(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)]
The Bobby Hurley-era has officially kicked off for ASU men’s basketball as it had its first day of practice on Friday.
With plenty of new faces on the floor and a new philosophy being implemented into the system, it only adds to the fact that this was the first practice and nothing is going to be perfect.
“It’s a little bit chaotic at times,” Hurley said. “It’s what you normally would expect I think especially on offense just playing a little bit too quick at that end of the floor.”
The offense is what will be the most difficult to integrate, but what Hurley is trying to drill into his guys early is defense.
“We’re just trying to stress the urgency how to play defensively in terms of rotating, helping your teammates,” Hurley said. “We’re establishing the position on the floor that we need guys to be in off the ball and talking a lot about that. We’re working on our ball screen defense, and it’s more geared towards that, and then towards the later stages of practice, we start putting in some things on offense.”
Whether it’s offense or defense, Hurley’s primary objective is to integrate his style as soon as possible. The lack of familiarity is to be expected, but if the Sun Devils want to move on to bigger things, the learning better come fast.
“(There is cases of) Not many guys really understanding the drill,” Hurley said “So there’s a lot more stopping and teaching and it’s not as push-button in terms of having a lot of guys that have done a lot of things that we’re doing right now, and just about every drill is kind of new to them.”
Practice Notes
Everybody is shooting
In addition to a team-wide long-range shooting drill to conclude practice, we even saw junior forward Savon Goodman attempt a three-pointer. Goodman didn’t attempt one from beyond the arc last season, and Hurley said him attempting one in practice is no accident because well-roundedness will be crucial for everyone.
Shannon Evans will make Tra Holder very good
With the transfer from Buffalo having to sit out a year, he will likely spend a lot of practice facing the former Pac-12 All-Freshman team point guard in Tra Holder. Last year, Holder was the only true point guard on the roster, but now with Evans, the Sun Devils have already seen signs of a polished offensive scorer with blazing quickness, and that in itself will give Holder a greater challenge than anything he saw in practice last year.
Depth at point guard could be an issue
The problem with Evans sitting out is that there will still not be a whole lot of options to give Holder a breather. Sophomore guard Kodi Justice played point guard at times last year, as well as senior guard Gerry Blakes, but by the end of the year, they both saw most of their time off of the ball. Hurley said those two as well as junior college transfer Andre Spight will see time at point in trying to figure out of the rotation.
