A lot has changed with Sun Devil basketball in the last nine months, but being unable to handle the Horned Frogs has been one of the few constants. After going down at the death to TCU in the Round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament last season, Arizona State couldn’t get their revenge on Saturday in Fort Worth, as Jamie Dixon’s squad rallied from an early 14-point deficit to win 79-59.
Second-half struggles stab the Sun Devils again
A staple of Bobby Hurley’s teams at ASU has been halftime comebacks, as the Sun Devils, time and again, have erased deficits en route to major wins in the last two seasons. In their last two games, the uno reverse card has been dealt to them. Surrendering a whopping 61-point second half to San Diego cost ASU in its first true road game of the year last week, and their second-half struggles didn’t subside in Fort Worth. Enjoying a hot start out of the gate that propelled the Sun Devils to a 14-point first-half lead, eventually becoming a four-point advantage at the break, the Horned Frogs opened the back 20 on a 22-2 run that would decide the game.
Starting the half with nine unanswered points, TCU scored multiple easy baskets down low against a beaten-up ASU frontcourt. Despite their disadvantage down low, the Sun Devils kept pace with the Horned Frogs, even recapturing the lead seven minutes into the half before everything went south for Bobby Hurley. After Bryant Selebangue converted a layup to put ASU in front 38-37 at the 13:32 mark, Alonzo Gaffney got a bit too excited on the bench. He was issued a technical foul, which happened to be his fifth and disqualifying one. Hurley, incensed by the call, got one for himself right after. While the passion and fire displayed by their head coach could’ve been used as inspiration, ASU instead folded in response. Emmanuel Miller would make three of the four technical free throws to reclaim the lead, and within five minutes of game time, TCU would embark on a 22-2 run, putting them up for good.
The officiating may have been the sparkplug for the Frog’s second-half jump, but the Sun Devils were outplayed in pretty much every possible category. Totaling 53 points in the second half alone, TCU shot 55 percent both from the field and from three in the back 20, mirroring the offensive explosion of San Diego in the second straight poor second-half showing by ASU. In response to the Frogs’ offensive surge, the Sun Devils would offer just 29 points of their own, as TCU turned them away with ease on the scoreboard, at the rim (23-11 rebound margin), and in transition (13-2 fastbreak point margin).
Adam Miller can be the go-to scorer this team needs, but he can’t fix ASU’s inconsistent offense
Following a federal court ruling that placed a legal restraining order on the NCAA’s multi-transfer waiver policies, Adam Miller was granted eligibility for the rest of the season for ASU, and to many, it seemed like he would be the shot in the arm to stabilize what had been an erratic Sun Devil offense through nine games. And while Miller was the brightest spot for ASU in their defeat, even his 20-point outburst couldn’t bail out the Sun Devils offensively.
On a night where ASU converted just 20 field goals and five three-pointers, Miller accounted for five and three of those, respectively. Double-digit scorers Frankie Collins and Jamiya Neal managed just nine points combined out of the backcourt, and aside from Jose Perez’s 11 points, no other Sun Devil reached double figures. Credit is due to TCU’s top-40 defense (KenPom), but ASU putting all its cards on Miller on Saturday didn’t free up the rest of their threats in the way Bobby Hurley desired, essentially leaving the debuting Devil out to dry.
Both Jamiya Neal and Frankie Collins were non-factors when they were needed most
As two of the holdovers from ASU’s devastating defeat to TCU in March, Jamiya Neal and Frankie Collins were surprisingly ineffective in the Sun Devils attempt at vengeance. While both squads are vastly different in their own right, the performances by Collins and Neal on Sunday were mere shells of the 13 points on 50 percent shooting they combined for in the NCAA Tournament game.
In the 2023-2024 version, the backcourt tandem had only nine points together, even with both entering Saturday’s contest averaging double figures through nine games. Neal and Collins combined to shoot just 4-13 from the field, including a 0-4 combined mark from three. While Neal still assumed his usual duties as a three-level defender by grabbing six rebounds and two steals, Collins was silent defensively while giving up six turnovers on the offensive end. It’s an alarming sight to see out of the experienced pair, which had been the engine of this Sun Devil team through its first nine games but ultimately disappeared on a night where ASU saw a 34-point swing in a 20-point loss.
Alonzo Gaffney’s played his worst game of the season
After Shawn Phillips Jr. came down with a foot injury in November that has kept him out of action since Alonzo Gaffney was thrust into the role of ASU’s primary center, and while his scoring numbers will suggest he’s living up to the billing, Gaffney has left plenty to be desired this season. Coming into Saturday, Gaffney had totaled double-digits in the scoring column in each of the last five games, but in ASU’s last two matchups with SMU and San Diego, the 6’9” senior shot under 40 percent. All throughout this campaign, Gaffney has been particularly underwhelming on the glass as well, having just two games of more than five rebounds (max of seven) despite being the team’s starting center in each game since Phillips’s injury.
Gaffney’s defensive struggles were put on display against TCU, even though he only played 18 minutes. Having one of the nation’s longest lineups, Jamie Dixon sent his offense into the paint first because it’s the Frog’s most consistent scoring method, but also to force Alonzo Gaffney into fouling situations and create mismatches in the post. Safe to say, Gaffney took the bait.
Despite his high defensive activity this year, especially on full-court pressures, Gaffney had no answers for the interior game of TCU. In the first half, Gaffney totaled just one foul but had just two rebounds and zero points despite playing for the majority of the period. As the de facto center, both of those numbers are hard to live with, but ASU made it work with the halftime lead. Out of the break, Gaffney went from one foul to five in just over six minutes, one of which he accrued while technically not even being in the game. Losing his defensive discipline and, ultimately, his eligibility in the game opened up TCU’s transition game, as they could get out and run much easier in the second half without a true shot-blocker like Gaffney trailing the play.
Being the tallest player on a team lacking frontcourt depth, Gaffney did absolutely nothing to suggest he can anchor ASU’s frontcourt presence in the absence of Phillips without even mentioning his goose egg in the points column on Saturday. With the return of Phillips still unknown, things could go from bad to worse for Hurley fast if Gaffney doesn’t turn it around defensively.
ASU was thoroughly outplayed in transition
Emulating the strategy that effectively pushed TCU past ASU in March, the Horned Frogs revolved their offense around the fastbreak, attempting to negate their lack of three-point shooting by getting close looks at the rim. Whether it was learning from defeat or his best option, Bobby Hurley had deployed that kind of offense for ASU at the start of the season, as the Sun Devils came out of the gates struggling to make threes. While those numbers have improved, and help has come with Adam Miller, ASU was reminded of the devastating downcourt attack TCU brings on Saturday.
Losing 21-9 in fastbreak points and 26-11 in points off turnovers tell the story in itself, as the aforementioned lack of size in the paint defensively hurt ASU on the glass while also putting them in an uphill battle to contest shots at the rim. The athletic nature of the Frogs, in particular Emmanuel Miller and Micah Peavy, were able to run circles around the Sun Devil’s guard-heavy rotations, as the duo combined for 31 points on the night, with Peavy, a guard by trade, notching a triple-double performance in the victory for TCU. With transition points being ASU’s go-to offensively up until Saturday, the Frogs beat the Devils at their own game by a wide, wide margin.
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