Utah Preview
Following Thursday’s seven-point loss to No. 20 Colorado, Arizona State’s players, and coaches seemed to be short on answers, at a loss for a diagnosis of their struggles. It’s not like that at practice, they argued.
To the Sun Devil personnel who routinely plays in and observes their practices, it’s a free-flowing offense that hits shots, moves the ball around the arc and funnels the ball down low to forward Romello White. For whatever reason, it hasn’t translated to games.
“I was missing shots, turning the ball over and that was a good opportunity for us to get back up and I didn’t do that for my guys tonight,” guard Remy Martin said after ASU’s loss to Colorado. “I don’t feel the greatest right now so we’ve got to focus on Saturday’s game.”
For the past two seasons, ASU had seemingly earned an NCAA Tournament ticket based upon its non-conference prowess. During Pac-12 play, all it just needed to hang on, to not go completely down the gutter.
This season, however, there’s no Kansas or Xavier victory to propel the Sun Devils. They needed to be nearly flawless in conference play and, four games in, have been anything but. If they’re going to right the ship, Saturday is their best bet.
Utah is 10-6 overall and 1-3 in Pac-12 play. In its last two games against Colorado and Arizona, the Utes have been beaten by 39 and 16 points, respectively. They’re not exactly a resume-builder. And right now, neither is ASU -- the Devils are at the bottom of the conference with a 1-3 record (10-7 overall).
The two programs, in terms of KenPom’s efficiency rankings, are almost polar opposites. Utah is in the 50s in offensive efficiency and deep in the 100s on defense. Flip those numbers for the Sun Devils.
“We can’t put too much stock into this and over-dwell on it,” ASU coach Bobby Hurley said of his team’s offensive struggles Thursday night. “We have another game on Saturday. We got to rally the troops and get ready for that. It’s been a tough stretch, we’ve had three of our last four against ranked opponents.
“We’d like to have another win or two, certainly, but got to get ready to play on Saturday now.”
So what can both teams do on Saturday to come away with a win? Let’s take a look.
Why Utah Can Win: For starters, the Utes have the Pac-12’s leading scorer. Sophomore forward Timmy Allen -- a Valley product out of Mesa’s Red Mountain HS -- is averaging 19.9 points a game, just above OSU’s Tres Tinkle, Martin and Oregon’s Payton Pritchard. Although the Devils have been hurt more by guards this season, having a guy like Allen down low is only going to open up things for Utah’s shooters, which knock down 35 percent of their attempts from deep. The Utes will surely have problems with ASU defensively but, as other teams have shown, that can be easily alleviated if shots are falling against the Sun Devils. Look for Utah’s freshman guard Rylan Jones to be big on Saturday -- he knocks down almost 46 percent of his 3-pointers, which could be vital is ASU double-teams Allen.
Why ASU Can Win: Up and down the board the Sun Devils have more talent than Utah -- it just hasn’t collectively come together yet. On Thursday, the ball movement halted, shots were chucked up early in the shot clock. It was ugly. ASU will now have film on that, on all the things they did wrong and correct it. In other words, expect the ball to be flowing. The other thing is the Sun Devils have the perfect player to match up against Allen. White was stellar again against Colorado (19 pts, 10 reb), and is nearly averaging a double-double on the season. He’ll be able to handle things down low. As for the backcourt, Martin, Rob Edwards and Alonzo Verge have yet to click, to all have good games on the same night. Part of that is the defenses they’re playing are really good -- take Arizona, Oregon, and Colorado as prime examples. Utah is not that. If there’s a night to find your groove, it’s against Utah.
Key Figure: 323. That’s how many fouls the Sun Devils have committed this season, good for 247th in the country. ASU doesn’t have leeway to start handing teams free points, yet it always seems to be the difference. On Thursday, Colorado shot 15 more free throws than the Devils.
X-Factor: Remy Martin. The junior point guard put much of the blame for Thursday’s loss on his shoulders. Though he finished with 25 points, he missed a dozen shots and offered up a handful of turnovers. He knows he needs to be better, especially as a facilitator.
“It is disappointing being after a loss,” he said Thursday. “I just feel like I could have done more. I could have got the team to a better start in the second half. I feel like I let the team down and that just doesn’t sit right with me.”
Final Score Prediction: Utah 58, ASU 67
Game Info:
When: 7:00 P.M. MST
Where: Desert Financial Arena
TV/Radio: Pac-12 Network (Roxy Bernstein/Bill Walton) / KMVP 98.7 (Tim Healey/Kyle Dodd)
