ASU Basketball: Sun Devils lean on new length for success in 2022

(Photo: Paige Cook/WCSN)

A new season is beginning in the desert as the Arizona State men’s basketball team will open the 2022-23 season Monday night against Tarleton State.

The 2021-22 season was disappointing for head coach Bobby Hurley and his squad as they ended the season 14-17, 10-10 Pac-12, exiting in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament on a buzzer-beater loss to Stanford.

The Sun Devils showed a glimpse of promise last season as they upset No. 3 UCLA and closed the regular season by winning seven of their last eight games.

Entering the new season, the Sun Devils will return their leading scorer, junior guard DJ Horne. Still, they were forced to replace four of their next five leading scorers in Marreon Jackson, Jalen Graham, Kimani Lawrence, and Jay Heath, who all departed Tempe for numerous reasons this off-season.

With the departures of Heath and Jackson, Hurley needed another guard to pair with Horne. Replacing Heath’s 10.6 points per game is Michigan transfer sophomore guard Frankie Collins.

“His presence has been felt since he stepped on campus,” junior forward Marcus Bagley said. “Natural leader and just a guy that is easy to follow. He expects a lot out of us, and he tries to make us look good, and we try to do the same for him. I’m happy to have him and excited to get to work with him.”

In limited playing time at Michigan, Collins could not show the talents that made him the number seven point guard in his class. In the NCAA Tournament last March, Collins showcased those talents in Michigan’s upset win over Colorado State. With his team’s life on the line, Collins had his best game of the year, dropping 14 points and six rebounds, both career highs.

Collins expects to be a more ball-dominant guard than his backcourt partner Horne, which should free up Horne to shoot more threes, improving on a team-high shooting percentage last year.

“Our games complement each other,” Collins said of his and Horne’s relationship. “Say, for instance, if I came off a screen and I made a play if I missed him, and he was open, he would tell me, and I want him to tell me because I wanna make sure I get him the ball and get him the shots he needs to shoot.”

Moving over 1,900 miles from Ann Arbor to Tempe is daunting, but Collins won’t be alone. Both from Northern California, Collins and Bagley were once teammates on their 8u AAU team. That familiarity with Bagley played a part in Collins’ decision to play for the Sun Devils.

“[Bagley] played a big role,” Collins said. “We played together when we were younger, so for him to reach out to me and when I was on my visit, he was here. He broke it down to me how hungry he is this year and how he wants this year to be the year because he’s been robbed these last few years.”

Whether or not Bagley is on the court with Collins is one of the biggest concerns surrounding ASU.

Bagley came to Tempe with high expectations but has failed to stay on the court, only playing 15 games over the last two seasons combined. Entering this season, Bagley seems healthy again, with one of his goals being to stay on the court all year.

“I just wanna be consistently available,” Bagley said. “I wanna be an everyday guy, every practice, every game. I wanna be available, so right now, just doing the little things, taking care of my body to be able to do that.”

Collins has noticed his former AAU teammate pick it up as the team nears the start of the season.

“He has definitely taken that step for us,” Collins said. “He is starting to score the ball the way he does. He’s athletic, rebounding and running the floor in transition, so that’s a good thing to see out of him considering his last few years with unfortunate injuries.”

If Bagley can stay healthy, the 2022-23 team should have the most size and length in the Hurley era. With the departure of Graham to Arkansas and Lawerence graduating, Hurley needed to add depth to his frontcourt. Just like with Collins, Hurley went to the transfer portal.

In Hurley’s tenure at ASU, he has never had a meaningful contributor over seven feet tall. Now he does. With the addition of senior forward Warren Washington from Nevada, Hurley adds a big man that could dominate the boards, an area where the team struggled last year.

Last year for the Wolfpack, Washington averaged 10.5 points per game on a team-high 60 percent field goal percentage while also leading the team in rebounding, grabbing 6.6 per game. Washington adds a potentially dominant presence in the paint.

“He is gonna be a presence,” Hurley said. “I think we can throw it to him a little bit inside. He is gonna challenge shots in the paint. He is very experienced, so he is everything we thought he was.”

Washington adds to a frontcourt that returns two pieces from last year’s team. Former five-star sophomore Enoch Boakye played a limited role in last year’s squad as he adjusted to the college game. Despite his limited playing time, Boakye showed flashes as he was second on the team in blocks with 29.

Also returning from last year is senior power forward Alonzo Gaffney. The Cleveland native has a 7-foot-3 wingspan and appeared in 30 games for the Sun Devils, starting 24 in 2021-22. Gaffney impressed defensively, leading the teams in blocks with 38, the most in a season since 2017-18.

All three players make for Hurley’s most lengthy team in his tenure here.

“It really helps your defense,” Hurley said. “There are not a lot of places to drive the basketball when you have that type of length on the court. That has been a positive.”

Bagley has also noticed his teammates’ size advantage and is excited to see what it can bring to the Sun Devils.

“That is something we haven’t had in the past all the time,” Bagley said. “It was good to have a couple big guys down there that can bang with the other team. It will help us a lot on the boards, and we are fortunate with Warren we can throw it into him, and he can create for himself, so it just opens up a lot of stuff offensively and defensively.”

With a combination of old and new faces, the Sun Devils will approach the season optimistically.

Their non-conference schedule is highlighted by a trip to Brooklyn for the Legends Classic. Collins has already circled the date on the schedule as ASU could potentially take on his former school Michigan. The other schools featured at the Classic are Pittsburgh and VCU. Besides the Legends Classic, the non-conference schedule seems pretty light, with the exception of the Sun Devils’ trip to Las Vegas, which will be against No. 10 Creighton.

Following the non-conference schedule, ASU will begin conference play in, once again, one of the most challenging conferences in the country. The Sun Devils’ most brutal stretch is their regular season’s last three games. The Sun Devils will conclude their regular season with three straight road games against No. 17 Arizona, No. 8 UCLA and USC, all three teams qualified for the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

The team has posted their low Pac-12 preseason rankings in their locker room, adding another chip on the shoulder of the Sun Devil squad.

“I don’t really read social media and all the newspapers, but they have it in the locker rooms,” Washington said. “We come to practice and see that it just makes us play with an edge and a chip on our shoulder (…) I just feel like playing with that chip on our shoulder and being the underdog is really gonna help us play with more intensity this year.”