Arizona State struggled to find any kind of offensive rhythm on Saturday, swamped by the No. 9 Florida Gators in an 83-66 beating down in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Sun Devils only shot a dismal 37.1 percent from the field as well has chucking up 25 shots from beyond the arc but only hitting seven of them.
Florida, on the other hand, dominated the boards and outrebounded ASU 47-27. The Gators also took full advantage of the fast break, scoring 28 points in the counter attack - clearly the difference in the 17 point loss for ASU.
Adam Miller led the Sun Devil starters with 18 points, a rare occurrence this season when freshman stars Jayden Quaintance and Joson Sanon had been dominating the team stats up to that point.
Sanon only logged 5 points and made just one three-point shot, clearly an uncharacteristic performance for the 15.9 points-per-game bench player.
ASU's second ranked loss bodes poorly for team's Top 25 aspirations
The loss to Florida on Saturday was the second time the Sun Devils have played a Top 25-ranked opponent this season. The team also fell to then-No. 6 ranked Gonzaga in November but only by an eight-point deficit.
Head coach Bobby Hurley has put together a strong roster via recruiting and the transfer portal but so far it has not produced the signature wins necessary to convince AP poll voters the 8-2 Sun Devils are worthy of consideration.
Entering Big 12 play, ASU is currently slated to face four more ranked foes (that number could increase or decrease as the season progresses) but if it can't knock off a few if not all of them then its resume approaching March will be much weaker if it finds itself sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
There will be several lessons to be learned from Saturday's falter but Hurley has proven before that even the weakest of his past teams have found ways to bounce back when it's most needed.