Arizona State fans are just waiting for the 2024-25 season to be over at this point. This team isn't winning many games and bad luck just seems to keep following it around.
That being said, despite a 91-81 loss to No. 25 BYU on Wednesday night, the Sun Devils showed a lot of fight. They entered the contest without their leading scorer for the second straight game in BJ Freeman, who was dismissed from the team for "conduct detrimental" on Sunday.
On top of that, freshman phenom Jayden Quaintance and offensive stalwart Alston Mason didn't play due to injury and illness respectively. Head coach Bobby Hurley only had five players from his normal rotation and six scholarship players total.
Jayden Quaintance (right leg) and Alston Mason (sickness) won't play against BYU for ASU, which is down to five players who normally are part of the rotation.
— Chris Karpman (@ChrisKarpman) February 27, 2025
This is a top two or three worst run of injuries/illness/discipline issues that I've seen at ASU this century.
Even shorthanded, the team managed to keep the game relatively close throughout. Basheer Jihad led the team with 19 points, followed by freshmen Joson Sanon and Trevor Best with 18 each.
ASU highlights renewed spirit in loss to BYU
The Sun Devils may have lost but they certainly displayed a renewed competitive spirit following the team's first win in it's last seven tries against Kansas State.
Putting up 81 points against a ranked opponent is nothing to sneeze at. It was the first time since Feb. 12 the team had put up at least that amount in a game, but to be fair that was in a 111-106 double-overtime loss to Texas Tech.
With just three games remaining in the regular season, Hurley will be looking to end the year on some sort of a positive note. He's on the hot seat and will hope that he will have at least one more offseason to try and turn things around.
The Big 12 was always going to be a gauntlet for the program to navigate in year one. It appears to have gone worse than many in Tempe could've imagined but there are lessons to be learned and still a lot of good things to build off of. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, the team could get hot and make some noise in the Big 12 tournament. Yeah, probably not but one can dream, no?