Following a run to the NCAA Tournament last season, Arizona State’s slate was wiped clean for 2023 from a roster standpoint. Even without several key players from that campaign, though, the Sun Devils were able to right a wrong from that successful run on Sunday. With the aid of 21 points from Frankie Collins and a double-double from Jamiya Neal, ASU turned what was a 30-point loss on the road into an 11-point victory at home, as they took care of San Francisco for their fifth win of the season.

Against a sound San Francisco scoring attack, the Sun Devils countered the Dons offense with their defense from the tip. Stringing together stops in bunches throughout much of the game, ASU’s ball-stopping momentum set them up for scores in transition early and often, which allowed them to jump out to a double-digit lead within minutes and never look back.

“Really solid performance,” head coach Bobby Hurley said postgame. “I felt the first half was really good defense, good activity. We knew they were a precision offensive team. If you give them clean looks from three, they can burn you. I liked our approach to defense. The quality of how we played offense, some of it was generated by our defense, getting into the open court, and making plays. Good overall performance.”

In a game that didn’t produce many Sportscenter moments, Hurley relied on the defensive intensity that’s put out successful Sun Devil teams in recent years, and it provided the necessary results on Sunday. Having entered the afternoon shooting a respectable 35 percent from three, the Dons hit just five of their 30 attempts against ASU. Having to turn to inside scoring, even while missing Shawn Phillips due to injury and Alonzo Gaffney and Bryant Selebangue middling in foul trouble, ASU overcame its lack of size against USF with its guards, figuratively and literally, rising to the occasion.

Frankie Collins and Jamiya Neal stand 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-6, respectively, certainly not the statures you’d expect out of two players who would combine for 19 total rebounds, nearly half of the 40 the team would rip down as a whole. With its frontcourt depth gutted, Collins and Neal were vital on the defensive glass while not losing any of their offensive outputs either, as the duo led the team with 21 points from Collins and another 15 from Neal. The pair’s ability to pick up the load on defense wasn’t unexpected for Hurley, who saw the potential they had considering their athleticism.

“When your frontcourt is going through an injury crisis, which we are, it’s very difficult,” Hurley noted. “We have key players out. Those guys (Collins and Neal) did a good job of getting in there and getting rebounds. Big for us. When you have those types of injury issues, it’s not easy to navigate through. When I went to Vegas for media day, I talked about those two being great rebounding guards, Frankie and Jamiya. It was good to see them showing that, and we obviously do need that.”

Having stood as the lone ranger in the paint this afternoon, Bryant Selebangue was more relieved than anyone to have those reinforcements on the glass.

“This is a team that rebounds,” Selebangue emphasized. “They’re dialing in on me, trying to box me out as a scout. Jamiya grabbed 11 boards, and Frankie got 8, it shows they’re fighting with me to get boards.”

The 40-37 advantage for ASU on rebounds doesn’t suggest dominance, but it’s what the Sun Devils did cleaning up those misses that made the difference. Having stagnated offensively throughout a healthy portion of their first six games, Hurley resorted to up-tempo, fastbreak offense in an attempt to get easy baskets with speed and efficiency. ASU followed this formula to a T in their 12-1 run that opened the game, as well as their 22-7 edge on fastbreak scoring, which was ultimately the difference in the game. Collins’s ability to push the pace as the lead ball-handler was specifically key, which he believes he’s been much more effective at this season than last due in part to his activity levels on defense.

“I think I played pretty good defense last season,” Collins pointed out. “I’m just in a lot better shape this season. It’s easier for me to keep my man in front. If we continue to play defense, get easy layups, and see the ball go in, I think that’ll open up for our outside perimeter shooting.”

“He’s a guy that checks most of the boxes when he’s out there,” Hurley added about Collins. “It’s across the board with what he brings to the table.”

Going 5-15 from three-point land on Sunday, ASU’s reduced reliance on the deep ball helped open up opportunities both on the fastbreak and also inside. As the San Francisco offense began to wake up in the middle 20 of the game, Arizona State matched them at every turn, with all five starters totaling double-digits to answer the 23-point outburst from USF forward Jonathan Mogbo.

“We had different dimensions to our offense,” Hurley said. “If you take Mogbo out of the equation, I think we did a good job guarding the line. He’s a handful. He doesn’t take a shot that he can’t make. He was very impressive on film in the games that I watched. He was a tough guard for us.”

“He was good,” Selebangue added. “Very active, very physical, he got it going. He’s a beast.”

While Mogbo poured in points, nobody else in the green and gold gave ASU severe problems, thanks in part to that trademark defensive identity preached by Hurley that’s been embraced by his players, even though it didn’t come immediately among ten newcomers.

“Identity is just to be dawgs and get stops all the time,” Collins emphasized. “Defense gotta be our go-to. We’re learning to play together really well. First, it was a little shaky, messing up in our sets, kinda just all over the place. We got a better understanding after getting a couple of games under our belt.”

Even with its multitude of newcomers, the message of the importance of a win against San Francisco, who bludgeoned ASU last season, certainly stuck with the players, even though Hurley didn’t see that game as a motivator for this one.

“I didn’t talk much about it all,” Hurley said. “Just trying to keep them in the present. They’re a good team. The film says it. I saw a lot of BYU in watching them.”

Cracks in the armor aren’t uncommon for a team with so much turnover, and they certainly showed in ASU’s two losses to Power-six opponents. Regardless, the Sun Devils played as cohesively as they have this season on Sunday, a very welcome sight for a team that’s needed to find its connections, considering the availability of starting center Shawn Phillips and scoring sparkplug Adam Miller.

“We’re not fighting each other as much,” Hurley said. “We were sharing it well, making the extra pass, making the right play for the most part.”

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