For the first 20 minutes of Thursday night’s contest, Bobby Hurley’s Arizona State Sun Devils (10-12, 7-9 Pac-12) were clicking. Fresh lineups challenged No. 23 Colorado (20-7, 14-6 Pac-12) up and down the court as the Sun Devils hit their shots and battled with one of the best teams in the conference. Ebbing and flowing, ASU made marks both from close-up and range while grabbing rebounds and creating chances through the chaotic transition ball that’s been so vital to the team’s success across the past several months.
Coming out of the halftime break trailing by one point, the offensive flow came to a screeching halt. Colorado senior guard McKinley Wright, one of the best guards in the history of the Pac-12, who was stymied in the first half picked up the pieces, and the Buffaloes never looked back – snatching Sparky’s pitchfork away from Arizona State as the Sun Devils fell 75-61 in Boulder.
“(Colorado) came out to start the second half and really turned it up a notch defensively,” Hurley said afterwards. “You can look at the game and say we were close and down one at the half, but I thought there were more opportunities to get ahead a little more, and we just didn’t take advantage of that.”
In what was expected to be another installment of the battle for supremacy amongst the best guards in the conference, turned out to be a one-horse race, as the Sun Devil show out and senior guard Remy Martin found himself in early foul trouble, accumulating a pair of missteps in the initial minutes of the contest. Martin, on the brink of his ninth straight game with 20-plus points was completely locked up by the superior defense of the Colorado backcourt, holding ASU’s star scorer to six points on a rough 1-9 shooting mark from the field.
However, it wasn’t just Martin who struggled. His senior backcourt mate, Alonzo Verge Jr., scored just eight points on a 3-12 shooting clip.
“I think the thing with Colorado is that they’re very well coached, they have great experience, they’re very good on defense, and when it’s time to decide the game, they got stops, they relied on their defense,” Hurley said. “Our guards couldn’t effectively get by their guards. McKinley Wright and (Eli) Parquet did a nice job, Parquet especially with Remy limiting his touches. Their defense impacted the offensive floor for us, and they ran a good offense, they got good shots, and they scored the basketball.”
“I thought (Remy) never got into a good rhythm, and he didn’t really look like himself, a
guy who’s scored eight straight 20+ games. You attribute that definitely to Colorado and that
they had a lot to do with it.”
With the usual scoring suspects of Martin and Verge virtually locked away, opportunities opened up for the other guards in maroon and gold to strut their stuff. Sophomore guard Jaelen House was 5-7 and hit a trio of three-pointers on five attempts. Senior Holland Woods also rose to the occasion, striping balls from deep and driving to the lane for contested shots at the cup.
“Those two guys really did some things offensively (for ASU),” Hurley stressed of House and Woods. “They were a combined seven for eight from the field in the first half… if it wasn’t for those two, we would’ve been in a really bad spot, but it’s good to see Holland playing that way and House will provide a spark.”
House, despite being ASU’s most efficient three-point shooter is not known for his ability to strike from the field; rather, he’s more notable for his role as the “Energizer Bunny” of sorts for ASU. Nevertheless, as House was matched up on Wright for the lion share of his minutes, the sophomore spark plug never backed down from the challenge.
“McKinley Wright is a veteran guard, and he made some shots on (House), but he was really competitive, so I liked how he just kept battling against that guy,” Hurley said of House. “He didn’t put his head down in that game; he just kept competing.”
Wright trounced the Sun Devils in the second half, scoring 17 in the second half alone as the Buffaloes’ superstar heated up. He finished with 24 points while grabbing four of 44 Buffs’ rebounds and a third of CU’s 12 assists on the night.
Shooting just 34 percent from the field and with Martin, Verge and the entire frontcourt struggling to score a bucket, Wright’s facilitation was enough to make the difference. Thursday night’s 61 points for ASU was a season-low, and the squad tied a season-low of 20 field goal makes. Albeit facing a formidable defense, the Sun Devils looked impatient on offense, taking shots without passing the ball while racking up offensive fouls left and right.
“It was just poor judgment on a couple of those drives,” Hurley described. “Some positive things happened when we were patient, and when we went too soon and left our feet against a good defensive team like Colorado, they’re going to make you pay, and they did.”
One bright spot for Hurley’s Thursday was the return of freshman five-star forward Marcus Bagley, who’s been recovering from injury since late January. The Phoenix native didn’t record any makes from the field or slot any points on the scoresheet in his limited time on the floor, but his impact on the boards and the depth unlocked by his availability enabled some promise for ASU.
“It was more of an eye test with Marcus, getting him coming off the bench tonight was a way to
limit his minutes some because I did not get a scenario where he’s getting 25 – 30 minutes, I was hoping to get him around 18-20,” Hurley explained. “We have to get his conditioning right, get him his game reps and those no replacing that. I’m sure he’ll get a lot out of this game, and I think the goal is to get him as good as we can get him next week when the season is on the line.”
With Bagley on the floor, lineups, and substations that Hurley hasn’t seen in over a month become a possibility. Senior forward Kimani Lawrence and sophomore big Jalen Graham get breaks on the bench. Junior Chris Osten gets to focus on short, explosive stints on the floor. Hurley gets to play with both two-guard and three-guard sets for what seems like the first time in forever.
However, while unlocked depth certainly helps, it does not mean that ASU out of the woods and onwards to victory. The Sun Devils must scrap their way through a Saturday matchup with the Utah Utes before refining any final touches ahead of a trip to Las Vegas and a potential first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament.
After all, it’s no longer February; it’s March.
“This game was probably the most depth we’ve had in a long time, so it’s hard to really blame any of the foul issues on the outcome of the game,” Hurley rationalized. “We are getting healthier, getting bigger, and getting Marcus back is going to be a plus.”
