ASU has consistently failed to put together 40 minutes of quality basketball, and that has hurt them in their last two games. After scoring just 13 points in the second half against Kansas last Wednesday, the Sun Devils looked similar to open last Saturday night's home game against Baylor. After finishing the first half with 20 points, Arizona State erased a 15-point deficit in the second half to force overtime, just to see the Bears take over in the extra five minutes as the Sun Devils lost their second consecutive conference game 72-66.
Now, they face a quick turnaround on Tuesday night, hosting UCF before heading on the road for two games. This time, ASU will look to avoid being in comeback mode or narrowly escaping with a win due to an inconsistent second half.
The Sun Devils are slowly getting their legs back underneath them with freshman guard Joson Sanon returning to play against Baylor on a minute restriction after he missed the previous two games due to an ankle injury. In his absence, head coach Bobby Hurley ran a seven-man rotation and split the two games.
“I just wanted to make sure we didn’t overdo it,” Hurley explained. “In his first game back, I thought he was fine moving, so hopefully we can just keep building on that and go from here to try and get him back to 100%.”
With Sanon perhaps now off a minute restriction against the Knights, ASU will have eight players fully healthy that Hurley trusts and will play with no setbacks. Freshman guard Trevor Best may also start to see some action soon after reclassifying out of high school to a freshman in college this year and joining the team midseason. Although he only had one practice before the Baylor game, Hurley has already contemplated getting the freshman on the court sooner rather than later.
“I thought about putting him in during overtime to try and steal the ball,” Hurley recalled. “By then we had played so many minutes, I was thinking maybe I could have him run around and steal the ball from somebody. He doesn’t know anything yet, so he’s going to sit down with our assistant coaches all week. He could be a guy that could help us; I just don’t know when that is.”
The Knights come into Tempe with an 11-4 record and are 2-2 in conference play. UCF has had its ups and downs all season long. The Knights started the season with a win over No. 13 Texas A&M but were blown out by No. 11 Kansas 48-99 at home. They hold a 2-3 Quad 1 record, with their other victory coming against Texas Tech in their first conference game.
UCF is a middle-of-the-pack team when it comes to offense, ranking seventh in the Big 12 with 78.6 points per game. However, it has the worst defense in the conference, allowing 77.2 points. It is also the worst shooting team in the conference, making 41.6% of its shots and shooting 33% from three. This is where the Sun Devils can really exploit UCF, as ASU shoots 36% from beyond the arc, third in the Big 12.
The Knights struggle down low in the rebounding game, giving up 38 a game. Their saving grace in that category is that the Sun Devils aren’t much better, as West Virginia is the only other team in the conference outside of these two teams that have a negative rebounding margin. This is going to be a key factor of the game for both teams, especially for the Sun Devils after Baylor dominated the glass all game long.
The Knights have two guards, redshirt sophomore Dior Johnson and redshirt freshman Mikey Williams, who many expected to perform at a high level. However, the two haven't had as many opportunities to showcase their talent. Both are averaging three points per game and about eight minutes per game, with senior guard Darius Johnson and graduate guard Jordan Ivy-Curry starting in front of them.
The offense runs through Johnson and his four assists a game, but he also has the ability to score with 14.9 points per game. Curry rounds out the top three scorers, averaging 14.7 points per game, but the main player that ASU will have to focus on is junior forward Keyshawn Hall. He leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 16 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, and Hurley will likely mix and match defenders that guard him over the course of the game, with him standing at 6’ 7.
Down low, the Sun Devils, specifically freshman forward Jayden Quaintance and senior forward Basheer Jihad, gave up a lot of size to Baylor and paid the price for it, allowing 28 points in the paint. Jihad usually takes the task of guarding the tallest player on the court and will likely be matched up with 7’ 2 freshman center Moustapha Thiam. With the Senegalese averaging 2.5 blocks and 1.9 offensive boards a game, Jihad will have his hands full down low on both sides of the ball.
The biggest takeaway from ASU’s last game has to be defensive pressure. In the last few minutes of the second half, the Sun Devils consistently forced turnovers to get themselves back in the game. Even if the pressure doesn’t result in a steal, it can still force a bad shot once the shot clock winds down.
Coming down with rebounds and ending defensive possessions after one shot is another major factor in this game after the Bears grabbed offensive rebounds at will. Thiam will be a hard player to box out with how wide his reach is, and UCF as a whole averages 12.5 offensive boards, with a majority of the players on the floor looking to crash the glass. The Sun Devils can exploit this by getting out on the fastbreak, but that only happens if they come down with the rebound.
This game against UCF is a bit of a buffer game as the Sun Devils will head on the road to play Cincinnati and No. 21 West Virginia before hosting No. 3 Iowa State in two weeks. The Knights certainly provide a challenge, but compared to the rest of the teams on ASU’s schedule, this is a must-win game, similar to the Colorado game a week ago, where ASU came away with an impressive 81-61 victory.
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