(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
Arizona State Men’s Basketball may have been playing its best stretch of hoop this season after the team swept Stanford and Cal.
But, another pause due to COVID-19 put a halt to the momentum the Sun Devils had started to build back on Jan. 30.
ASU has now had six Pac-12 conference games postponed. While the fluctuating situation may be frustrating for the Sun Devils, head coach Bobby Hurley is proud of the way his team has handled the adversity.
“I respect the resiliency that we’ve demonstrated,” Hurley said. “We’ve had a lot of injuries, illnesses, postponements, and the guys have not mailed it in by any stretch.”
Hurley showed his appreciation for that resilience in a recent practice by joining his players for conditioning. The former Duke guard ran “17’s” with his team, a drill that requires participants to sprint sideline to sideline and finish the drill in one minute and five seconds. Hurley finished just shy of that mark after he touched the last sideline at one minute and seven seconds.
“I knew that we needed to do a little bit of conditioning after several guys being out for four or five days,” Hurley said. “But at that point, contact tracing only gave me a handful of guys. So I knew they might not be thrilled about it, considering some of their teammates were still not available yet. I thought that would be a way to put it over the top.”
Hurley’s Sun Devils (6-8, 3-5) will look to build on their two-game winning streak against one of the most consistent programs in the Pac-12: the Oregon Ducks (10-4, 5-3).
Oregon, like ASU, has had some trouble with COVID-19 this season. The Ducks have had five conference games postponed due to complications with the virus.
Hurley has confidence about his team’s readiness heading into Thursday. The head coach said Wednesday was “as good of 40 minutes of practice to start as I could remember this year.”
The Sun Devils will head into the game without junior forward Taeshon Cherry though. To go along with Cherry’s absence, junior guard Luther Muhammad, freshman forward Pavlo Dziuba and an unspecified walk-on player will not be available due to COVID-19 protocols, according to Hurley.
However, Oregon may be without two key players itself. According to Ducks head coach Dana Altman, both junior forward Eric Williams Jr. and senior guard Chris Duarte are both game-time decisions for Thursday night.
Williams Jr. (12.3 points per game) will be missed if he is not able to suit up, but the Ducks could potentially lose one of their best players in Duarte.
Duarte leads Oregon in scoring, averaging 17.8 points per game, and shoots an efficient 45.1 percent from three-point land. But Duarte brings more to the table than just offense – the senior guard also averages a team-leading 2.3 steals per game.
While ASU’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament may be very slim, the Sun Devils are lasered in on Thursday night in Tempe. A win against Oregon could give ASU the confidence it needs for a late-season push.
“You try to keep things in perspective and realize the opportunity that you have,” Hurley said. “Our guys have a chance to play tomorrow night against a really good Oregon team that’s probably been consistently the best team in the conference year-in and year-out since I’ve been coaching in the Pac-12. It’s on ESPN. If that doesn’t get your juices going, then there’s something wrong with you.”
