Remy Martin and Zylan Cheatham stood in the film room of the Weatherup Center Tuesday afternoon. For the first time in weeks, there was no need to answer tough questions about the season.

After a sweep of the Oregon schools last weekend, the pair stood confidently in front of the media. And why shouldn’t they have? Backed by a versatile defense and an athletic offense with shooters, the late 19-0 run against Oregon offered the best-case scenario for what Arizona State can be.

“It was more kind of getting back to a standard we’ve seen with this team earlier,” ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said. “You know the potential is there if you play a certain way. It was nice to see us defend that way and see us be in a tight game where the game was close most of the way and then we needed to have our surge as we went down the stretch.”

Notice how Hurley said, “Getting back to a standard we’ve seen with this team earlier.” Even the fourth-year head coach knows it: The Sun Devils haven’t responded to success very well.

What happened after overcoming an 18-point deficit to beat Georgia? A loss to Vanderbilt. After the win over then-No. 1 Kansas? A loss to Princeton and Utah. Then they split a series with Cal and Stanford, effectively knocking them out of every NCAA Tournament projection.

“After that Colorado game, we were feeling ourselves and we kind of felt like we were above whatever we were playing at,” Senior forward Zylan Cheatham said. “It’s easy to do that in the season.”

Heck, you could go all the way back to last season and point to ASU’s 12-0 start and then it’s 8-10 conference collapse.

Some of that, though, is a failure to handle success well, but part may also be that ASU can be an inconsistent team at times -- and that’s not terribly surprising given how many young players it has contributing. Ups and downs were expected and, so far, Hurley has been pleased with the responses after those downs.

“It’s the film and the understanding and understanding the errors and fixing it, trying to address it, seeing it carry over to the practice floor,” Hurley said. “You knew we were going to play well last week because of how we practiced coming in. We had another good day today on the floor so I’m happy about that.”

With a senior-laden backcourt of Tra Holder, Shannon Evans II and Kodi Justice, ASU ran out of the gates with no real hitches last season. Things were rolling. Shots were falling. Wins were coming aplenty. But Hurley admitted he had a much better grasp on that team early on, mainly because he didn’t need to learn as much about the pieces he had at his disposal.

“When you have five freshmen and sophomores in the top seven of the rotation then you’re going to have some peaks and valleys,” Hurley said. “We’re seeing growth and development, even with Lu where he may not have the most dominant offensive game (or) be our leading scorer but he’s impacts the defensive end every time and he’s making better decisions. And (freshman forward) Taeshon (Cherry) took a huge step also this week.”

Part of the improvement, a number of players have noted, is credited to better practices. Now, coaches and players say that stuff all the time without much context and meaning. Sometimes, it can be a lot of coach speak.

But, ASU players describe a spike in intensity following the Devils’ loss to Stanford, mentioning that the competitiveness has jumped as guys started taking their matchup more personally. Some of that led to the court, where ASU played a chippier game against Oregon as a direct, mapped-out plan.

“I think there was a good vibe about working at it today on the practice floor and good competition. Both teams were attacking each other,” Hurley said. “It was a very competitive practice. Just want to see a team that’s hungry to want to improve.”

As the Devils settled into the film room this week, observing themselves, and their 19-0 run against Oregon, with glee, it offered them a chance to see what it looks like when they’re at their best, and the reactions it draws.

“In the moment it felt pretty good but obviously when you’re able to get out of that environment and see it from a different perspective, it looks amazing,” Cheatham said. “The ball was flying around the court, guys were flying around the court defensively. We were playing together --- and when we do that, we’re going to be tough to beat.”

Cheatham painted that run, and the win over Oregon as a whole, as a launching pad for bigger things. The blueprint for success is there. ASU now turns its focus to the replication part of the equation that it has yet to master.

This weekend could give them some validation in that --- as well as take a monkey off the back of Hurley. The fourth-year Sun Devil head coach has one of his best opportunities to capture the Pac-12 road sweep that has remained elusive.

And though both UCLA (10-8, 3-2 Pac-12,) and USC (10-8, 3-2) have had their fair share of hurdles and inconsistencies, they still have athletes that have stymied the Devils before.

“They are very talented teams,” Cheatham said. “They have McDonald's All-Americans. They are very capable of putting together points in a row so that’s definitely something that we’re going to have to try and slow down, try to keep them out of transition by keeping them turning over the ball and taking bad shots.

“I feel like if we play our game and execute our game plan, we’re going to have a really good chance against both.”