(Photo via Janaé Bradford/WCSN)
The first season of the Natasha Adair head coaching era didn’t go according to the plan for ASU Women’s Basketball. Following a promising 5-0 start – and an eventual 7-4 record in non-conference play – the Sun Devils’ season quickly went downhill with the onset of Pac-12 Conference play. Earning just one win in the final three months of the season, ASU finished 8-20 with an abysmal 1-17 conference record.
To recap the season, WCSN Women’s Basketball reporters Tia Reid and Dylan Wickman analyzed what went right and what went wrong in Adair’s debut season in the desert.
HIGHS
Reid: While it took until the last weekend of the season for ASU to pick up its first win of Pac-12 play, the Sun Devils showed they nearly had what it took to get the win multiple times before the fateful matchup with Oregon State on Feb. 23. Despite starting their conference slate with a pair of lopsided losses in late December – 84-66 to then-No. 18 Arizona and 101-69 to then-No. 2 Stanford – the Sun Devils managed to decrease their losing deficits by late January, falling just four points short to Washington State on Jan. 27 and two points short to Washington on Jan. 29. Following forfeits to Colorado and Utah in mid-January, the Sun Devils pushed both teams – then ranked within the top 25 – to their limits when physically matching up for the first time a little over a month later. ASU even took the No. 4 Utes down to the wire, tying the game at 65-65 within the final two minutes, before losing 74-69. Its Pac-12 Tournament first-round matchup with fifth-seeded and No. 19-ranked UCLA was another example of how competitive ASU could be at times, as the 12th-seeded Sun Devils forced the Bruins into an extra period of play before coming up short 81-70. ASU was far from being a potential NCAA Tournament qualifier or one of the best teams in its conference, but at times, the Sun Devils competed well above expectations in arguably the most competitive conference in NCAA Women’s Basketball. ASU may have lost a lot, but its record paints an uglier picture than reality.
Wickman: Though the Sun Devils struggled with offensive efficiency from all parts of the court, one area where they excelled was from the free-throw line. The Sun Devils attempted 19.3 free throws per game – 2.4 more than the average for all Division I teams – and converted them at a 73.3% clip – 2.5% higher than the average. If it weren’t for the Sun Devils’ free throw proficiency, they may have gone winless in conference play. Their 14-for-14 performance at the line against Oregon State on Feb. 23 helped them eke out the two-point win. The Sun Devils also had a 17-for-21 performance from the line in their last-ditch effort against UCLA at the Pac-12 Tournament, which nearly helped them earn the upset win. The team’s ability to take and make free throws ended up being a reliable option to fall back on when it couldn’t generate much rhythm on offense. The only problem is that the team relied on free throws to generate points too frequently, which is not a formula for an efficient offense. If the Sun Devils take a step forward offensively next season and can efficiently score from other areas of the court, the free throws will become much more valuable.
LOWS
Reid: As mentioned above, the Sun Devils often made their living from the free throw line on offense. To do this, ball movement and effective spacing were often sacrificed in exchange for ill-advised and forced drives to the hoop that interrupted any potential offensive flow. The Sun Devils tended to also fall out of rhythm due to poor shot selection across the board. This is all evidenced by ASU’s poor shooting percentages from the floor and beyond the arc – 35.7% from the field and 28.5% from three – but also ASU’s Pac-12-worst 10.0 assists per game. The mark also placed them 321st out of 350 teams at the NCAA Division I level. Junior guard Jaddan Simmons led in this department with 3.1 per game, but aside from her and junior guard Tyi Skinner, who posted 2.4 per contest, no other Sun Devil averaged more than two assists per game or recorded more than 40 on the season. For ASU to be a competitive team, spreading the floor and moving the ball – actions that force defenses to work harder, resulting in defensive mistakes and offensive openings – should be one of many focal points in the offseason.
Wickman: While the Sun Devils shot at the free throw line well, it didn’t translate to the rest of the court. The Sun Devils ended the season with a field goal percentage of 35.7% and a three-point percentage of 28.5% while not shooting over 40% from the field in a single conference game. With ASU’s opponents shooting with splits of 43.7%-34.5%, it became evident why the Sun Devils struggled to win games. This problem has to do with the personnel on the team as well as inexperience. Of course, this season was the first season for head coach Adair in Tempe. There were also eight new players on the roster. This team was disadvantaged from the start in the amount of time they were given to gel and build chemistry. The team struggled to stay on the same page all season, and the offensive numbers didn’t improve much in its 28 games. Many of the issues on offense have to do with the type of shots created and taken. Often, the Sun Devils’ offense had to rely on either Skinner or junior guard Treasure Hunt to make something happen in isolation after initial actions failed to get a good look. This is evidenced by Skinner’s team-leading 485 field goal attempts throughout the season and Hunt’s 344 attempts that placed her second on the team. Neither player was extremely efficient either, with Skinner having 36.6%-34.7% shooting splits and Hunt having splits of 29.9%-23.7%. The Sun Devils will have to find a way to generate better, more diverse offensive looks if they want to have more success in conference play next season.
Adair’s first season in Tempe was marred by poor on-court performances and prolonged struggles with injury. But even through the disastrous moments, Adair stayed positive and continued to advocate for her team’s growth. Now, with a full offseason to evaluate current players, rehab injuries and bring in new recruits and transfers, Adair is hopeful that the progress will begin to show.
“No matter who you are and no matter what you’ve accomplished, you always go in the off-season, and you want to be better,” Adair said following her team’s season-ending loss to UCLA. “I think that’s what we want to do, no matter if we were the top or the bottom. So I think for us just, one, to get healthy; and for, two, for us to just continue to get better as a team. But we have so many moments where we can refer to what we did well and then moments where we want to continue to grow. But just who we are and creating our culture and our identity coming out of year one, I watched our team come together. You learn a lot about people in adversity. I learned a lot about these special young women on our team … This is what you see now, but this is not the future of ASU Women’s Basketball.”
