Arizona State men’s basketball weekend in Vegas went how a lot of people’s weekend in Vegas goes. It was totally a boom or bust.
In ASU’s 77-49 in game one against BYU, the Sun Devils had their worst performance of the season to date, shooting 33% from the field and 10% from deep on 20 shots. The horrible shooting night even impacted the free throw line as ASU only shot 50% from the charity stripe, hitting just nine of its 18 free throws.
ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said the difference between the two teams has everything to do with their experience.
“They were returning eight players, which is always a plus,” he said. “They had a number of players that were averaging over nine points. I believe it was eight players, which is crazy, and that just means that they are committed to sharing the ball and playing together. They’ve built that unity. We’re still a work in progress in that department. We’re far behind BYU, and that score was an indicator of that.”
The game presented the Sun Devils with a myriad of issues on both the offensive and defensive ends. ASU’s offensive performance was obviously subpar and left Hurley ‘worried’ going forward, but to top it all off, the Sun Devils got dominated on the boards. It was the first game without sophomore center Shawn Phillips, and without the seven-footer down low, the Cougars outrebounded ASU 51-32 and dominated the offensive boards, leaving the game with an 18-8 advantage in offensive rebounds.
Hurley said that after the game, the morale of the team was ‘not good’ and that it was even ‘worse’ the following morning. With the team’s attitude so low, it was even more important that ASU was able to bounce back with a convincing 82-67 win over Vanderbilt, the Sun Devils’ first Power-5 win this season.
After one of the more embarrassing first-half performances against BYU that saw them score just 17 points in the opening 20 minutes, the Sun Devils came out against Vanderbilt with one of their best halves of the year, scoring 44 points and nearly matching their full game total against the Cougars. A lot of that has to do with a 17-point explosion from senior forward Alonzo Gaffney.
Gaffney hit all five of his three-point attempts in the first half after shooting 1-for-19 through the team’s first four games. When Gaffney shoots like that, his six-foot-nine frame makes him one of the most dangerous players on the court.
“I would not allow him to take the threes I allow him to take if I didn’t think that he could make them like that,” Hurley said of Gaffney’s performance. “I’ve seen it enough in practice and in other games, and if you watch his shot, the mechanics of his shot are pretty elite. When he is locked in and he’s shooting the ball like that, when it leaves his hands, I have tremendous confidence that it’s going to go in.”
“I give credit to all my teammates on that one, just finding me in the open spots,” Gaffney said of his performance against Vanderbilt. “I mean, I had like five big threes in the first half, so it was just about getting to the right space and getting open. Guys like Jose (Perez), Frankie Collins, and Kamari (Lands) got me on one of those assists, too. So it is just about my teammates finding me.”
By the end of the game, Gaffney led the team with 19 points, but with Gaffney scoring just two points in the second half, his teammates were the ones who had to pick up the slack. Graduate guard Jose Perez finished second on the team with 15 points and got to the line four separate times, hitting seven of his eight free throws.
Perez has been one of the key pieces in the lineup for Hurley, but his late transfer from West Virginia has thrown a little bit of a wrench in the team’s chemistry. Everyone is still getting used to the New York native’s playstyle after he has only been in Tempe for just over one month.
“There is always role allocation and trying to adjust to a guy that plays a little differently,” Hurley said. “(Perez’s) style of basketball isn’t the same as Frankie and Jamiya, so those guys [are trying to] understand where he can be effective, understanding spacing on the floor when he gets the ball. Moving without the ball when he has it because he is a very good passer if you have an opportunity to basket cut when he has it.”
Now ASU returns home to begin a three-game homestand that begins with the Sam Houston Bearkats on Wednesday. So far this season, the Bearkats have a 4-3 record through seven games, but two of their three losses are close games against Oklahoma State and Ole Miss. They excel at getting to the line, ranking 36th in the country in free throw makes per game with 18.1.
“They’re a feisty team, they’re scrappy, they force over 17 turnovers a game, so they’re gonna challenge us,” Hurley said. “They’re going to get in some passing lanes. They have good athleticism. They average 29 free throws a game, which is a lot, and that’s a sign of just how aggressive they are to attack.
“They’re a team that won a lot of games last year and is used to winning, has that winning culture. They were in a one-possession loss at Ole Miss, so they’re certainly not going to be intimidated by these surroundings.”
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