Bobby Hurley called Taeshon Cherry into his office.

Four games into the freshman’s collegiate career, things weren’t clicking. Cherry looked lost in the faster pace of the college game, chucking up contested shots that were lucky to mick the rim.

So before Arizona State took off for the MGM Resorts Main Event in Las Vegas, Hurley brought the 18-year old to his office, offering a message of support to the struggling forward.

“I recruited you because I trust you and you have to trust me,” Cherry recalled Hurley telling him.

Added Hurley: “A guy as gifted as him, it’s going to click eventually and I tried to remind him how much time he lost with the injury and how valuable those practices were and just to be patient with the process.”

About to head out on the road for the first time in college, Cherry called his parents. “Just play like it’s high school game,” they told him.

He tried.

But his aggressive approach started heading downhill when his first shots missed the mark. Cherry misfired on all three of his attempts. In an instant, the hype that engulfed him when he arrived in Tempe started weighing on him.

He couldn’t stop thinking about it. He wasn’t living up to the hype.

He left T-Mobile Arena last Monday night with an unsettling feeling in his stomach. He arrived at the team hotel and knew immediately he needed to find some solace in his shot.

“I have to get back in the gym,” Cherry told Hurley. “I played bad tonight.”

“Alright,” Hurley told him, ‘go back then.”

At around “nine or 10 PM,” Cherry, along with an ASU team manager, hopped in an Uber and trekked right back to the arena.

“I didn’t know about that,” freshman Luguentz Dort said. “I remember Taeshon was gone for a little bit and I didn’t know where he went. I thought he left with his parents but I guess nah, he really went back to the stadium and put some shots up.”

Indeed he did.

Cherry walked back into the arena and had the facility’s maintenance personnel turn on the lights. He grabbed two balls, one to shoot and one for the manager to pass back to him. After about “30 to 45” minutes in the near-empty gym, it started to come together.

“I had nothing to do with that one,” Hurley said. “That’s just a guy that expects to play well, that wants it pretty bad and when you’re struggling to find yourself, the more work you put in, the more confident you’ll be.”

About two days later, before the Sun Devils played Utah State in the MGM Resorts Main Event Championship, Hurley pulled his young forward to the side again.

“I want you to shoot every shot that’s open for you because I trust you,” Cherry said his head coach told him.

“That conversation really put me over the edge like, ‘Man, I can shoot the ball. I just need to shoot it,’” Cherry said. “So I just kept shooting it and shooting it and it went in eventually.”

It went in … five times.

Against Utah State, Cherry matched his production from his first four games combined. He notched 15 points, hitting a trio of 3-pointers in 21 minutes and hammering home a dunk that he claimed: “is the highlight of my basketball career.”

“Coach told me before the game it’s going to be my game,” Cherry said. “I came out with confidence and when I hit that first 3, it just boosted my confidence. Everyone was trusting me on the floor.”

In 40 minutes, Cherry’s entire mindset finally came full circle. His confidence, which was shot to the point of depression, he said, was back to where it was nearly a year ago. Then just a prized recruit, Cherry walked around Wells Fargo Arena on an official visit, greeted by chants of his name from the ASU student section.

He looks back on that day a lot, a reminder of things falling into place.

“Hurley told me what was going to happen when I came here: Everybody was going to love me, everybody was going to love the team,” Cherry said. “It’s surreal to me.”

In the fall, though, some of those memories were thought of in disdain.

A little after summer workouts, Cherry’s knee was bugging him. A quick MRI showed that he partially tore his meniscus, an injury easily fixed with surgery but one that held Cherry out for nearly two months.

It was a product of over usage. He actually tore the meniscus in high school and played through it unknowingly. The puzzle that Cherry had set up for himself with a good showing in summer workouts wasn’t clicking into place.

In his first four games, Cherry combined for just 15 points on 5-18 shooting.

“He’s shown flashes since he stepped on campus,” ASU forward Zylan Cheatham said. “Obviously it’s tough when you go down with injuries, especially as a freshman. You kind of get out of the rotation a little bit. We just try to keep him confident.

“He had that breakout game (against Utah State) and he hasn’t looked back since. He’s shooting with confidence, he’s playing with confidence and that’s what we’re going to need him to do down the stretch.”

There’s that word again:

Confidence.

It’s the one thing Cherry’s success seems to hinge upon. The size is there. The shot is there. The talent is there. His mindset is the only thing capable of hindering his future.

Cherry realizes that. Talking to reporters, he was able to do some reflection, understanding that his confidence drop-off was a product of a lack of trust in himself and being “young-minded.” After all, as he reminded the reporters, he’s still 18.

“There were times I had to do that in high school too, missing like two or three shots in a row, it’s hard,” Cherry said. “I had to learn like people in the NBA do the same thing. KD (Kevin Durant) isn’t going to make every shot. LeBron (James) isn’t going to make every shot.

“I went back and was like, ‘Play like this is high school. Everything is slower.’”

Standing in the hallway of Wells Fargo Arena the Monday after ASU’s Vegas’ tournament win, Cherry began beaming, enlightening the reporters standing in front of him about his great week of practice. He wanted to ensure everyone knew the game slowed down for him, that his first four games were a fluke, that his confidence was back.

On Wednesday, Cherry confirmed that.

The freshman, who started for the first time after Remy Martin, Rob Edwards and Mickey Mitchell sat out with injuries, knocked down a pair 3-pointers in the first three and a half minutes of ASU’s win over Nebraska Omaha en route to a career-high 19-point night.

“He adds a new dimension to our team of a guy that you can’t leave unaccounted for behind the 3-point line,” Hurley said. “The way he can shoot it, even the times we got him in the post, that mid-range jump shot is pretty good, too.”

On the second of those two 3-pointers, too, Cherry held his follow through on the left side of the arc. Just a second after the nets flicked up, Cherry looked directly at the Nebraska Omaha bench and let out a fierce yell.

After months of questioning the notion, Cherry’s confidence has returned. He’s turned into the versatile wing that the fans chanting his name nine months ago expected. Six games in, the burden of self-doubt has finally left him.

Asked if he may look back at the Utah State game in a few months as the turning point for his season, Cherry let out an energetic grin.

“Most definitely.”