ASU Basketball: Are the Sun Devils no longer prone to ‘trap’ games?
By Trevor Booth
Why the Sun Devils Won’t Perform Well
Slow Starts
In sweeping the Bay Area schools, ASU did what it was supposed to do. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some scares in each contest.
Against Stanford – who played without leading scorer KZ Okpala – the Sun Devils took a while to get going. Starting 1-of-7 from the field, the Cardinal held an 18-15 lead midway through the first half.
ASU eventually pulled away – winning 80-62 – but in flashes, the win was more difficult than it should’ve been. Stanford’s Oscar Da Silva and Josh Sharma combined for 32 points on 13-of-22 shooting, leaving a second-half spurt necessary to strengthen the Devils’ advantage.
Sunday’s win over Cal was similar, as the Sun Devils faced a 6-point halftime deficit to a Bears team that hadn’t won a Pac-12 game. Then, Hurley gave a “motivating” halftime speech, per Remy Martin, and ASU opened the second frame with a 19-5 run to beat the Bears by 10.
One half may have been all that was necessary then, but that won’t be the case this week. Oregon and Oregon State are fighting for seeding in the Pac-12 Tournament, with the Beavers trailing the Sun Devils by ½ a game at the No. 2 spot.
In the past, we’ve seen how slow starts (Princeton, Washington State) can be detrimental. If ASU doesn’t execute for 40 minutes, it’s hard to envision a scenario where it wins either game.
The Illusion of a Road Sweep
This is the year of ‘firsts’ for Hurley – his first win against Arizona and his first winning season in Pac-12 play among them. While a conference tournament title and NCAA Tournament victory are what he’d like next, a road sweep isn’t too far down the list.
The Sun Devils have come close to breaking a nine-year drought of consecutive road wins this season, but the achievement still alludes them. Their best opportunities came in the last two trips, where double-digit victories over UCLA and Utah were complemented by tight losses to USC and Colorado.
Winning on the road is never easy, and ASU hasn’t yet proven it can execute in those close affairs. Barring Cheatham’s missed free throw against the Trojans and Martin’s travelling violation against the Buffaloes, Bennie Boatwright’s game-winning 3 and Colorado’s 7-0 run in the second half don’t happen, and we might be talking about a different scenario.
In March, teams that advance can close possession-based games. This week’s magnitude could bring both games to the final horn, and the Sun Devils need to prove they’ve matured in late-game execution.