Arizona State has just two regular-season games left before the Big 12 tournament begins, and both games are against ranked teams. ASU’s final road game is in Tucson against No. 24 Arizona, a chance for head coach Bobby Hurley and his team to salvage what’s left of the 2024-2025 season.
ASU’s inaugural year in the Big 12 has been forgettable, going 4-14 in conference play so far, sitting in 15th place only above Colorado. Injuries have plagued the Sun Devils this year with freshman forward Jayden Quaintance and redshirt senior guard Adam Miller both missing time recently with injuries. Quaintance will miss this contest due to a knee injury and Miller (hip) is questionable.
With the departure of leading scorer senior guard BJ Freeman, multiple players have stepped up in the scoring department to keep the team competitive throughout games, even though they’re 1-2 in three games without Freeman.
Freshman guard Joson Sanon was able to finally break out against Utah with a 28-point outing, the second-most points on the road by a freshman in program history and the most by a Sun Devil since 2021. Sanon originally committed to Arizona before flipping to ASU at the last minute and will look to put on a better show than last time out against the Wildcats.
On February 1st, the Sun Devils hosted Arizona and only trailed 35-34 at halftime, but they were outscored by eight points in the second as the Wildcats pulled away for an 81-72 victory. Hurley has struggled in Wildcat territory with a 2-8 record against Arizona in Tucson, one of the wins coming in 2022 on a desperation heave from Desmond Cambridge from 60 feet, stunning then-No. 7 Arizona 89-88.
The last time these two teams met in Tempe, the game ended with some fireworks. Freeman head-butted senior guard Caleb Love after the two got into it with a minute left in the game, and the Sun Devils refused to shake hands with the Wildcats and head coach Tommy Lloyd, instead walking to the tunnel before the final buzzer even sounded.
“I had to make a tough decision,” Hurley said after the game. “I thought it was in the best interest of our team to get them into the locker room so there would be no further incidents the rest of the game. I felt it was very heated, and there were possibilities that if we had a handshake line, something else could have happened.”
Love finished the game with 27 points after hitting five threes and leads the team with 16 points per game. His style of play is very reliant on his ability to hit shots from deep, as he scored just 10 points in Arizona’s recent 67-84 loss to No. 10 Iowa State, where he went 2-10 from three.
Outside of Love, the scoring load differs depending on the game. Junior guard Jaden Bradley is second on the team with 11.6 points per game, but the Wildcats have a handful of players that can catch fire at any time.
Junior guard Anthony Dell’Orso, freshman forward Carter Bryant, and redshirt sophomore Henri Veesaar all shot 33% or better from the three, with Dell’Orso leading the trio at 40.5%. After scoring 11 points against ASU, Veesaar has become a reliable scorer for the Wildcats, scoring in double figures in seven of his last nine games.
While Veesaar stands at a towering 7’ 0, he only averages 4.9 rebounds per game. Junior forward Tobe Awaka leads the lead with 7.9 boards, and more than half of them come on the offensive glass.
Whether it’s Quaintance or senior forward Basheer Jihad on him, they will need to box him out every single time down the court to ensure Arizona doesn’t get 18 offensive rebounds again like they did in Tempe.
For a majority of the time, the offense runs through Love. Either Miller or senior guard Alston Mason will likely defend him for most of the game, and they’ll be running through a plethora of screens for the entirety of the time Love is on the court. That’s how he’s able to attempt over eight threes a game, and they spark a lot of runs as opposing teams watch deficits grow to double digits in mere minutes.
The biggest key to the Sun Devils' win is crowd control. The McKale Memorial Center in Tucson is notoriously one of the hardest crowds to play in front of on the road, and they can use any momentum and turn it into a deafening sea of shouts. ASU will need to keep the game close and not allow the Wildcats to go on any type of run, as they feed off the energy their crowd gives them.
Freeman was the only Sun Devil ejected from the game last time around, but Miller has seen his fair share of ejections and suspensions. ASU needs to keep its composure if it wants to win this game.
The odds are already far into Arizona’s corner, and the Sun Devils cannot afford any mental lapses. It’s easy for rivalry games to get out of hand in a heartbeat, and Hurley will need to do his absolute best to keep his players focused on the main goal: an upset win in Tucson.
The game tips off Tuesday at 9 pm and will air on ESPN.
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