ASU Men’s Basketball: Sun Devils defeat Texas Southern while fitting in new players

(Photo via Spencer Barnes/WCSN)

Arizona State men’s basketball (1-1) has not shot the ball as well as it wanted to start the season with 11 newcomers on the roster, but they still found a way to get the victory over the Texas Southern Tigers (0-2).

ASU has only made one three-pointer in the first half of both its games combined, but the point of emphasis for head coach Bobby Hurley was the team’s poor free-throw shooting in its 63-52 win over Texas Southern. The Sun Devils made 15 of their 28 free throws, shooting 53.6% from the charity stripe — numbers Hurley did not expect from what he saw from his team’s play this summer.

“It’s just a little puzzling because we were not really doing that in Europe or in any of our scrimmages, so it just kind of surfaced out of nowhere,” Hurley said. “I can contribute it to new players, new environment and hopefully that is not something that is going to be an issue for us because I think we are a better free-throw shooting team than what we showed tonight.”

Even though the Sun Devils did not shoot well from the line, they caught fire from behind the arc in the second half, with senior forward Zane Meeks and junior guard Frankie Collins both hitting multiple three-pointers in the last ten minutes of the game. These threes helped Arizona State separate itself from Texas Southern after the Tigers cut the deficit to four points by the 12-minute media timeout.

While the offense was a mixed bag with poor free-throw shooting and hot three-point shooting toward the end, the defense was aggressive early, forcing 15 deflections and 16 turnovers in the first half. Sophomore forward Kamari Lands thought there was a noticeable difference in the squad’s defensive energy from Wednesday’s game against Mississippi State to Saturday.

“I feel like with our length and our switching ability and athleticism, it will make it easier for us on defense,” Lands said. “They can’t get into their offense and just make it hard for them, make them shoot tough shots. Last game, we didn’t do that at all. We let them do whatever they wanted and it proved, so for now, we have to make teams uncomfortable the whole game.”

A Sun Devil who exemplified length and athleticism is forward Alonzo Gaffney. The senior moved into the starting lineup after being on a minutes restriction on Wednesday and had four steals with three blocks on Saturday. He only hit two of his eight shots and missed all three three-point attempts, but Hurley noted that Gaffney’s role extends far beyond scoring.

“He’s what we need him to be in that way,” Hurley said. “He got off to a good start too. Hit a couple shots early in the game. He might have carried that confidence on the offensive end, but defensively, that’s why he is such a valuable player for us. His interchangeability on defense and his ability to impact the game on that end of the floor.”

Gaffney and Collins are two of the three returners from last year’s squad. The point guard not only made an impact with his threes, but he led the team with three offensive rebounds and eight total rebounds. Collins is in his second season in Tempe and knows doing the dirty work is the way he can help lead this team.

“I’ve just got to be that guy that steps up. I’ve got to be a leader. If I’m a leader, that means I do everything and lead by example. If I go in there and rebound, that means those other guards could go in there and rebound.”

Collins is leading a very new group this season, and there will be some bumps in the road as the team figures out who will play what role and how everything will fit together. The junior is experienced enough to know that the team does not need to be at its best in November, but that they need to make progress over the course of the season.

“I think we played pretty well, but I like I said, we’ve got a whole new team and just added someone new. Added [graduate guard] Jose [Perez],” Collins said. “We just got to stick together man. You want to be great now, but you really want to be great when it’s March. Great when it’s February and January. That’s when you want to be clicking and on the right page.”