👋 GOOD MORNING

Happy Thursday! I have got to say, I asked you to send me some of your most creative names for the Center-Formerly-Known-As-Footprint, and did you ever come through! For now, the Suns/Mercury home will simply be known as PHX Arena, but what are the best ideas you can come up with? Shoot me an email at daily@gophnx.com, and let me hear it! I just may print it on Friday. And thanks to everyone who sent in ideas — it was great to hear from you!

On to the show!

Suns’ Long Road to Postseason Begins in Texas

The Suns have some work to do, and not much time to do it.

The post-All-Star schedule offers Phoenix just 28 games to right the proverbial ship after it watched a sparkling 9-2 start evaporate to its current 26-28 mark. That record places them 11th in the Western Conference, 1.5 games behind both Golden State and Sacramento with one game in hand. There’s not much question as to whether the Suns have the talent on the roster to make up some ground, but do they have enough runway to catch the teams ahead of them?

4-Game Road Trip Kicks Off Suns’ Post-ASG Schedule

The Suns dropped three straight heading into the break, albeit to teams that rank in the top four in the West. They’ll need to rekindle some of that early-season magic, and though their first few games are favorable, it gets a lot tougher for them down the stretch.

• Their next three games are against teams below .500: Tonight vs. San Antonio in Austin, Texas (23-29), Saturday at Chicago (22-33) and Sunday at Toronto (17-38).
• They wrap up their road trip against the second-place team in the West, Memphis, who has beaten the Suns twice this season by a combined margin of 12.
• They then kick off a four-game home stand, beginning with back-to-back games against the 13-42 Pelicans.

My Take: The Suns need to take advantage of their first six games, because after that, they only play two teams with losing records over the remainder of the season. It’s so daunting that the Tankathon lists them as on of the toughest remaining schedules, with two matchups against Boston and Memphis, as well as one game against Oklahoma City, Cleveland, New York and Denver.

Holy moly.

Look, it’s not like Phoenix is situated for a championship playoff run, but now that the trade deadline distractions have passed, maybe the Suns can settle into coach Mike Budenholzer’s system and make a solid stretch run. Health will be a key factor as well, and that was decidedly not a test the team passed in its first 54 games.

Take a Deeper Dive: Gerald writes about how the ​Suns can salvage their season​ before it’s too late.

Musings From Around (and Sometimes Beyond) The Valley

Wildcats > Cougars: The Arizona women’s basketball team topped BYU 65-57 last night, marking a season sweep over the Cougars. UA improved to 16-12 overall, 7-8 in the Big 12, and its bubble is far from burst with remaining matchups against Houston (5-21), Texas Tech (14-14) and Arizona State (8-19) before the Big 12 Tourney kicks off.

T-CU Later: The ASU women’s basketball team suffered its 12th straight defeat with an 82-66 loss at home to TCU last night. The Sun Devils are now 8-19 overall and 2-13 in the conference, a tough pill to swallow after starting conference play at 2-2.

Playing with Firebirds: The Roadrunners dropped their final game of their road trip, 5-2 at Coachella Valley. The loss hurts a team trying to push for the final playoff spot in the Pacific Division, though Tucson does return home for four straight beginning with the Abbotsford Canucks on Saturday and Sunday.

🧢 Tip of the Hat

It’s almost that time! Hear from our PHNX D-Backs crew as we gear up for Spring Training!