(Photo: Josh Orcutt/WCSN)
Looking to snap a four-game losing streak and earn their first conference victory under head coach Bobby Hurley, the Arizona State Sun Devils host the 9-6 Washington State Cougars.
The Sun Devils’ last victory came on Dec. 28 against Cal State Bakersfield, and in their last eight games have lost as many as they have won. They remain the lone Pac-12 team that has yet to snag a conference win largely due to the fact that they played three potential tournament teams (Arizona, USC, UCLA), but this weekend provides a great opportunity to get in the win column.
In their last game, the Cougars lost to in-state rival Washington 99-95 in overtime. Good news for the Cougars: two of their top players had some of the best performances of their career, those being juniors Ike Iroegbu and Josh Hawkinson. Iroegbu had 28 points on 11-for-18 shooting to lead the Cougars in scoring, while Hawkinson set a career-high with 20 rebounds to go along with his 21 points.
While 20 rebounds is obviously a lot for one game, Hawkinson is a guy who is capable of grabbing 20 rebounds on any given night being the conference’s leading rebounder. Being such an impactful presence in the paint to complement Iroegbu’s athleticism and explosiveness from the perimeter, they present a large part of everything the Cougars like to do on both ends of the floor.
Washington State is right there at the bottom of the conference with the Sun Devils as it has only won one conference game of its first three, but its one victory was an impressive one over UCLA. No matter which Cougar team decides to show up Thursday night, the Sun Devils have their best opportunity yet to get their first win of the conference season.
Keys to the Game
Keep Hawkinson off the glass
This is the primary focus in game-planning for WSU because it is the one thing that is almost guaranteed on a nightly basis. Hawkinson is going to get rebounds; it is just a matter of how many you can limit him to.
Other than him, there isn’t a whole lot you have to worry about in the rebounding category from the rest of the team. The Cougars are the worst team in the conference in terms of rebounding with 35.8 per game. Hawkinson alone averages 11.4 per game.
This plays very well into the Sun Devils’ hands considering how well they rebound across the board, especially in the guard positions. What will be challenging is always finding someone to put a body on Hawkinson no matter where he is on the floor.
Defend the pick and roll/pop
Iroegbu and Hawkinson each are more than capable of scoring anywhere from the paint to the three-point line, which would make a ball-screen game very difficult for anyone to match up with. For ASU, defending ball-screens were a weakness for them early on and were a big reason for the loss to Sacramento State to open the season.
Since then, ASU has improved immensely defending ball-screens, but this game will be a huge test. Other than Iroegbu and Hawkinson, the Cougars have plenty of shooters on the perimeter to open up opportunities for including redshirt junior guard Que Johnson, averaging 10.3 points per game.
Get Savon Goodman involved
Goodman hasn’t reached the numbers he was putting up in the beginning of the season, and his dominance on the interior was a crucial point of ASU’s early-season success. Since his four-game absence due to personal reasons, we haven’t seen the same Savon Goodman that was manhandling the dominant big men of Marquette or NC State.
Most of the time, it takes a few second-chance buckets to get him going, so finding a way to get him involved shouldn’t be difficult because he isn’t one who requires a set play to get a bucket. His energy is as important to this team as anything else, and a great way to find that spark is a big game against the conference’s most dominant rebounder.
