(Photo: Evan Barcanic/WCSN)
TUCSON — After being dominated in the Territorial Cup by its biggest rival, Arizona State men’s basketball caught a glimpse of how a cutthroat No. 5 team in the nation can perform. With next season being its first in the Big 12 conference, ASU will need to quickly adjust to playing elite competition regularly.
The Sun Devils (13-13, 7-8 Pac-12) were handily defeated by their rivals down South, dropping the first of two matchups against Arizona (20-5, 11-3 Pac-12) 105-60.
As it currently stands, the Big 12 has six teams in the latest AP Top 25 poll, along with nine teams in the top 50 of the NET Rankings more than any other conference in men’s college basketball.
In comparison to the Pac-12, Arizona is the only team in the latest Top 25 Poll, and Washington State is the only other squad that received votes. As far as NET Rankings are concerned, the two aforementioned Pac-12 programs — plus Colorado — are included in the Top 50. For the Sun Devils, their NET Ranking is currently down to 123rd in the nation, and they’ll be facing as much stern competition as ever next season.
“Unfortunately at this point, it doesn’t seem like we have an NCAA Tournament team,” ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said after Saturday night’s loss. “We are what our record is this year, this group of players is doing the best they can. We were overwhelmed today, we were outgunned, we had very little hope.”
The Big 12 Conference has dominated the men’s college basketball realm for the last few seasons, as it saw back-to-back NCAA men’s basketball tournament champions in 2022 and 2021 with Kansas and Baylor.
The Sun Devils appeared to be boys facing men on their trip down to Tucson, not only coming second-best on the scoresheet but in many facets across the boxscore. On the glass, the Wildcats finished the night with a 46-28 rebound advantage, along with just five turnovers to the Sun Devils’ dozen.
“We had no answers tonight to what they were doing,” Hurley said.
In two matchups against Big 12 opponents this year, the Sun Devils lost both by sizable margins, the first loss coming in November when they took on BYU in the Vegas Showdown. That ended 77-49 as the Sun Devils could only muster 17 points in the first half and finished the night shooting 33% from the field.
The second Big 12 loss came at the hands of Texas Christian in the US LBM Coast-to-Coast Challenge. TCU knocked ASU out of the NCAA tournament in a 2023 first-round matchup, that night ended 72-70 in a tightly contest affair. Earlier this season, however, ASU was no match this time around getting dealt with 79-59 after a 53-point second half from the Horned Frogs.
The Sun Devils hit scoring woes against top competition, the lack of offensive firepower has made it difficult to score with some of the best teams, shooting under 40% from the field in all three games versus Arizona, TCU, and BYU.
A similar story between all these games can be seen in the bench production, as the Sun Devils had fewer bench points across the three losses. Arizona’s bench scored 45-points of its own — a comparable total to the ASU’s total scoring output. With all four of their highest points-per-game players in the starting lineup, ASU lacks the bench spark many of the top programs have available sophomore guard Jaden Bradley was able to score a game-high 21 points off the bench on Saturday.
Against TCU and Arizona the turnover battle, a statistic that is usually in the favor of ASU, was another cause of concern. Despite leading the Pac-12 in turnover margin both of those matchups ended with it being more sloppy in possession than the opponent, a large factor to this can be attributed to the size and athleticism of both squads, but Arizona in particular.
For Arizona, the inside presence of 7 foot senior big Oumar Ballo combined with the length of players like 6-foot-6 senior forward Pelle Larsson, and 6 foot 7 inch forward senior Keshad Johnson gave the Sun Devils nightmares on the offensive end as his six steals, a multitude of deflections, and 5 block shots became overwhelming for them in the end.
Because ASU started four true guards, the size disparity has been shown to cause problems for them on the defensive end of the court as well. They tried to execute a strict game plan to cope with that issue, but it quickly went out in window when both teams stepped on the hardwood.
ASU gave up 52 points in the paint to Arizona, yet it only scored 16 of its own. All game long players like sophomore guards Jaden Bradley and Kylan Boswell were able to operate inside, and Ballo was an ever-present lob threat that dominated near the basket.
When asked about the lack of size his team faced against Arizona, junior guard Adam Miller said “It’s not really about that in my eyes, it’s about heart and IQ, it’s all about positioning giving yourself the best chance to guard.”
For Hurley, his team was simply outmatched in all facets of the night, not being able to pinpoint a specific problem to any player or scheme.
“Certainly in real time talking about it, is hard to see what it looks like,” Hurley said. “We were unable to support the paint at all. It was everybody I can’t blame any one coach or any one player it was unified across the board.”
The way Hurley saw the 45-point defeat Saturday night was the same as everyone else who tuned in — the Wildcats operated in a separate stratosphere to their rivals from up north. The same issues the Sun Devils dealt with against the likes of TCU and BYU and the same problems they may face in their next season when faced with some of the best competition in college basketball.
