ASU Basketball: How will the Devils fare in non-conference play?

ASU basketball assembled another gauntlet of a non-conference schedule for the 2018-19 season, including matchups against four conference champions, two potential top-10 opponents and three true road games.

If the NCAA Tournament selection committee taught us anything last season, it’s that who you play in the non-conference season matters.

That’s why Arizona State squeezed their name into the First Four of last year’s tournament, and that’s why Bobby Hurley has continued to schedule the best games possible for his basketball team.

The Sun Devils have announced their non-conference schedule for the 2018-19 season, and like his previous three seasons in Tempe, Hurley isn’t shying away from any of the big time matchups.

ASU opens the season against defending Big West Tournament champion Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 6, who upset UC Davis and UC Irvine to clinch the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament in 2018.

The Titans graduated only one player from last year’s roster and return their three top scorers in Kyle Allman, Khalil Ahmad and Jackson Rowe.

Following two more games at home, the Devils will then hit the road to take on a pesky San Francisco squad on Nov. 16. ASU defeated the Dons, 75-57, in Tempe last season, but USF was the first team to hold the Devils to under 90 points on the year.

ASU will then travel to Las Vegas to play Mississippi State on Nov. 19, the first of three meetings against SEC opponents in non-conference play. The Bulldogs are trending up after the hiring of Ben Howland, who will add a five-star recruit in Reggie Perry to a roster that won 25 games and advanced to the NIT semifinals last season.

After another neutral site matchup against Saint Mary’s or Utah State, the Sun Devils return home to take on a fellow First Four team in Texas Southern on Dec. 1. The Tigers are led by a talented albeit emotional point guard in Demontrae Jefferson, who came back from an early-season suspension to help lead his team to a NCAA Tournament victory over NC Central.

Then, the hardest part of the Devils’ schedule will hit. The team will open up a four-game swing that begins with a reigning Sweet 16 squad in Nevada, back-to-back true road games against SEC opponents Georgia and Vanderbilt, and finally, a showdown at Wells Fargo Arena against a potential first-ranked Kansas team on Dec. 22.

Although the path may appear daunting, this is nothing that Hurley and his team haven’t seen before. In his first two seasons, the team clashed with two top-five ranked Kentucky squads and more ranked opposition in Texas A&M, Purdue and Creighton.

Last year, the change was no different. ASU faced two eventual No. 1 seeds in Kansas and Xavier away from home and an Elite Eight qualifier in Kansas State in their 12-game schedule.

Despite the Sun Devils stumbling in conference play, their success during that part of the season carried them to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2014. And with the team adding key transfers in Zylan Cheatham and Rob Edwards, a recruiting class led by Taeshon Cherry and significant returnees from last year’s squad, the message is the same:

To be the best, you have to beat the best.

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So, after exiting last year’s non-conference schedule with a 12-0 record, a No. 3 national ranking and one of the most prolific offenses in the nation, how will ASU fare in this 13-game start with a new system likely in place?

To keep it simple, we shouldn’t expect the same thing as last season.

It’s undeniable that this is Hurley’s most talented roster since he took over as head coach in 2015. With bigger guards, a plethora of athletic wings and size that wasn’t around the past two seasons, it’s easy to expect that the Devils will post the best results of Hurley’s four-year tenure.

But it’s not going to come together right away.

In 2018, the team’s best three players were Tra Holder, Shannon Evans II and Kodi Justice. The trio had played together for one whole season under Hurley at ASU, and they were each seniors that understood the ins and outs of college basketball.

Going into their final seasons, they were the vocal, emotional and on-the-court leaders that several new recruits and transfers could follow. It was their team, and each had earned the trust of Hurley to operate on their terms on the floor.

The result was the program’s best start, and undoubtedly one of its best teams, that it had ever seen. The team had players ready to withstand the tough games and find a way to execute in unsettling situations.

In contrast, this year’s roster has leaders that haven’t yet emerged. Cheatham, Edwards and Remy Martin would be some of the obvious candidates, but until we see how they perform, we won’t know which one, or all three, will be the one to rely on.

The uncertainty behind the role also comes from most of ASU’s experienced players not yet suiting up for a game in the maroon and gold. Cheatham and Edwards had to sit out last year due to transfer rules, and Cherry, Luguentz Dort and Uros Plavsic will all be starting their careers as freshmen.

In that regard, it’ll take time for the Sun Devils to come together. It wouldn’t be irrational to think that some early hiccups could come along the way, especially while facing several opponents that have players with NCAA Tournament experience.

The good thing is that the team will have time to grow. Even if they drop a few games in non-conference play, it won’t hurt them much because of the difficult strength of schedule. And with those games behind them, the Sun Devils should be able to grow from their early-season experiences, setting them up for a much more successful year in the Pac-12 and beyond.

The “Guard U” tenure was thrilling, but most teams would prefer to be playing their best basketball when it counts: in March. The talent of this year’s ASU squad may not assemble immediately, but over time, we should see them tap in to their potential.