Before the novel coronavirus canceled the end of the 2020 season and continued ravaging the schedules of college basketball programs across the country, the Pac-12 conference schedule was already progressing toward change. Just a decade ago, some of the top college basketball conferences in the nation played 16 conference opponents per season. With the ever-expanding power conference landscape, most of the top conferences played 18 games against their most familiar opponents.
This season, the Pac-12 is among the latest conferences to adopt a 20-game conference schedule, following the Big Ten and ACC’s model of recent years. Bobby Hurley and his Arizona State program opened last season in China with a non-conference matchup with Colorado, but now begin their 20-game conference slate with an early-December road trip to California.
“It’s different, it’s 2020, but we were moving this way anyway,” Hurley told reporters Wednesday of the conference’s new scheduling plan. “The Pac-12 was, and our coaches were going to play two games in December. That was going to be a part of our plan, anyway.
“Certainly, it’s a change of pace from some of the other non-conference games we’ve played up to this point. But you hope to get off to a great start and that it’s the beginning of the conference schedule and gotta take that with a serious mindset.”
Arizona State opened last season’s Pac-12 schedule with a 75-47 road loss to Arizona, an outcome that Hurley hopes to avoid after challenging early matchups with Rhode Island and Villanova. The only Sun Devil to score in double-figures against the Wildcats in the last Sun Devils conference-opener was Remy Martin, who scored 20 points in a losing effort.
This season, the Sun Devils open Pac-12 play with a trip to Berkeley to take on the California Golden Bears. It’s the first matchup for highly-touted freshman guard Josh Christopher against a program that his older brother, Patrick Christopher starred for nearly a decade ago. The young Sun Devil guard already has three games where he’s scored in double-figures and will head into the opening conference road trip as a major factor in the Sun Devils quest for the program’s first regular-season Pac-12 conference championship.
“I haven’t noticed or sensed guys feeling any pressure,” said Hurley of the Sun Devils, who were picked to finish second in the Pac-12’s preseason media poll. “There is an urgency to win… and we want to win as big as we can this year.”
Different contributors off the bench have stepped up in each Arizona State game thus far, but with the added layer of a conference championship race on the line, the Sun Devil rotation will inevitably shrink.
“I’m just going to see what happens, what unfolds,” Hurley said of shrinking the rotation. In the Sun Devils’ Thanksgiving night showdown with then-No. 3 Villanova, only eight Sun Devils saw the floor. “That’ll determine really how the rotation will sort itself out. It’s our first true road game, and that’ll be a unique thing even though playing Rhode Island in Connecticut kind of felt like a road game to some degree.
“I’m interested to see what that looks like with no fans and the kind of vibe that we get from that game being on the road. I assume that my rotation won’t change a ton based on what we did on Sunday, and then it will get tweaked based on who’s going well and what the terms of the game present.”
Adjusting to an atmosphere without fans in attendance is something the Sun Devils – and every other team in the country – are getting used to. For teams to be successful Hurley said they have to create energy for themselves, something an enthusiastic bench has done well for the Sun Devils. A boisterous Taeshon Cherry received a technical foul during the Sun Devils’ season-opening matchup with Rhode Island when the junior forward yelled toward an uninhabited sideline.
“I think Cherry’s technical in Connecticut most likely if there were crowds, he would not have received a technical because he was not even looking in the direction of the player on Rhode Island,” Hurley explained. With fewer distractions, referees and TV viewers are able to pick up more of the on-court chatter. “I most likely would’ve gotten mine. I was furious with Graham’s fifth foul, and I thought he jumped straight up, so I was most likely going to get it. Certainly, you have to be mindful of that and pay attention for that.
“Sunday, I don’t think I said one thing to the refs,” Hurley said. “They must’ve been in shock when they left.”
Offense has seldom been a worry for Hurley and the Sun Devils, but ASU has shown signs of being elite on the offensive end through three games. ASU, which fell seven spots in the AP poll to 25, ranks seventh in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency metrics. Following Sunday’s 100-77 win over Houston Baptist, Hurley didn’t appear to be thrilled with his team's closing effort but reversed course in hindsight.
“I thought we had some really good moments on Sunday,” said Hurley, whose Sun Devil squad averages 89.3 points per game through the first three games. “What our offense was doing and how easily we were scoring at different stretches; our effort and energy on defense creating some turnovers and overall, after watching the game again, I felt way better than I maybe did initially with my comments immediately following the game.
“I think the bad taste was in my mouth about what I watched the last six or seven minutes of the game, but we were fairly impressive in that game.”
Reflection and re-watching the game cured Hurley of his less-than-thrilled state following the Sun Devils’ first game in Tempe and was the continuation of a trend he’s trying to set. Even with increased attention from the ASU head coach, Hurley already picked up his first technical foul of the season in ASU’s first game of the season.
In a year full of struggles for everyone, Hurley made a note of his attempt to have a calmer presence during games. As he’s done in years’ past, an increased effort is being made to avoid getting hot-headed and create confrontations with officials.
“I don’t know if it’s been the year, and I don’t know if this is me growing as a coach or changing,” said Hurley, who’s in his sixth year as the head coach at Arizona State, and eighth overall. “But I feel a little bit more composed this year. I feel like maybe there are so many things that have gone on this year negatively that you’re just trying to absorb that as best as possible and move on.
“I’m not allowing things that happened to really impact me greatly. I feel like I’m trying to be more positive and not as negative or angry. I feel like there’s been more of a calming presence or that I’ve had that more than I’ve had in any other years.”
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ASU was without senior guard Alonzo Verge for Sunday’s contest against Houston Baptist and will likely be without last year’s Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year for the coming road trip. Jeff Goodman reported that Verge is still out due to contact tracing.
Due to the university's policy on COVID-19 reporting on its students, Hurley couldn't specify the reason for Verge's absence and made this statement on the matter.
“It is completely, 110 percent nothing related to team discipline, violating team rules, or doing anything inappropriate at all,” Hurley commented on Verge’s absence. “And also, he is completely healthy.”
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