In most cases it’s hard to be positive about the direction of a team when it has lost four of its last six games, especially when two of those losses were by more than 25 points. However, the Arizona State Sun Devils (10-6, 1-2 Pac-12) are doing just that following a tough nine-point loss at now No. 8 Oregon, which followed a victory at Oregon State that now looks even better following the Beavers 17-point trouncing of then No. 24 Arizona, who is now unranked.
“I think those are two very difficult places to play,” Hurley said of Corvallis and Eugene, Oregon. “It’s probably the most difficult pair that you’re going to face in a week. So, just to go there and give yourself a chance to be playing on Saturday to sweep, and to be in the game against a top-tier opponent on their home floor, I thought that there were some real positives to take out of it.
“Now, we’ve eliminated some of the more difficult conference road games and we have nine of our last 15 (regular season games) at home, so there’s a lot of things to be optimistic about.”
This stretch of home games Hurley alluded to will begin with three consecutive ones in Tempe, starting with Thursday night’s rematch against now No. 20 Colorado.
If this midseason lull from late December through the first half of January the Sun Devils seem to be working through feels like an annual occurrence, that’s because it is.
Last season, ASU lost three of the five games that followed the upset victory of No. 1 Kansas, and the year before that also lost four of six games in a stretch that spanned from December 30 to January 17.
Of course, it was even worse in Hurley’s first two seasons when the team just wasn’t any good compared to its Pac-12 competition. The good news is the Sun Devils bounced back nicely from those down stretched in each of the past two seasons.
In 2018-19 ASU finished January with four wins in five games, and the season before that would go on to follow up with wins in five of its next seven. This rebound (no pun intended) effort will have to start against the team’s third-ranked opponent in four games, which gives the Sun Devils yet another shot at their first signature win of the season.
By the sound of it, everyone within the team is excited and ready to embrace and take on this challenge. Here are some key points that were addressed in Tuesday afternoon’s media session.
Team believes Edwards will continue to build off of a strong weekend
After coming off the bench and not starting for the first time(s) this season, the Sun Devils finally got the production from senior guard Rob Edwards that they know he is capable of.
The one-time Cleveland State transfer played in 52 minutes between last weekend’s pair of games, combining to score 29 points (18 at OSU, 11 at the Ducks) on 10-for-20 shooting from the field and 7-for-13 from three, also making the only two free throws he attempted for good measure.
“He was long overdue to play that way on offense,” Hurley said. “He focused on the defensive end the way we needed him to in both games in Oregon. He’s got to trust his talent and his ability to make shots and just play with confidence. Hopefully, he’s regained some of that on the trip to Oregon.”
Hurley even added that Edwards had as good of a practice as he’s had all year today, which is the latest example to support the narrative that he has been an invaluable presence and performer in practice and just wasn’t able to translate it to games yet, at least this season.
Star junior guard Remy Martin, essentially the floor general and captain of the team, talked about how impressed he was with the way Edwards handled the benching with his approach in practices.
“You could evaluate a teammate like that, when they get taken out of the starting lineup and the next day in practice, he was on the other team being aggressive, vocal, and at the same time picking the starting group up,” Martin explained. “That says a lot, because it shows the sacrifice, it shows he’s for the team, he’s willing to do other things that coach asks him.
“He’s a great teammate. I love Rob, I love having him on my team…I’m very confident in him that he’s going to end up coming through for us at a great time.”
Sun Devils’ second matchup with Colorado will be different with presences of Cherry, White
Just over two months ago, ASU and Colorado opened their respective seasons against each other with a “non-conference” game in China, which the Buffaloes won 81-71. This time around, the game will count towards each team’s conference record and the Sun Devils will have the valuable presences of starters in sophomore forward Taeshon Cherry and junior forward Romello White.
They both missed the season-opener due to a violation of team rules, and with this in mind Hurley believes the team did all they could in that first showdown against the Buffs.
“I thought that we tried very hard, we worked at it, we scrambled, we defended pretty well,” Hurley commented about that game. “We got hurt in the paint with rebounding, as you might expect with having our two most physical front-court players out…it’s great that we’re going to have those two guys available for this game.”
There’s no overstating the truth in the final line of that Hurley quote, as Colorado has been as big of a kryptonite as any other team in the Pac-12 to ASU in recent seasons.
While ASU has certainly gotten its wins against CU, the Buffs have won the last two times these teams have played. Going back two seasons, they upset a then No. 4 ASU team 90-81 on an overtime victory in Boulder, then sent the Sun Devils packing in the first game of the Pac-12 tournament with a 97-85 win, ASU’s only double-digit loss of that entire season.
Hurley certainly understands this Buffalo team is every bit as dangerous as those teams of recent seasons, if not more so now considering their hot first half of the season.
“They’ve established themselves as one of the frontrunners early in conference play, so it’s a real test,” Hurley said. “They’re one of the better defensive teams in the country, statistically, so our offense is going to have to be sharp, especially in the half-court, they really are disciplined.
“They have key players at the right positions, like I touched on, just with having a guy like (point guard) McKinley Wright that’s been through these wars, and (starting forward) Tyler Bey, they have some really good players.”
This only feeds into the excitement to play in this game for the Sun Devils, however, as Martin made it clear how the team feels about getting another shot at Colorado, with Cherry and White ready to go this time around.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Martin said. “Us playing them without our bigs I think was kind of hard for us, and now that we’ve got them back, I think that we feel a lot more confident going into the game. I can’t wait to go play them, they’re a great team.”
Hurley thinks support for Martin can come from lots of different guys from game-to-game
If you’ve read stories on this site, at least the ones I write, you’ve seen the depth of this season’s team mentioned as much, if not more than any factor that helps this season’s squad finds success.
The team’s leading scorer in Martin, who combined for 54 points in his third then second-highest single-game scoring performances of the season, respectively, has proven the most consistent player from night-to-night.
“If I follow him, he’ll lead me to good places,” Hurley said. “I got a lot of trust in his talent and his ability. His decision-making has been improving by the day, and he’s playing at an elite level.
“If we had the record that Oregon had, or some of these other teams, people would be talking about him right now as the player of the year in the conference. We have to do a better job of winning some more games, and I think he would certainly be in that discussion.”
A big reason for this good, not great record ASU owns is the supporting cast around Martin has been sporadic over this losing stretch, despite the group’s overall potential and talent. Hurley was addressed multiple times about how urgent it is to find a consistent third scorer.
“I have no issues with it being a revolving situation as long as there is that guy,” Hurley said. “I may not know game-to-game specifically until it’s unfolding who that guy is, but that’s why I’m doing this job,” he added with a laugh.
“It’s not easy all the time to know, and you can’t predict everything. But it is comforting to know that you kind of have two dependable guys, one on the perimeter, one on the inside that you can get some scoring out of.”
That last part referred to White, who somewhat bounced back with 19 combined points in last weekend’s games after only 25 in his previous four combined. Before the past six games, he had a streak of eight consecutive games in double figures.
While Hurley will take scoring from wherever he can get it, he added that based on last weekend’s performances he does not feel a need to shuffle the lineup for this weekend.
“I liked what I saw from our team in Oregon in both games,” Hurley said. “There’s no reason to tamper with the lineup this week. I like the guys that we’re playing, and I like some of the things that our team did, so that’ll be the direction now. Again, that’s not to say there won’t be future changes, I can’t project that.”
