ASU Men’s Basketball: Sun Devils seek first conference win to start off new year

(Photo: Tyler Rittenhouse/WCSN)

No. 4 ASU visits the Colorado Buffaloes tonight in search of its first conference win.

The Sun Devils opened Pac-12 play Saturday in Tucson, losing a tough one to now No. 14 Arizona.

They will have a prime opportunity to redeem themselves against the Buffaloes, a team that’s gone 2-6 since winning its first six games and has yet to beat a power-five opponent.

Even with their glaring inconsistency, the Buffaloes have a 5-1 record at home thanks to a weak strength of schedule. ASU’s 90.7 points per game, which remains 4^th best in the country and atop the Pac-12, will give Colorado a true test in front of its fans.

The Sun Devils have proven on several occasions they are one of the hottest teams in college basketball, so they should defeat Colorado handily. The Buffaloes sport the worst field goal percentage in the conference at 44.4 percent, and their 74.4 ppg only tops Stanford.

However, if Colorado shows out against the Sun Devils it’ll be behind its trio of guards led by freshman McKinley Wright IV. The Minnesota native is a top 15 scorer in the conference putting up 16 ppg, and has a 6’6 senior in George King and a 6’5 junior in Namon Wright by his side also averaging double figures.

It doesn’t quite compare to having Pac-12 scoring leader Tra Holder (22 ppg) and the conference’s 10^th-leading scorer Shannon Evans II (17 ppg), along with Kodi Justice and Remy Martin also averaging double figures. But if the Buffaloes catch ASU on an off night, it will be in the hands of that backcourt trio to capitalize.

In the frontcourt, the Sun Devils should have a field day with the expected debut of four-star freshman Kimani Lawrence, who was rated 54 in Scout.com’s top 100 recruits.

ASU already has an effective big man in freshman Romello White and a strong complement in junior transfer De’Quon Lake, averaging 1.5 blocks per game.

The Sun Devils also get help from Mickey Mitchell, who’s averaged 6.8 rebounds per game since coming into the lineup.

White is coming off a 2-point performance against Arizona, his worst of the season, in which he fouled out after playing for 18 minutes. It goes without saying he’ll be looking to bounce back tonight.

Colorado has good size down low with Tory Miller-Stewart, Lucas Siewert and Dallas Walton. None of them average more than 6.2 points, 4.7 rebounds or 0.8 blocks per game though, alarmingly low numbers considering the level of competition they’ve faced.

Tonight’s game tips off at 6:30 p.m. and can be seen on Pac-12 Network.

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