Zeke Jones knew all along he’d have a good Arizona State team this season. He finally got to show it off at the Pac-12 tournament and is hoping the Sun Devils can prolong that performance at the NCAA Championships.

Critics can make the case for which of the NWCA All-Star matches might stand out next Tuesday at Penn State’s Rec Hall, such as the Noto-Ramos (125) or Starocci-Lewis (174) or even the Van Ness-Parco (149) bouts. But the 157-pound Haines-Teemer match has immeasurable entertainment potential.

A 6-4 record with two matches to go might not be quite the season Arizona State was looking for at this point, but the Sun Devils are content with looking ahead.

Any wrestling coach will tell you that what is most critical is not how a wrestler starts but how he finishes. Arizona State coach Zeke Jones is simply hoping that his starters will be around at the finish.

For Arizona State wrestling, what happened in Vegas doesn’t necessarily have to stay in Vegas.

Arizona State’s star-studded lineup is beginning to take shape as the Sun Devils get closer to Saturday’s season opener against Rutgers.

Zeke Jones has an NCAA trophy-winning core intact and he has two months of seeing that group perform alongside reinforcements Kyle Parco and Jesse Vasquez.

Cael Valencia currently owns an 8-0 record with a win over a top-10 opponent. Even though the Arizona State freshman has shown his tremendous upside, he’s still sitting on the shelf for the Sun Devils.

The trip to the Mountaineer Open left Arizona State with a couple handfuls of hardware and a pair of lingering lineup questions entering its first dual of the season.

Arizona State took a step in March when the Sun Devils hauled home their first NCAA team trophy in 26 years — an important step.

One word is looming over Arizona State’s wrestling team: revenge. 

From March to October, the Arizona Diamondbacks lay home at Chase Field in Phoenix. Although Chase Field sometimes holds other events, it broke down barriers in early January as Arizona State wrestling hoisted the first-ever duals on a baseball field.

The last time Arizona State stepped on a mat together was December 6, 2019. Although head coach Zeke Jones placed a month break on the schedule until the Sun Devils face off against Ohio State on January 6, the time off allowed the squad to compete for spots in the 2020 Olympics.