ASU visits USC to begin its final road trip of the season

(Photo: Alyssa Buruato/WCSN)

The first week of March serves as the final preparations for the ultimate push towards an NCAA Tournament berth. The facts are unmistakable: neither Arizona State men’s basketball (14-15, 8-10 Pac-12) nor USC (12-17, 6-12 Pac-12) are expecting an at-large bid into the postseason. That leaves one avenue left if either school hopes to continue its season, as they must win the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas beginning March 16th.

Considering the outcome of Thursday night’s matchup — the second game between these two squads this year — won’t change much, if anything, regarding standings, so the immediate pressure seems lifted. However, this game serves as a vital tune-up for both squads who must come up with answers for many lineup and rotation questions that have arisen.

ASU is coming off an eight-day extended break after a one-game week on Wednesday night, a game against in-state rival No. 5 Arizona that ended in an 85-67 Sun Devil loss. ASU head coach Bobby Hurley, the ever-cerebral tactician, has been tinkering with his lineup all season, and now is the time for the final product. He still has questions he must find solutions to, and the upcoming USC game serves as a testing ground.

Fans will see whether Hurley opts to use the four-guard starting lineup he’s deployed in over half the teams’ games this season, or go with two big men down low. Since the return of junior guard Adam Miller from an early-season eligibility battle with the NCAA, Hurley has tried to maximize his perimeter versatility and scoring by starting four listed guards all under six foot six inches, doing so 15 times since Miller’s return. The team has gone 6-9 in that span, but the premier defensive versatility has proved fruitful as the Sun Devils rank second in the conference in lowest opponent three-point percentage at 32.2 percent.

Since the return of the 7-foot sophomore center Shawn Phillips Jr. to relatively full health, Hurley has experimented multiple times with larger two-big lineups. In this permutation, Phillips Jr. joins graduate big man Alonzo Gaffney in the starting frontcourt. The two-big look has yielded a 2-3 record in that span over the last month and a half.

Hurley won’t be the only coach configuring his lineup and hoping to get his team some confidence rolling into Vegas. Trojan Head Coach Andy Enfield has some rotation questions to answer as well.

The starting five in Los Angeles seems fairly nailed on having not changed in the better part of the last month, a span during which the Trojans played games. However, even with the starters entrenched as the tone-setters, Enfield has a plethora of bench options who have proven themselves capable of minutes.

Two sophomores — guard Oziyah Sellers and center Vincent Iwuchukwu — as well as freshman guard Bronny James, have all started games and played heavy allotments for minutes during the extended absences from the starters.

Midseason injuries to freshman starting point guard Isaiah Collier and graduate guard Boogie Ellis forced Enfield to trust his reserves. The team struggled without their stars, going 0-4 with Ellis or Collier kept off of the floor. However, the rotation players did show in spurts they could handle greater responsibilities, most notably Sellers pouirng in 18 points in an extended 28-minute night against Colorado in mid-January, the first game without the two starting guards. Those rotational players will have to treat this last week of regular season play — starting with the matchup against Arizona State — as their final opportunity to put pressure on Enfield to trust his bench in the big games on the horizon.

The final score may not hold much impact past the pride of victory, but the tinkering of lineups, combinations, and styles will be the undercurrent following through this game.

Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. PST from the Galen Center in Los Angeles on FS1.