DAYTON, Ohio -- On Wednesday night ASU returning to same exact NCAA tournament venue as last year wasn’t the only familiarity factor the Sun Devils encounter. They saw last year’s squad and its traits and shortcomings on the other side of the court. St. John’s is a team that his size challenged and heavily relies on the three-point shot, while Arizona State displayed its balance and improved physicality.
“The roster was different,” said assistant coach Rashon Burno. “This is built for a tournament run, because we have size, athleticism and…Lu (Luguentz Dort) who’s a physical guard, last year we had Tra (Holder), Shannon (Evans) and Kodi (Justice), they were more finesse players. We’ve got physical guys…this team is built to win a weekend or two in the tournament. We’re excited for the program. This is just a part of the process.”
ASU’s length and brawn now also allows them to play a more effective zone defense, which clearly frustrated a Red Storm offense reliant on its perimeter shooting. St. John’s shot just 9-30 from the floor, 3-13 from beyond the arc as the Sun Devils switched in and out man and zone defense.
“We had to go to it early,” Burno said on playing zone defense in the first half, “just to keep them off-balance; also, a couple guys had some fouls. We had to rest Remy, so we just wanted to sprinkle it in. Once you play zone, they miss one, you get a little bit more. Okay, miss two, and it actually, by them missing shots, gave coach the confidence to play it a little bit longer.”
Case in point, ASU led by as many as 18 points with 5:17 remaining in the first half. The Sun Devils went to the locker room with a comfortable 13-point lead. Ironically though, their clear size advantage didn’t manifest itself throughout the contest. The Sun Devils had a razor-thin 19-18 edge in rebounds at halftime and surrendered an uncharacteristic six offensive boards. The second half numbers were hardly better as St. John’s held a 25-23 advantage adding 10 caroms on the offensive end.
“I can't have unbelievable rebounding games every game,” said ASU’s leader in that category Zylan Cheatham. “You just gotta take what you can get. I want to say Rob (Edwards) had six defensive rebounds at half. So that just shows that our guards are coming in there and cleaning up. “And I think I did a really good job boxing out and keeping my men off the glass. I'm not really too concerned with numbers as long as my team gets the rebound and we can go.”
Ultimately, it was ASU’s offensive balance, just one more stark difference than the 2017-18 group that overcame these aforementioned numbers that frustrated St. John’s.
The Sun Devils had 22 points in the paint and posted 27 points via perimeter shots with a formidable 5-12 shooting from three-point range demonstrating their patience on offense.
“It worked really well,” Burno said of the concerted effort to feed the ball inside for ASU’s frontcourt players, “because it accumulated fouls on them. Anytime we can get to the foul line, they’ve got to take the ball out. So, it kept them out of transition, and then against a team like St. John’s, who’s so guard-oriented, you have to throw it inside, whether it’s a slip, post-up, or offensive rebound.
“So, we really put an emphasis on, the ball has to hit the paint, whether it’s dribble penetration or throwing it inside to Romello (White).”
ASU’s efficiency on Wednesday night was a microcosm of a team that has won six of their last eight games coming into their matchup with St. John’s and undoubtedly peaking at the right time of the year. Some of the more overly critical Sun Devil fans lamented the fact that much like last year, their team squeaked into the field of 68 and really haven’t shown the progress you would want to witness from what was arguably head coach Bobby Hurley’s most talented team in his Tempe tenure.
The win over St. John’s put that narrative to rest. Yet, this team is hardly resting on its laurels with the program’s first NCAA Tournament win since 2009 and is eager to ride this wave of momentum as they can, facing a formidable Buffalo squad Friday afternoon in Tulsa.
“I'm going to say we didn't pack for just one game,” Cheatham stated. “We're really locked in. We're really focused. And obviously this is a big step in the right direction. But we're not content by any means. We're hungry for more.
“We want to take this season as far as it can go.”
