(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)
After suffering from a blowout defeat to the eighth-ranked Utah Utes 79-59, Arizona State has to bounce against an explosive Colorado team. The Buffaloes, sitting at 9-7 overall and 2-2 in the conference, are coming off of two losses to the top teams in the conference, Utah and Arizona.
ASU has lost seven of its last 10 games and is the only team in the Pac-12 who have yet to win a conference game. With this difficult stretch of games ahead of them midway through the season, it’s time for the Sun Devils to wake up if they’re looking for a respectable postseason berth.
Keys to the Game
Let them play one-on-one basketball
Colorado is 263rd in the country in assists per game, only averaging 11.6 per contest. Considering ASU is a much more polished defensive team than offensively, if the Sun Devils can use their length and athleticism to force Colorado into poor shots without much flow on the offensive end, it is going to be hard to win a basketball game for the Buffaloes.
Force someone other than Askia Booker to score
Booker has made 29 more, and has attempted 86 more field goals than the next closest person on Colorado. So if that means anything, it means that they want him to score the ball. Not to say that nobody else on the team is a scoring threat, because there are two more players averaging 12+ points per game, but taking Askia Booker out of the picture is a big chunk of offense removed from their game plan.
Rack up the assists
ASU was successful in the beginning of the year because they were one of the best teams in the country statistically in terms of assisted baskets per game. However, most likely due to the shakeup of the rotation up until this point, that has quickly dropped to 115th in the nation in assists per game. As they try and come back from their poor start to conference play, the Sun Devils should start working on their assist-to-turnover ratio now.
Prediction
ASU’s struggles have mostly come on the offensive end, and outscoring Colorado is not as easy as it sounds. With a roster far more experienced and talented on the offensive side of the ball, it will be very difficult for ASU to find a way to win this game.
