ASU Basketball: What did Bobby Hurley learn in Year 3?

From being ranked No. 3 in the country to finishing tied for 8th place in the Pac-12, there were a lot of lessons for ASU basketball head coach Bobby Hurley to learn from.

As peculiar as the 2018 season was for the ASU men’s basketball team, no one had a more difficult time than Bobby Hurley.

Before the season began, he was already down one of his best assets. Freshman forward Kimani Lawrence suffered a stress fracture in his left foot prior to the team’s opener against Idaho State, removing the fourth-best recruit in program history from Hurley’s rotation.

Lawrence’s injury only added insult to what was already a depleted frontcourt. Fellow redshirt freshman forward Romello White had only played in one of the Sun Devils’ three preseason games due to an academic violation from a year before, and his impending return was uncertain.

Thus, the former two-time national champion from Duke had a question to face: how was his team going to compete in a loaded non-conference schedule with a six-man rotation?

For a while, he had the answer. Hurley’s starting five was led by seniors Tra Holder, Shannon Evans and Kodi Justice, three guards that could play up-tempo for 30 minutes and above. With freshman speedster Remy Martin coming off the bench and 6-foot-10 inch De’Quon Lake controlling the paint, the Sun Devils found a system that exercised proficient shooting and efficiency in the low post.

The chemistry grew at a quick pace. By the time the Sun Devils were set to travel to Las Vegas for the Continental Tire Invitational, the team had already poured in four consecutive outings of 90 points or more, a feat that hadn’t been accomplished within the program since 1975.

With White now back in the rotation, Hurley was able to take a breath before their Thanksgiving tournament. ASU was set to face Kansas State and Xavier, two elite defensive teams both primed to compete in the NCAA Tournament. He needed all the frontcourt help he could get.

Now having a seven-man rotation, Hurley’s system kept working. After falling behind by 15 points in the first half of the championship game against Xavier, the Sun Devils used a 58-point second half and a 40-point outing from Holder to throttle the Musketeers with an outside shooting explosion.

The victory brought ASU to the national spotlight, which included the program’s first AP Top 25 ranking since 2009. Things again grew easier for Hurley, as his team received another asset with the eligibility of sophomore transfer Mickey Mitchell being granted in the team’s anticipated matchup against Kansas.

It was then that Hurley’s system had hit its peak. The Devils accomplished the impossible with a 10-point win at Allen Fieldhouse over the second-ranked Jayhawks, something that rarely had been done in the Bill Self-era.

It also catapulted Hurley to the forefront of national conversation. With his team rising to a top-five ranking with talks of being a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, he became the frontrunner for national coach of the year honors, and scarily enough, a rumored candidate to replace Mike Krzyzewski when his time expired at Duke.

For the first time in his Sun Devil coaching career, Hurley had been on top of the mountain. It lasted briefly in comparison to the eventual descent.

Going into Pac-12 play, ASU was arguably the favorite to win the conference. With Deandre Ayton‘s Arizona Wildcats stumbling to three consecutive losses and USC falling in four non-conference games, it appeared that the Sun Devils would have their way, with a deeper rotation, in a down year for the conference.

Instead, their Pac-12 record was more indicative of Hurley’s previous two seasons. ASU improbably stumbled to finishing in a tie for 8th place in the conference with an 8-10 record, barely`holding on to the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014.

How the Sun Devils fell off at the end of the season may be one of the most improbable stories in the history of sports. A team that had once scorched their opponents with an endless serving of 3-pointers and a long jumpshots turned into a squad that couldn’t buy a basket for consecutive minutes or dictate the tempo of the game.

Why ASU fell off was a much more predictable tale.

Even when the Sun Devils were rolling, there were spots of concern. The team gave up double-digit offensive rebounding numbers in nine of their 12 non-conference victories, a statistic that was easily overshadowed by their red-hot offense.

Then there were the defensive concerns. ASU’s speed and quickness did allow them to intercept passing lanes and run in transition, but there were times when their shorter lineup would struggle to contain bigger matchups.

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In Pac-12 play, these deficiencies were exposed. The Sun Devils finished 11th in the conference with a -3.6 rebounding margin and 11th in scoring defense by allowing 76.6 points per game.

With the team’s scoring offense falling to 78 points per game, their field goal percentage at 43.5 percent and their 3-point percentage at 33.7 percent, they could no longer find a mask to hide their weaknesses.

