With his towering 6-foot-8 frame, the redshirt freshman has provided a much-needed presence inside, an area ASU struggled in last year. He is the Sun Devils top rebounder, snagging more than 9 boards per game thus far. Offensively, his 15.7 points per game rank third on the team.
Spatially, he has created room in the offensive half court for ASU’s senior trio of guards to exploit while dominating the painted area beneath his own basket defensively.
He’s provided a sizeable boost, literally, to help the program to its best start in 27 years.
“His physical play, his rebounding takes pressure off the guards,” coach Bobby Hurley said of White’s impressive beginning to the season. “Even when our guards get in the paint and miss a layup if his man is contesting that layup, he’s a free guy to get the offensive rebound.”
There has really only been one spot on the floor that has caused White troubles: the free throw line.
After a starting the season making 11 of his first 16 from the line, the Georgia native has fallen into a funk. He has made less than half of his attempted free throws In three of the last four games, including an 8-for-16 showing in Saturday night’s 75-57 win over San Francisco.
As a big man who goes to the charity strike more than 10 times a game, it’s a problem White is working to address.
It’s not stopping him from being lighthearted about it though.
“I don’t know what to do,” White said with a frustrated grin post-game on Saturday, drawing a chuckle out of the crowd of reporters facing him.
Against USF, he took a season-high 16 foul shots. He missed his first 2, then made his next 7, then missed 6 more, before knocking down his last attempt of the night.
White’s reaction to his inconsistent foul shooting: “It messes with my head,” he said, trying to shrug off his struggles during the post-game press conference.
Hurley’s solution: “He’s going to shoot a few more free throws this coming week. I can promise you that.”
How many exactly?
“I got to shoot 500 free throws on Monday,” White said as glanced down at his hands, responsible for so much good basketball yet such unreliable shooting from the line. “It’s gonna help.”
After White struggled at the strike last week against Kansas State, he thought he had the issue figured out.
“I shot good [free throws in high school],” he said in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving Thursday. “Honestly, what I think it is, is that I’m too close to the line with my shoe.”
So he tried moving back a few inches and went 4-for-4 the next night against Xavier. Problem solved.
Until Saturday, when USF’s consistent hacking of White kept him on the line all night, tinkering with his routine with almost every launch of the ball.
“I tried (standing back). Missed the first two. So I was like, ‘Alright let me scoot up,’” he said. “Then coach told me I was too wide, so I put my feet in and made six (it was actually seven). Then missed four.”
The good news for White is that thanks to his physical power around the rim, he will continue to have plenty of chances at the line. To his credit, he’s worried about adding to his team-leading 63 attempted free throws.
“I actually like it because it helps me work on my free throws, which is what I need to work on,” he said.
OTHER NOTES FROM SATURDAY’S GAME
· The Sun Devils passed their first test as a ranked team with their 75-57 win over San Francisco on Saturday. The matchup with the Dons marked the first time ASU played a game while ranked since losing in the 2009 NCAA tournament to Syracuse, James Harden’s last game as a Sun Devil. Though it wasn’t ASU’s prettiest performance of the young campaign, Hurley was happy with his squad’s ability to bounce back after an emotion-draining Thanksgiving weekend tournament title in Las Vegas.
“You are always concerned about this game and I was very concerned about it because of the layoff and also just what we accomplished last weekend and the bounce back effect,” Hurley said after Saturday’s win. “Throughout different times of the year, you are not going to have a chance to give your team a breather. I kind of gave my team a little bit of a breather this week. It was a very emotional weekend for us last weekend and [we] really managed them well.”
· Though the Sun Devils failed to score 90 points on Saturday for the first time this season, they didn’t need to. In a game with an abundance of fouls and an absence of pace, ASU relied on its defense to preserve its perfect record.
“If you are thinking about the right things and winning games, you are going to push through a subpar offensive game and find a way to beat your opponent. I think that’s what we did tonight,” Hurley said.
USF’s 40 3-point attempts didn’t help speed up the game either, forcing the Sun Devils to haul in long rebounds instead of quickly kicking the ball into transition.
“It’s way harder because you really have to push them back further,” White said of the unique rebounding effort. “…I felt like we did pretty good. We just need to get more stops in a row I feel like.”
· Bobby Hurley addressed the issues offensive issues in detail after Saturday’s win though remained confident of his team’s long-term ability to score despite the season-low production against the Dons.
“(San Francisco) coach (Kyle) Smith is a very good coach and he had them well prepared to play us,” Hurley said. “It was probably as good as anyone has guarded our guards this year.”
The Sun Devils also passed the ball less in attack than in recent games, instead of having their guards try to dribble and finish at the rim on a consistent basis.
“They did a decent job of staying home,” Hurley said of USF’s defense. “They walled up at the rim with their bigs so the kick-outs weren’t happening at the level we wanted. We talked about that at halftime. Just thought at times we went early in a possession and just tried to drive it. We’ve just got to move the ball a little better. I’m not concerned about it.”
· After their lone home game of the week, ASU will head back on the road in coming days for a tricky two-game stretch. On Friday, the Sun Devils will head to Staples Center in Los Angeles to face Big East opponent St. John’s.
“Our guards are going to get tested. (St. John’s) has a legitimate backcourt with (Marcus) LoVatt and (Shamorie) Ponds,” Hurley said. “They are an up-and-coming team in the Big East and they’ve played well early in the season.
Two days later, ASU will have a quick turnaround to travel to Lawrence, Kansas to face No. 2 Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse.
“It’s two teams that are striving to be tournament teams,” Hurley said. “We’ll have a good week to prepare and get ready.”
