(Photo: Tyler Rittenhouse/WCSN)
On paper, the start to the season has been as seamless as one could hope for Arizona State men’s basketball.
A 2-0 start and, as hoped for, the Sun Devil freshmen have taken charge of what is a young roster looking to shake things up in the Pac-12. Luguentz Dort has filled in for the injured Remy Martin, last year’s Pac-12 sixth man of the year and like 2017, the Devils are defeatless heading into their third match of a young season.
But, there has been a lot more to the tender story at The Bank for the team driven in large part by famed head coach, Bobby Hurley. Defensive collapses and an offense that, “still needs a lot of work and has a lot to look forward to” will look to polish up their form against an underrated opponent in Long Beach State, a team that will look to hand ASU their first loss of the season on Veteran’s Day at Wells Fargo Arena.
The LBSU 49ers are not what the average fan would call a tough matchup. Having not had a winning record since the 2015-’16 season, the Niners come to Tempe as the heavy underdog. ESPN’s matchup predictor has ASU the favorite to win at an 86.9% win probability. But, if the Devils come into the game with the attitude that they are 13.1% away from a win, they will be in for the surprise of their life.
Against UCLA, LBSU’s most recent matchup against a D1 school, the Bruins won the game 91-80 but that was far from the whole story. The 49ers put up a fight until the very end and were led by senior guard, Deishuan Booker who put up a career-high 31 points against the 21st ranked school in the nation.
Booker will look to continue that success in Tempe against a team that has struggled to play good defense against strong offenses. In the season opener, the Devils were pushed to double overtime due to lazy defense.
“Game one was sloppy,” Hurley said of the win over Cal State Fullerton. Sloppy will not cut it against the Niners.
But with every weakness comes a strength for ASU. Freshman guard, Luguentz Dort and senior forward, Zylan Cheatham have put together dominant performances against their first two opponents. Between the first two games of his collegiate career, Dort has posted a combined 53 points while Cheatham has led the team in both rebounds and assists. The dynamic upper and lower classmen duo will look to power through the 49ers en route to win number three.
Monday night will be the battle between the expectations in ASU and the hopes of Long Beach State. The Devils are expecting to pick up their defense and the Niners are hoping to run right through it. The Devils are expecting a win but the Niners are hoping to beat the odds. It may be the third game of the season but on Veteran’s Day, the Devils may face their first true test: one of the minds in not letting their egos beat them and one in a team that will challenge the Devils for all 40 minutes of action.