The crazy thing is that the record could’ve easily been different. Eight of the team’s Pac-12 losses were by a margin of seven points or fewer, with errors in execution often being the deciding factor.

Some plays that come to mind include Evans’ missed dunk against Arizona on Feb. 15, Holder’s scoreless outing against Oregon on the road and Justice’s missed free throw against Stanford on Senior Day. But even with all of the personnel errors, there were some things that Hurley, who was on top of the world a few months prior, needed to be held responsible for.

At the end of non-conference play, Hurley elected to replace Vitaliy Shibel with Mitchell in the starting lineup. The change appeared legitimized by Mitchell’s strong start to the season and Shibel’s shooting woes, but there should have been a lot more to it than that.

The result of the change was players being out of place within the once-lethal rotation. Yes, Mitchell had the ability to play stingy defense and run with the guards in transition, but starting him at the four alongside White gave other teams a matchup advantage on defense.

With several of ASU’s conference opponents resorting to a 2-3 zone, Mitchell was often forced to play in the short corner below the top two guards. As a player that shot only 35 percent beyond the arc on less than one attempt per game, he wasn’t the ideal shooter to bust the zone.

Mitchell’s size also became a concern on the defensive end. A 6-foot-7 inch player at the power forward position would normally be considered about two to three inches short, and that fact was affirmed on the defensive glass. Players like Ayton and MiKyle McIntosh thrived when facing Mitchell in a shorter lineup, posting a combined 20 rebounds in their four games against ASU.

Another area of concern was the handling of White. When he became eligible in the beginning of the season, he was a double-double machine, finishing with averages of 14.9 points and 8.6 rebounds per game in conference play.

In the Pac-12 season, however, White’s play took a dip. His averages fell to just 8.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, essentially becoming a non-factor.

It’s a point Hurley addressed when he met the media during his summer basketball camp in June.

“I don’t want to make excuses but he fought through some stuff,” Hurley said. “He had a toe [injury] that we were managing, different things that you have going on during the course of the year. For younger players, you may not be at the level you were at during other times. The length of the season gets you and the level of competition certainly has something to do with it.”

It’s undeniable that White can grow in some areas, but some of his struggles appeared to come from within the system. Like Mitchell, White would be an undersized five in some of the team’s lineups and would have to deal with talented big men inside the paint.

As a result, White tallied three or more personal fouls in 15 of ASU’s Pac-12 games, fouling out in five of them. Playing out of position also explains White’s statistical dive, as he wouldn’t be able to get the same looks over centers as opposed to playing power forward.

Going into next season, it’ll be on Hurley to find ways his team can mesh without playing outside their comfort zone. Last year’s close losses often came down to opportunities ASU could’ve converted on, and weirdly enough, it’s almost as if a deeper rotation hurt the team.

This year will give him a better opportunity to place his players at more natural positions. The additions of Zylan Cheatham, Taeshon Cherry, Uros Plavsic and the returns of White, Lake, Lawrence and Shibel will give Hurley length and height last year’s team didn’t have.

“The way our roster is constructed and built this year, we’re going to be bigger, even at the guard positions,” Hurley said. “Luguentz Dort is 6-4, 215. Rob Edwards is 6-4, 200. Those are big guards and then we have real good size at the wing positions with Mickey Mitchell, Kimani Lawrence, Zylan Cheatham has been outstanding in the offseason.”

Hurley continued. “We’re just going to have more options, more depth in the front court. I don’t have one, set way that I force my players to play. It’s determined by your roster and what that looks, the make-up and how everyone mixes and then we’ll come up with the best way that we need to play this season.”

This year’s roster is undoubtedly the most talented that Hurley has had in his ASU tenure. On paper, the issues on the defensive glass should be resolved with the added height.

The challenge for Hurley, which he learned last season, is that player chemistry is huge. Placing individual players together might look promising, but if those athletes can’t play together or if they’re outmatched on the other end, it’s going to be costly down the stretch.

At the same time, he’s learned that his team had to get bigger. That’s why he went to go get Plavsic in recruiting, and that’s why he’s building this year’s team more like a “Forward U” than a “Guard U.”

Next. ASU Basketball: “Guard U” signings are the first mark of Bobby Hurley’s ASU legacy. dark

With this new style of roster in place, it’s not out of this realm to think that the Sun Devils can make a surprise run in the NCAA Tournament and finish with a higher win total than last season. The question is: will Hurley learn from his mistakes and build the talent the correct way?

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