ASU Men’s Basketball: Previewing Devils and Wildcats

With a tumultuous non-conference slate complete, the Arizona State Sun Devils (9-4) head to Tucson Saturday night to take on Arizona (10-3) to open Pac-12 play. The Sun Devils struggled in non-conference, coming up just short in an upset bid against Virginia, while losing to Saint Mary’s by 40 in Phoenix.        

As the Sun Devils have struggled in the non-conference portion of the schedule, Arizona State’s troubles have come largely at the 3-point line. In the Sun Devils first 13 games, Bobby Hurley’s squad has shot 30.4 percent from beyond the arc. The offensive struggles were prominently on display against Saint Mary’s, when the team shot 3-for-22 from deep, with only three players scoring in the contest.           

Against the Gaels, Alonzo Verge scored 43 points for the Sun Devils, while the rest of the roster struggled to create any offense. That offensive inefficiency has shown itself throughout non-conference play, where the Sun Devils failed to dominate lesser opponents like Princeton and San Francisco on the road.   

The Sun Devils offensive attack is led by junior guard Remy Martin, who’s averaging 17.9 points per game and 4.1 assists per game on 44.3 percent shooting. Against Arizona last year, Martin played two outstanding games. In the Devils’ home win Jan. 31, the junior guard scored 31 points and had eight assists in an overtime victory. In Tucson, Martin had a near triple-double with 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.         

In a down year for Arizona last year, Arizona State swept the Wildcats in the season-series, defeating UArizona 95-88, in Tempe, and 72-64, in Tucson in 2019. The Sun Devils road victory over Sean Miller and the Wildcats was the first win in Tucson during the Bobby Hurley era at ASU.          

Most of the Arizona roster has been overhauled from last year after the Wildcats signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country according to ESPN. Headlining that class was Nico Mannion, a freshman guard from Phoenix. The Pinnacle High School alum has spearheaded the UArizona offense, averaging 14.6 points per game on 42.6 percent shooting.           

Mannion has also done a good job of setting up teammates, averaging 6.2 assists per game. Those assists have helped fellow freshmen Josh Green and Zeke Nnaji average 13.1 and 16.5 points per game, respectively.           

Last season, the Sun Devils finished second in the Pac-12 conference with a 12-6 record against conference foes. In a year in which the Wildcats missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2012, Arizona finished ninth in the Pac-12.         

Arizona comes into Saturday’s contest riding a two-game losing streak, dropping a home game to then No. 6 Gonzaga, and a neutral-site game to St. John’s Dec. 21.          

The Wildcats and Sun Devils contest tips off tonight at 7:30 p.m. MT. The game can be seen on the Pac-12 Networks.

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