ASU Men’s Basketball: Sun Devils look to get season back on track during trip to Bay area

(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)

The Arizona State Sun Devils (10-4, 1-1 Pac-12) head north this week for their first road trip of conference play in the 2018-19 season after splitting their first Pac-12 home stand.

ASU first visits the California Golden Bears (5-9, 0-2) Wednesday night then faces the Stanford Cardinal (7-7, 0-2) on Saturday.

“In our schedule where there are multiple days to recover and refocus, there’s no reason that you can’t just bring close to your ‘A-game’ and attention to details we’re talking about and ball movement” coach Bobby Hurley said. “Hopefully the guys saw and got a taste of if you play a certain way that things can be really good. But it has to be done like all the time, you can’t just do it when it’s convenient for you.”

Hurley’s comments come after ASU lost three of its last five games, including losses in two of three matchups after a historic win for the program over then No. 1 Kansas.

The squad will look to build on the momentum of a 22-point victory over Colorado last Saturday- a dominant win, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Sun Devils won eight of nine games to start the season.

One of the biggest keys to the team continuing that success is the effectiveness of its zone defense. Colorado only managed 61 points at the Sun Devils, the fewest points ASU has allowed in a game since a 90-58 win over Long Beach State nearly two months ago.

“I feel like that our length and our quickness and the athleticism- all that working together in the zone it’s hard (for opponents) to score on that for sure,” forward Romello White said.

The less challenging of ASU’s two games this week is first up, as they’ll square off with a Golden Bears team that’s lost three straight and four of their last five- last winning against San Jose State on December 21. But much like the Princeton matchup, ASU would be fooling themselves to overlook their opponent.

“There’s no guarantees of anything, we’re still just focused on Cal right now,” Hurley said.

Despite a lack of victories, Cal has three of the Pac-12’s top 20 scorers by points per game. Junior point guard Paris Austin leads the team with 14.1, and the team usually starts two other guards averaging double figures in sophomore Darius McNeill (12.5) and 6-foot-4 freshman Matt Bradley (10.5).

Behind Austin, the team’s second biggest scoring threat is 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Justice Sueing from Hawaii. He averages 14 points per game and a team leading 6.4 rebounds per game- good for 13^th in the conference.

Of course, the Pac-12’s third-leading rebounder and ASU’s third-leading scorer in senior Zylan Cheatham will play a huge role in stopping Sueing. Hurley said Cheatham will play Wednesday, but he is expected to miss Saturday’s game at Stanford so he can attend the memorial service for his deceased brother- although Hurley said his status for that game is still TBD.

But the biggest factor will likely be freshman Luguentz Dort, the team’s leading scorer at 17.5 points per game, fourth in the Pac-12, who has shot 28.5 percent his last six games. However, Hurley still expressed how proud he was of Dort and sophomore guard Remy Martin, who came off the bench against Colorado, for their recent performances.

“It wasn’t their fault that we lost to Utah…it was hard for me to come up with a starting lineup for Colorado based on just that game,” Hurley said. “They didn’t start, but when their number was called, they were ready to go.”

“Remy went out of his way to distribute the ball and get everyone involved and made some terrific passes. And Lu, he was in full attack mode and more efficient than he’s been on offense in a few games. So, I hope that he rediscovered some of what he was doing early in the season.”

Contrary to Cal, Stanford is a team of giants with eight players that are 6-foot-8 or taller. Although ASU has much more size than last season, when it lost twice to the Cardinal, they have five players above that height, and likely will be without one in Cheatham.

White and Lake must contain the likes of sophomore Kz Okpala, averaging team highs with 16.6 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game, and 7-foot senior Josh Sharma – averaging 7.8 points per game and leading the team with 14 blocks despite averaging 15 minutes per game.

The Sun Devils can’t overlook the Cardinal backcourt though, as sophomore Daejon Davis and freshman Ryan Cormac are the team’s second and third leading scorers, respectively, averaging 11.9 and 11.3 points per game.

Davis had a solid outing in the team’s win on ASU’s senior day last season, scoring eight points and leading the team with five assists. However, Stanford will be without the leading scorer from that game in Reid Travis, now playing as a graduate transfer at Kentucky.

Wednesday night’s game tips off at 7 p.m. while Saturday’s tilt with Stanford starts at 4 p.m. Both games will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.