Glance at the numbers, and it doesn’t seem as if Arizona State should be in a different class than the Colorado men’s basketball team.

Through the first four weeks of Big 12 Conference play, the offensive numbers for the Sun Devils and CU stack up fairly equally in league games. The Buffs’ defensive numbers are lagging behind ASU’s, particularly along the perimeter, but the difference otherwise isn’t overly dramatic.

CU owns better rebounding numbers and is better at the free throw line. And while no one is quite in the Buffs’ neighborhood in terms of turnovers — CU has averaged a Big 12-most 16.4 in league games — the Sun Devils are the closest, averaging 15.0 turnovers as the league’s second-most in conference games.

So how did ASU top the Buffs by 20 points in a matchup earlier this month that was never really close? Because on that day, CU was one of the worst basketball teams in the nation.

Such was the assessment of head coach Tad Boyle, as the Buffs hope a little home cooking can help finally end one of the worst conference starts in program history in a rematch against ASU on Tuesday night.

“Looking at that first game in Tempe that we played, the second conference game of the year, absolutely by far our worst performance,” Boyle said. “I’m looking at the film, and it’s the worst-coached team in America. Not a great feeling. But sometimes the truth hurts and reality (stinks).

“A lot of it was effort. A lot of it was concentration. A lot of it was doing your job. A lot of it was being soft. A lot of it was getting punked,” Boyle said. “You name the mistake you can make playing the game of basketball, we made. Part of it was our effort, the 50-50 balls and toughness. They punked us, there’s no other way around it.”

The Buffs have had several near-misses during its 0-8 start in Big 12 play — the program’s worst conference start in 32 years — but the 81-61 loss at ASU wasn’t one of them. ASU led early, built a 13-point halftime lead, and led by as many as 25 points in the second half.

The Sun Devils played that game without freshman guard Joson Sanon, ASU’s second-leading scorer. Sanon missed five of six games before returning for Saturday’s loss against No. 3 Iowa State in a game the Sun Devils led by seven points at halftime.

Boyle’s search for answers among his under-performing squad has led to eight different starting lineups in 19 games. Boyle indicated another new combination likely is on the way, saying he expects freshman forward Sebastian Rancik to get his first career start against the Sun Devils. Rancik has gone 9-for-18 in the past four games and grabbed a season-high five rebounds during Saturday’s loss at Arizona.

“Outside of Julian Hammond, you can make a case for or against the other 10 guys whether they should be playing or shouldn’t be playing,” Boyle said. “So nobody has been consistently good enough to say, ‘Oh, they deserve to start.’ Outside of (Hammond), we don’t have a lot of consistent players.”