(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
As the 2020-21 season winded down on Arizona State Men’s Basketball, so did the expectations for it.
The Sun Devils’ 11-14 year was the product of issues they were perhaps responsible for and perhaps not. A team built around the dynamic scoring and subsequently high usage of senior guard Remy Martin, freshman guard Josh Christopher and senior guard Alonzo Verge Jr. had its ups and downs. Passing was occasionally sparse between the trio, and a lack of offensive flow produced underwhelming results while each player possessed the ability to create their own shot at any point in a given game.
But a rash of injuries, postponements and absences due to personal issues severed any chemistry and results ASU attempted to develop. Senior guard Holland Woods was the only Sun Devil who played in every game this year, and Martin, Christopher, freshman forward Marcus Bagley, sophomore forward Jalen Graham and junior forward Taeshon Cherry all missed extensive time.
So Thursday’s 91-73 loss to No. 1 seeded Oregon in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament, on the backs of Wednesday’s thrilling 64-59 win against Washington State, might have actually met expectations that were set for the Sun Devils. The outlook for ASU evolved as the year went on and got tougher. In a season as wild and turbulent as the one experienced, the Sun Devils perhaps gave all they could.
“It was a tough scene in the locker room as it usually is when guys put their heart and soul into this,” head coach Bobby Hurley said.
After the Sun Devils hung with the Ducks early in the game, Oregon’s force and firepower eventually showed. Ducks junior guard Will Richardson had 13 points in the first half. ASU struggled immensely to stop him, as his varied attack stretched from three-pointers to drives to the basket.
A 10-0 run late in the first half by Oregon extended its lead to 29-19, as the Ducks attacked the rim with post-ups, drives and transition opportunities while earning multiple second chance points. Graham, who was making his impact felt offensively, had trouble staying on the floor, and was replaced with junior forward Chris Osten after Hurley called timeout.
Hurley said he thought the offense’s inability to answer was ASU’s kryptonite.
“I think we had a couple offensive possessions where we had some decent looks,” Hurley said of the Oregon run. “I thought the ball was sticking a little too much offensively in the first half. They were able to load their defense. We weren’t able to effectively attack their switches. They were switching everything.”
A three by sophomore guard Jaelen House, who surprisingly had three attempts from deep in the first half, stopped some of the bleeding to cut Oregon’s lead to 32-24 with 2:38 left in the first. But the run set the tone for the rest of the half, as the Sun Devils couldn’t shrink the gap much more and went into the break down 35-27.
The Oregon lead ballooned to 18 points midway through the second half. A couple of three-pointers by Woods and Martin (the first three served as his first points of the game) kept ASU within 11, but ball movement by the Ducks – a consistent theme throughout most of the game – led to threes and an open lane for dunks and drives that were too overwhelming. ASU found itself down 22 with 3:48 remaining.
“It just wasn’t meant to be,” Hurley said.
“The four guards, they emptied the tank out there. They ran around and chased Oregon. We hit some threes, but we could never breakthrough and get it to single digits.”
Oregon opened the game up by unleashing a barrage of threes out of a heavy passing scheme, though sloppinessness ensued and turnovers allowed the Sun Devils to utilize transition play. With Martin getting hedged on screens and being shown double teams (resulting in zero first-half points), House conducted a dazzling show running the floor.
“Defenses understand [Martin’s] value to what we’re doing and they load their defense to him quite a bit,” Hurley said. “Getting clean shots was not easy.”
In half-court sets, with all the attention on Martin, ASU’s best looks offensively in the first half came from plays by Graham and Verge Jr. The lengthy big man played outside the paint and put the ball on the deck to score and draw fouls, while Verge Jr. helped fill the shot creation void left by Martin and Christopher. Graham had six points while Verge Jr. led the Sun Devils with nine heading into halftime.
Graham’s struggles defensively continued in the second half though. Oregon dunked all over ASU in response to the made threes by Woods and Martin, and Graham fouled out with over six minutes remaining in the contest. ASU’s lack of rim protection helped result in 14 second-half points from Ducks senior wing LJ Figueroa.
A tough scene occurred toward the end of the game, as ASU senior forward Kimani Lawrence went down in a heap and stayed down for minutes while grabbing his hamstring. Lawrence did not return and no immediate update was provided.
“It was such a terrible moment to see a guy who really cares so much about his team and his teammates and who has turned his season around…,” Hurley said. “To see him get injured was very upsetting.”
As Hurley spoke postgame, his words were raspy. The 49-year-old seemed to be holding back tears while discussing the season’s difficulties. Coming to peace with the year’s end and the loss of players such as Martin and Lawrence doesn’t seem like it will be an easy task for the Sun Devils’ head coach. In a year so challenging and filled with so much loss, Hurley is grateful for what he and ASU shared and experienced together.
“I got to go to practice with my team everyday,” he said. “I got to watch Jaelen House get better this year. I got to watch Jalen Graham get better. [I] had a chance to have once more dance with Remy [Martin]. These guys never folded.
“It was all worth it.”
