With a frustrating week in the Bahamas wrapped up and the Sun Devils prepared to head home with an 0-3 record, Bobby Hurley was asked about his prevailing takeaway from the Battle 4 Atlantis. The Sun Devil head coach shared that Arizona State (2-5) had multiple issues, but that on a night-to-night basis, he had little guess as to which problems would make themselves apparent.

“If you know what your weakness is, you can try to work on it,” Hurley said following a 77-59 loss to Loyola Chicago. “If there’s so many, then it becomes an issue to try to figure out what we need to address in order to get any better.”

Back from the Bahamas, Hurley met with reporters Tuesday and discussed the array of challenges facing the Sun Devils as they prepare for the beginning of Pac-12 play.

“I think we’re still trying to find an identity,” Hurley said, as a Sun Devil squad off to its worst start in a decade, when ASU opened the 2011-12 season at 3-5. Yet, comparing the resumé of this Arizona State team to that Herb Sendek led group isn’t exactly an apples to oranges. A decade ago, the Sun Devils lost games to Pepperdine, New Mexico, and Fairfield. This year, four of the five losses have come to teams ranked in the top-60 of KenPom. The other, on a three-quarter court heave at the buzzer.

“If you look at our stats, we’re kind of flat with our opponents in just about every category. Last year we were really poor at rebounding and really good in turnover differential. So, we could kind of hang our hat on creating some turnovers and take pressure off our offense in that way.”

Pointing to the closing minutes of first halves, Hurley made note that the Sun Devils need to do a better job of competing into the break. The closing minutes of Arizona State’s games with Baylor and Syracuse saw the Sun Devils lose control and trail by 14 and 18 at the break.

“We have to avoid these areas of the game that are hurting us within each game and lessening our chances of winning,” said Hurley.

Unquestionably, Arizona State’s shot selection needs to improve. While Hurley can look to the traditional stats and see that the Sun Devils failed to do anything incredibly well or incredibly poorly (ASU ranks no higher than 110th and no lower than 276th nationally in any category), that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that could use obvious attending to.

According to shotquality.com’s Rim & 3 Rate – a statistic that measures the percentage of a team’s shots that are either 3-pointers, dunks, or layups – the Sun Devils rank 309th in the country, with 76 percent of its shots coming via that nature. For comparison, Loyola Chicago ranks 11th in the metric, taking 91 percent of its shots in one of those areas.

“The ball needs to go inside more,” admitted Hurley. “We’ve got to get the ball to Jalen Graham some if we can and even Kimani (Lawrence) in the mid-post. And Enoch. Give those guys a chance to get some more high percentage shots in our offense and maybe play a touch more inside out.”

Defense for ASU was also a problem in the Bahamas. Both the Ramblers and Orange shot over 50 percent from the field.

“When you’re playing three straight days, and you’re not winning, it becomes a little bit demoralizing,” said Hurley. “I think that might have been the case late in that third game.”

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In reflecting on the three-game stretch in the Bahamas, Hurley said he was impressed with freshman center Enoch Boakye. The highly touted freshman from Canada has been a bright spot on the offensive glass and is shooting 68.4 percent.

“Enoch, I thought, took a big step. He was probably the biggest positive on our trip to the Bahamas,” Hurley claimed. “Just how he competed at times and rebounded. He appears to be catching up to the speed of the college game and getting his legs under him more after all the time he missed. You can see his role continuing to expand as the season progresses.”

“I’ve just been adjusting and honestly learning how to play at this level,” said Boakye, who’s averaging 4.4 points and 4.0 rebounds in 12.9 minutes per game thus far. “I think that the pace of play and learning to play hard every time I step on the floor is what I’m learning. High school is definitely way different than college.”

Despite multiple chances to play against high-major opponents, Boakye said his welcome to college moment came against UC Riverside.

“I didn’t think I had the greatest experience,” he explained of the buzzer-beating loss. “I missed a dunk there… learning from it and taking that loss and turning it into a lesson (was a positive.).”

Wednesday, the Sun Devils will begin the second season of a 20-game Pac-12 schedule with a home bout against Washington State. The 5-1 Cougars are fresh off a loss to Eastern Washington and have yet to play against another high-major team.

“I just don’t want anyone to get comfortable losing,” expressed Hurley on the importance of morale after a brutal Thanksgiving week experience. “We, I think, did a wonderful job of that following the game on Friday and Saturday. I thought the spirit was good the last two days, and I think guys are excited to play at home.”

Sophomore forward Marcus Bagley has missed the last four games with a knee injury. Hurley said Tuesday that Bagley was still being evaluated but would not play against Washington State. After the game with the Cougars, the Sun Devils will travel to Eugene to take on Oregon Sunday.

“We’re used to playing good teams, and we’ll see another one tomorrow night,” Hurley said.