ASU rearranges New Year’s plans, heads to Berkeley for matchup with Cal
What was a once smooth-sailing season has come to a screeching halt in recent weeks for Arizona State and, essentially, the rest of college basketball. The raging omicron variant of the coronavirus has led to over 100 Division 1 programs being put on pause in the month of December, including No. 5 UCLA and No. 7 USC.
As the Bruins and Trojans deal with their program pauses, the Pac-12 scrambled to rearrange its schedule and set up contests for some of its active teams. In doing so, the conference set up Bobby Hurley and Arizona State (5-7, 1-1 Pac-12) with another road trip to begin the new year to replace its previously schedule weekend road trip to Los Angeles.
On Sunday, the Sun Devils will play their third conference game of the year – and the first game of any sort since Dec. 19th – when they travel to California (8-5, 1-1 Pac-12) for a matchup with the Golden Bears.
California was originally scheduled to take on Stanford on Jan. 2nd, but with the Cardinal on a program, pause were matched up with the Sun Devils by the Pac-12 schedule makers. Sunday’s contest will be the first for the Golden Bears since a 73-53 win over Pacific on Dec. 22nd. For ASU, it’ll be the first game action since a Dec. 19th 66-65 loss to San Francisco, after its final non-conference game with Florida A&M was canceled, and road games with UCLA and USC were postponed.
Both the Sun Devils and Golden Bears bear some striking resemblances of each other. Arizona State ranks 179th in KenPom’s offensive efficiency metric, while Cal ranks one spot ahead at 178th. The Sun Devils have struggled to score throughout much of this season and have only had a 20-point scorer in two of 12 games. ASU’s 64.2 points per game rank 320th in the country.
California’s offense relies heavily upon the three-headed attack of forwards Andre Kelly, Grant Anticevich, and guard Jordan Shepherd. Without being a 3-point shooting threat, Kelly averages 14.8 points per game and a near double-double with 8.9 rebounds per game.
Kelly’s offensive prowess coming from inside the arc is no surprise given how Cal head coach Mark Fox’s squad typically goes about its offensive attack. The Golden Bears only attempt 16.5 3-pointers per game, a mark that ranks 343rd amongst Division 1 schools. Along with Kelly, Anticevich (12.2) and Shepherd (14.3) are the other Golden Bears who average double figures in scoring. Without sophomore forward Marcus Bagley, only sophomore guard DJ Horne (13.3) and graduate student forward Kimani Lawrence (11.3) average double figures in scoring for an ASU offense that has been particularly lackluster in comparison to previous versions of Bobby Hurley led squads.
Arizona State has been without Bagley since he exited ASU’s Nov. 15th victory over North Florida in the first half. Bagley’s rehabbed his knee injury for nearly a month and a half, and Hurley has expressed optimism that the 6-foot-8 forward will return at some point this season. In Bagley’s absence, the Sun Devils have played sloggy offensive basketball. With an adjusted tempo rate that ranks 159th in the nation, the Sun Devils are playing slower than ever and relying upon a defensive-oriented approach to remain competitive in games.
During his seven-year stint at Arizona State, Bobby Hurley has experienced recent success against California. After losing the first four matchups with the Golden Bears, Hurley and the Sun Devils have won seven straight in the series history, a win streak that dates back to January of 2018. In each of the last three wins for ASU over Cal, the Sun Devils have won by single digits.
This season, the Sun Devils have been no stranger to close games, losing three of their 12 games by a total of four points. While California will enter Sunday’s game with a record three games over .500, the Golden Bears do so with a non-conference schedule that ranks 200th according to KenPom and a resumé that includes losses to UC-San Diego and UNLV. Cal’s lone Pac-12 win in its first two conference games came against a 3-10 Oregon State squad.
Since an embarrassing 51-29 loss to Washington State to begin conference play, the Sun Devils have played nothing but nail-biters. Each of the past four games for ASU have been decided by five points or fewer. In Arizona State’s most recent Pac-12 contest, the Sun Devils came away with a 69-67 overtime win over Oregon.
ASU will get back in action Sunday at 5 p.m. with the game broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
