Cunliffe looking to meet lofty expectations

https://rivals.com/content/prospects/430Just like almost every freshman moving into their college dorms for the first time, Sam Cunliffe thought he was prepared for what was to come next.

Like most freshmen, by the time midterms came around, they were dead wrong.

Here’s the thing that separates Cunliffe from your typical Arizona State freshman. He’s a basketball player – a really, really good one, too. His challenges came in the form of a grueling opening week of practice, which began over the course of the weekend. He prided himself on his work in high school but has admitted to a bit of culture shock in his first preseason camp.

“I thought I was in shape when I got here, but being in shape and getting with the size and the speed of the game was the hardest thing,” he said.

“Four-hour practice, running up and down the court. We’re picking up new things, so there’s a lot of mental stuff I had to learn and also my body, learning how to push through it and remembering to box out and all the little things I didn’t do in high school. I’m picking up a lot of stuff, fast.”

Of course, Cunliffe arrives with an additional spotlight and splendor on him than most freshmen. He’s the most notable recruit in the ASU tenure of one of college basketball’s all-time most recognizable names in second-year coach Bobby Hurley.

Hurley has come into the recruiting game and reenergized the Sun Devil program in spite of a 15-17 record in his first season, and Cunliffe, a Rainier Beach, Wash. product, is his first crowning jewel. Cunliffe’s importance to Hurley has not been lost on the newcomer thus far.

“[Bobby]’s like my friend, kind of,” Cunliffe said. “He gets on me, he’s hard on me, but I can always talk to him about anything. If I have a bad practice, he doesn’t hold it against you. He just wants you to be better. It’s just like a genuine care, especially towards me. I feel it a lot when I’m around him, whether it’s before practice, during practice, you can just tell he wants me to be great.”

Cunliffe has done more than enough to impress Hurley as well, as shown in his opening press availability earlier this week.

“[Cunliffe’s] ready," Hurley said. "College-ready body, athleticism, the work ethic is there. He wants to be great. It's going to take some time. It's always a learning curve with freshmen adjusting to this level. He's out there with other guys who are really good players so it's going to make him better."

He’s done the same for his teammates. The four-star guard, who held offers from programs such as Cal, Colorado, Gonzaga, UNLV and his hometown Washington – home of good friend, former Rainier Beach teammate, and current San Antonio Spur Dejounte Murray, has also made an impact on his teammates.

Several chose Cunliffe as their pick to win the team’s slam dunk competition next Friday evening at ASU basketball’s “Mill Madness” event. Others picked him to win the 3-point shooting contest that same night.

As Cunliffe, who was remarkably candid and insightful in his first dealings with the press, wrapped up his first interviews, transfer guard Shannon Evans walked over and put his arm around him.

“That’s like my son,” Evans said. “I mentor him. Tell him everything I know.”

Cunliffe chirped back.

“We go at it.”

Evans and Cunliffe are two newcomers with the most on their plate entering the 2016-17 season. Evans came with Hurley as a transfer from Buffalo with a MAC conference title and a NCAA Tournament run on his playing resume but likely won’t have the same level of eyeballs fixed on him as Cunliffe, who Rivals had as the 36th-best player in his class.

Cunliffe is by all indications figuring to be a starter from the jump for the Sun Devils, making him just the 11th player to do so at ASU since the turn of the century. Among the others to do it are Ike Diogu, James Harden, Jahii Carson and Cunliffe’s current teammate, Tra Holder.

Where Cunliffe will start remains to be seen. Though listed as a shooting guard, Cunliffe already stands as one of the Sun Devils’ tallest players at 6-foot-6. The Sun Devils will be thin in the frontcourt due to the offseason losses of Willie Atwood, Eric Jacobsen and Savon Goodman, and the remaining depth consists of a still-raw Obinna Oleka, a player in Andre Adams who is coming off his second ACL surgery and freshmen Jethro Tshisumpa and Ramon Vila. Newcomers Vitaliy Shibel and Romello White were expected to be contributors this season but now find themselves unavailable due to knee surgery and an academic redshirt, respectively.

That could lead to Cunliffe playing a stretch forward position, a hybrid that allows him to still take advantage of his outside shooting with several guards on the floor and also take advantage of his quickness with bigger, slower players guarding him on the perimeter.

“All of our guards can shoot,” Cunliffe said. “There is not one guard on our team that can’t shoot, so everyone is capable of putting the ball in the basket from deep. Most guys can get to the rim, so it’s a very versatile backcourt.”

The question is whether or not Cunliffe, who is still figuring things out himself, will be able to keep up defensively.

“I’d have to guard bigger guys, which I’m not used to,” Cunliffe said. “I’m used to point guards and shooting guards, but that’s something that will take over time. I practice that every day, going up against guys like Obi [Oleka].”

If the experiment works, the small-ball Sun Devils can have one of them more excited and dangerous outside-shooting offenses in the Pac-12. Cunliffe is confident, as is evidenced by his goals for this season.

“I want to be Pac-12 Freshman of the Year,” he said. “I think that’s doable. I don’t care what anybody says. I put the time in. I’m always here in the gym, always working on my game even when I’m off the court.”