(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
Arizona State was picked to finish sixth in the 2017-18 Pac-12 preseason media poll.
As the final weekend of regular season basketball approaches, it appears those pundits had the right idea.
While the Sun Devils can only finish between eighth and 10th in the conference with a 7-9 Pac-12 record, their 19-9 overall record is third-best in the Pac-12 and has them on the bubble for an NCAA tournament berth.
“It’s a big week for us, we know that,” senior guard Shannon Evans II said. “Any win around this time of the year is critical.”
“You have to put the pressure on yourself like it’s do or die right now,” senior guard Kodi Justice said. “Just to be able to go out there and play your best and know March is coming. If you lose in March, you’re done so this is to kind of prepare us for what we want to do.”
This final weekend of home games starts against California Thursday night. The Golden Bears are 8-21 overall and 2-14 in conference, both worst in the Pac-12.
The Sun Devils know better than to overlook them though, as Evans II believes they’re capable of playing much better than their record suggests.
“I feel they have a good inside presence with Marcus Lee,” Evans II said. “They’re a hard-nosed team, they play hard, they attack you.”
The senior guard has a point, as Lee averages 12.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game (6th in Pac-12 in rebounding) while shooting 57.8 percent from the field (7th).
Cal has another trio of double-digit scorers in junior guard Don Coleman (14.9 ppg), freshman forward Justice Sueing (13.9) and freshman guard Darius McNeill (11.6).
It’s not quite as gaudy as Tra Holder’s 18.8 ppg (5th) and Evans II’s 16.8 (8th), but like the latter said, they attack you. Coleman and Sueing each average 1.5 steals per contest, tied for fifth in the Pac-12.
The difference between the two teams is depth, as the Golden Bears have little production outside their top four players. This was evident the first time these two teams met on January 20, when the Sun Devils outlasted them 81-73 in Berkeley.
“I feel like a game like this is just about us trying to get back to our ways and sharing the basketball and defending,” Evans II said. “Just trying to start putting good minutes together in the building before we can get back to our good ways when we were 12-0.”
Although Cal was only over .500 when it started the season 2-1, the thing both teams have in common is they come into tonight on a losing streak. The Golden Bears have lost five straight while ASU has dropped its last three.
Head coach Bobby Hurley is looking to combat this with a more conservative approach in practice to get the best out of his players when it counts most.
“We weren’t as physical this week with our practices,” Hurley said. “It’s typical in my experience as a player and a coach that this time of year you’re just not going to be able to physically grind up your players anymore. You want to keep them as fresh- their fitness is not an issue it’s more mentally are they getting worn down and you want to avoid that possibility because we have so much to play for.”
The players seem to have an idea of how they can get back to their winning ways from early in the season.
“I feel like it’s just about getting back to having fun,” Evans II said. “I feel like coach Hurley took a great approach about it. He’s not really yelling at us too much he’s just letting us have fun and getting a good vibe…guys are back to laughing and things like that so it’s all about just having fun because that’s what we were doing in the beginning of the year.”
Tonight’s matchup tips off at 7 p.m. and can be seen nationally on ESPNU.
