that the Sun Devils still have a chance because they weren’t the only “bubble team” to lose on Thursday. Memphis, Cincinnati and UAB all suffered losses in their respective conference tourneys, keeping ASU’s door opened just a crack.

Joe Lunardi, Bristol’s top bracketologist now has the Sun Devils listed as the first team out, after being one of the few prognosticators to include the Sun Devils in his bracket for much of the week.