Arizona State freshman guard Luguentz Dort sat in front of the media for the first time since the Sun Devils beat Utah State 87-82 to win the MGM Resorts Main Event Championship. He contributed a career-high 33 points in the win, adding to his 23-point average through five games.
But things have changed for Dort since the Devils left for Vegas.
“I knew people would start to recognize me when I first started to get here and now the fact that people have started to recognize me, I’m grateful,” Dort said.
His rise to fame has been no surprise to ASU coach Bobby Hurley, who recruited the freshman guard as a four-star prospect from Ontario.
“As soon as he got here and in our workouts, he got our player’s respect and we knew what we had,” Hurley said. “I mean, I kind of knew before he got here but he kind of validated that real quick.”
Hurley added that Dort has handled the incredible hype and early success like “a guy who’s been in the pros for 10 years.” And at this pace, Dort will likely be in that situation.
In that Utah State game, he dribbled the ball up the court with two and a half minutes left and the Sun Devils only leading by six and just stood at the top of the key. It was his show. On two consecutive possessions, Dort milked the clock before driving hard to the lane and drawing a foul. The Sun Devils quickly led by nine and easily closed out the game.
His lighting-rod intensity and 6-foot-4, 217-pound frame have NBA scouts drooling over the Canadian guard. Heck, Sports Illustrated already has Dort pegged to go at No. 18 to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2019 NBA Draft.
“He’s a play-maker in all kinds of different ways,” Hurley said. “And he’s humble, a great teammate, very coachable. When you have all those things going for you and you have his physical ability, then you can really take that somewhere.”
Following his 17-point performance in ASU’s win over No. 15 Mississippi State and his 33-point burst against Utah State, Dort was named the NCAA Player of the Week and the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, becoming the first ASU freshman to take home the award since James Harden in 2008.
Dort admitted it’s a surreal feeling being put into the same sentence as Harden, someone he’s drawn comparisons to. He started smiling infectiously as he recalled the time the former NBA MVP actually commented “Beast” on one of his pictures on Instagram.
“I did play him this summer,” Dort said of Harden, who often comes back to practice against his alma mater. “It was not easy. It was just a great experience and a lot of learning. He did not travel, he did this little push off. There was some stuff that I took away from his game and I started doing it too.”
Dort has been able to flourish on an Arizona State roster that has been riddled with injuries, especially at the guard position. Remy Martin has been hampered all season with an ankle injury that has slowed down his quickness and burst and Rob Edwards has missed the last four games with a back injury.
Hurley expects both to be back soon, possibly even for the Sun Devils’ game against Nebraska Omaha.
“Remy’s been in and out of practice, we’ve been managing him so we’ll see what he looks like as well as Rob tomorrow but it’s going to go down to the wire,” Hurley said.”
In the second half of its game against Utah State, Arizona State was not only riddled with injury issues but major foul concerns as well. Forwards Romello White and De’Quon Lake had fouled out and three other players were operating with four fouls.
Among those who stepped up was freshman forward Taeshon Cherry, who matched his season total with 15 points. After dealing with an injury in the fall and coming out of the gates cold, Cherry showed he can hit from beyond the arc and get out in transition.
“He’s a freshman but he’s super talented. Very happy he had a breakout game,” Hurley said. “He’s got a great-looking stroke and it looks like it should go in but he’s got a motor, he plays hard, he goes after the ball. He fits into our whole mindset.”
Cherry noted that he “lost his confidence” at the beginning of the season. The former 37th-ranked player in the country couldn’t connect on any 3s or develop a true rhythm at the college level.
Hurley called Cherry up to his office before ASU left for Vegas and said, “I recruited you because I trust you and you have to trust me,” Cherry remembered of the conversation. He went back home and talked to his mom a dad, quickly receiving the advice to play like it’s just a high-school game.
But then Cherry had another tough game against Mississippi State in Las Vegas. Knowing he still needed to find his shot, the freshman hopped in an Uber with a team manager and went back to T-Mobile Arena to go put up some late-night shots.
It worked. Cherry had a career-high 15 points and said his confidence came back.
“In practice, I’m way more confident than I was before,” Cherry said. “I got over it. I think (confidence) just comes with maturity, too, so I was being young-minded.”
He bolsters the down-low depth of a Sun Devil team that has averaged 46.6 rebounds a game and connected on over 45 percent of its shots.
“So far it’s been a huge positive for us just utilizing our ability, our length, our athletic ability, our size at multiple positions,” Hurley said. “The guys have focused on doing it. We have guys that just naturally have a desire to go get the ball on the offensive glass, too.”
