ASU suffer worst defeat in two years in Houston

(Photo: Courtesy/ Sun Devil Athletics)

Since before the season started, Arizona State men’s basketball fans had a two-game road stretch circled on their calendars. These games represented a chance to elevate themselves to the level of the top contenders in the country. Ultimately, that pair of games came and went in anticlimactic fashion with losses to No. 1 Arizona and No. 7 Houston. While the circumstances were similar, the products were very different.

The Sun Devils looked full of fire against their southern rivals before eventually falling by just seven points. Against the Cougars, it was a completely different story. Describing Sparky’s performance as patchy would be generous, and describing it as competitive would be straight-up dishonest.

Houston (17-1, 5-0 Big 12) defended its home court dominantly on Sunday, eventually winning 103-73 over ASU (10-8, 1-4 Big 12). The 30-point differential was the Sun Devils’ worst defeat since the 2023-24 season.

The Cougars wasted no time, jumping out to a 24-2 lead in just six minutes. While Houston is known for its stifling defense, it was its offense that surprised. Freshman guard Kings Flemings led the game with 20 points. Four of his teammates joined him with double-digit points as the Cougars cracked triple digits as a team for the first time all season.

Here are the takeaways:

A full 40 minutes

“Play a full 40 minutes,” a well known phrase for ASU basketball fans, often repeated by former ASU women’s head coach Natasha Adair. It was her goal for her team to play quality basketball for the entirety of the game.

Adair’s team isn’t the only unit to struggle with spasmodic play, Bobby Hurley and the men’s team have fallen to a similar fate this season. Sunday was no different. The Sun Devils never led but looked like a dramatically better team in the second half.

Through the first 20 minutes, the Cougars led 56-29, the most points they have scored in a half all season. ASU’s offense floundered, shooting just 36.7% from the field with only five made 2-pointers.

In the second half the Sun Devils’ demeanor changed. They started attacking the rim, creating 20 more free throws than the first half and 14 points in the paint.

With fourteen minutes left in the game, Massamba Diop’s layup started what would become ASU’s best stretch of the game. It went on a 14-0 run, featuring four different scorers.

After pulling within 13 points the Sun Devils fell back into their routine of a few positive minutes before ceding dominant runs. This time, Houston had an 18-2 run.

ASU’s inability to find a rhythm and stay in it has prevented them from staying competitive with the better teams on their schedule.

Turnover troubles

Coming into this game the Cougars led the Big 12 with a 6.89 turnover margin. The Sun Devils fell to an almost identical fate, giving up the ball 17 times to Houston’s 10.

As the point guard, it isn’t unexpected for Moe Odum to lead his team in turnovers, however, he more than doubled his next closest teammate’s total. Many of his 5 turnovers came at the fast hands of Flemings. The star freshman paired four steals with two blocks.

Flemings against Odum wasn’t the only matchup ASU lost the turnover battle in. Four of its players had more turnovers than assists. Tonight’s first half was simply an indicator of a larger problem, poor possession of the ball.

Too often the Sun Devils struggle to create safe looks, especially when facing double teams. Before facing the Cougars, they were fourth in the Big 12 in total turnovers.

Ride the hot hands

All season Moe Odum has been his team’s primary option from beyond the arc. The senior guard averages 2.5 three-point makes per game, 10th in the Big 12. Recently he’s struggled, making 15 of his 62 3-pointers (24.2%) over the last nine games.

While Odum has struggled, bench players Noah Meeusen and Andrija Grbović have thrived. Meeusen has made six threes on eight attempts in the last two games, especially impressive since Arizona and Houston are both top-10 teams, holding opponents to under 33% beyond the arc.

Grbović has now made 2 or more 3-pointers in nine of his 12 games played. He also is behind only Diop and Bryce Ford in shooting percentage from deep for ASU.

While Odum works out of his shooting slump, the Sun Devils need somewhere to turn outside of the arc. Meeusen and Grbović seem to have shown that they deserve more involvement. They’ll have two great chances to prove it next week against West Virginia and Cincinnati. Both teams rank in the bottom eight of the Big 12 in terms of 3-pointers given up.