After a difficult season on and off the court last year for ASU women’s basketball, the Sun Devils have retooled and have goals to return to their winning ways in 2021-22.
ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne, senior guard Taya Hanson, and sophomore guard Jaddan Simmons were the Sun Devils representatives at Pac-12 media day on Tuesday, and they made it clear what they are trying to accomplish this season.
“We’re trying to win a championship,” said ASU senior guard Taya Hanson. “And that’s the type of locker room we want to have.”
Last year, the Sun Devils went just 12-12, failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in a year it was held since 2013, and had a handful of games canceled due to COVID-19 protocols. The team averaged just 54 points per game, shot a measly 33 percent from the field and an abysmal 26.4 percent from 3-point range.
On Tuesday, Turner Thorne announced a change to the offense and discussed four transfers ASU will feature this year who she hopes will help with scoring.
“A friend of mine connected me with Elon Musk,” Turner Thorne joked. “And I took a trip on SpaceX, and I came back with … a new offense.”
The four transfers Turner Thorne talked about are all players who had offensive success at their previous schools.
Senior guard Ayzhiana Basallo, who has two years of eligibility remaining, averaged 18.5 PPG in 2018-19 at San Jose State. Senior guard/forward Jade Lovile, who also has two years of eligibility remaining, led Boise State with 17.1 PPG a season ago. Junior College transfer Isadora Sousa had double figures in 19 of her 25 games last season at Chipola College in Marianna, Fla. Graduate transfer Mael Gilles is taking advantage of the NCAA eligibility freeze to play a year at ASU. She averaged just 7.8 PPG last season at Rutgers but had six games of at least 12 points in 2020-21.
“Mael Gilles is a fifth-year grad transfer,” Turner Thorne stated. “Started at Rutgers for the last two years. Very versatile player, very athletic, can score in multiple ways, going to be a long, athletic defender, and just she’s 24-years-old. That’s some experience right there. And then Jade Lovelle … she’s just a strong, versatile scoring guard. … Ayzhinana Basallo, our little point guard, played at San Jose State, averaged 19 points a game. She is coming back from a knee injury, but she’s doing really well.”
As for returning to a more normal offseason, Hanson said it helped the team work on what they needed to improve on better than last offseason.
“This summer, we had the opportunity to finally train together as a team, whereas last year, we couldn’t be within six feet of each other,” Hanson explained. “We couldn’t hug each other, high five; you had to wear a mask, like all those things made last year very difficult. And we’re just wanting to hit the reset button and say, we’re going to be tough, and we’re going to love each other and play as one heartbeat. That’s what we’ve been doing so far this training season, and we can’t wait to bring that into the games.”
One of the ways the Sun Devils worked to improve this offseason was through rigorous military training, something Simmons discussed.
“We have this guy Dan,” Simmons said. “He comes, and he just pushes us to a point where we have to get outside our comfort zone. We just do activities where like yesterday, we did push-ups, we did planks, we did 8-count bodybuilders, and while this was all happening, someone has to be in the middle and fight them and distract them. So you’re moving, and if he sees someone mess up or doing something - every little thing he called us out, and we have to run.”
On a negative note, Turner Thorne announced that 2020 signee Jade Melbourne decided to play professionally instead of joining the team, and top-40 recruit Meg Newman has a knee injury, and her status for this season is up in the air.
