(Photo: Travis Whittaker/WCSN)
It has been a tough stretch in a multitude of ways for Arizona State Men’s Basketball.
The Sun Devils have dropped four out of their last five games and have had five games canceled or postponed due to COVID-19 issues (three of the five were due to issues within opponents’ programs). Even when ASU resumed play last week against UCLA and USC, the team was without four key players; senior guard Remy Martin, junior forward Taeshon Cherry, sophomore forward Jalen Graham and sophomore guard Jaelen House.
“We’re creatures of habit and routine,” head coach Bobby Hurley said. “We try and develop chemistry and rhythm on offense and have guys playing together on a continual basis, but having the disruptions has made it more challenging to build that.”
The Sun Devils (4-5, 1-2) could potentially right the ship Saturday in Corvallis where they will take on the Oregon State Beavers (5-5, 1-3).
ASU will get two of its missing four players back with Martin and House set to return, but will still be without Cherry (personal) and Graham (Mononucleosis).
Partially due to the number of players who have missed games this season and the Sun Devils’ signs of improvement in the rebounding department, Hurley has been focusing on improving ASU’s offense heading into Saturday’s matchup with the Beavers.
“We’re trying to focus a little bit on the offensive end as we’ve kind of stemmed the tide with some of our issues, transition defense and rebounding,” Hurley said. “Hopefully we can get some continuity and get some chemistry on offense now that we’re getting guys back.”
Like the Sun Devils, Oregon State has had its bouts with COVID-19 this season. The Beavers had both of their Pac-12 Conference games postponed last week due to issues within its program.
The complications that the Beavers have had with the virus and the loss of the program’s all-time leading scorer, forward Tres Tinkle, has led to a rough start to Oregon State’s 2020-2021 season.
The Beavers are 11th in the Pac-12 in shooting percentage inside the arc (43.9 percent) and ninth in 3-point percentage (31.7 percent). To go along with the offensive woes, Oregon State has given up 111.6 points per 100 possessions during Pac-12 play, according to winnersandwhiners.com.
While the Beavers may be struggling a little bit, no Pac-12 win comes easy – especially on the road.
Ethan Thompson (16.0 PPG) leads Oregon State in scoring. If the senior guard gets hot and ASU cannot find its footing on offense, Hurley’s squad could be in for a tough battle on Saturday night.
“We’ve faced a lot of adversity this year,” freshman forward Marcus Bagley said. “I think we’re going to bounce back and we are going to find a way.”
