After only winning one of its first five conference games, Arizona State looks to dig themselves out of the hole in the first game of its Bay Area road trip against the California Golden Bears.
The Sun Devils are coming off a close loss to the Washington Huskies, who found a way to hold on to a lead the entire game. Washington senior guard Andrew Andrews torched ASU with 30 points, 12 assists and six rebounds. ASU got 28 points out of their sophomore duo of Tra Holder and Kodi Justice, who have been the Sun Devils’ best and most consistent form of offense as of late.
Now they go on to try and earn their first conference road victory against a team that has somewhat underachieved thus far into the season. Cal was No. 14 in the preseason poll and projected to finish second in the Pac-12. While it is still early, Cal finds itself unranked with a 12-6 overall record and a 2-3 record in conference. Those three losses are what have contributed to its current three-game losing streak.
Perhaps the most significant news as of late for the Bears has been the injury of senior guard Tyrone Wallace, who has been sidelined for 4-6 weeks after breaking his right wrist. Wallace leads the Bears in scoring, assists, steals and minutes per game, and has been one of the best all-around players in the conference this season. Without Wallace, many of Cal’s role players will have to step up, and it will maybe have to look for their youngest players to lead the team.
Sun Devil head coach Bobby Hurley said after the game that UW freshman Dejounte Murray was the most impressive freshman they had played against all season long. Facing Cal, he might change his mind having to deal with its freshman phenom forward Jaylen Brown. Brown leads all Pac-12 freshmen in scoring with just under 15 points per game, and with his 6-foot-7, 225-pound frame, he causes plenty of matchup issues for most teams.
With both of these teams trying to get back on track, this will be a statement win for whoever comes out on top. For Cal, it gets a win without its veteran leader, and for the Sun Devils, they get not only their second win of Pac-12 play, but a big win on the road against a talent-filled team.
Keys to the Game
Stop the Freshmen
Brown is only one of Cal’s two fantastic freshmen, the other is center Ivan Rabb.
Rabb is averaging 12 points and just under nine rebounds a game at 6-foot-11, 225 pounds. With Rabb and Brown joining the Bears this offseason, they made Cal the only team in the country to get more than one player in the ESPN top 100 recruits to commit to the same school.
Especially with Wallace out, these freshmen will have much bigger roles for not only this game, but for the rest of the season. If ASU wants to catch Cal off guard, this would certainly be the game to do it with the vacancy Cal could potentially have in the leadership role.
Get to the rim
One of the biggest make-or-break aspects of the ASU offense this season has been the three pointer. The first few games of conference play, the Sun Devils have not been shy about shooting the three, often shooting more than 20 in a game.
Cal’s defense is the best in the conference in terms of field goal percentage, but it is 11th in the three-point defense category. While this may be an odd mixture to have translated from statistics, one meaning to it is that Cal will give up the three in order to defend the two, which in-turn leads to a lower percentage.
In other words, ASU might find a lot of good looks from beyond the arc. While it should never shy away from an open three, ASU has to make Cal defend the rim first. The Bears lost a crucial perimeter defender in Wallace, and Holder should exploit the loss by using the pick-and-roll to his advantage.
Basically, ASU needs to be patient. Hurley never wants his players to hesitate when looking to score, but maybe emphasizing interior buckets early could help them get a rhythm.
Make free throws
This one is simple. Free throw shooting has been the Achilles’ heel of the Sun Devils this conference season, and this weekend is their best chance to use free throws in the big picture.
Cal and Stanford are the 10th and 11th best free throw shooting teams in the country. If there was a times to make a difference at the line, it would be against both of these Bay Area programs.
