ASU Women’s Basketball: Sun Devils gear up for Cal and No. 1 Stanford at home this weekend

(Photo: Ryan Blank/WCSN)

The Arizona State women’s basketball team has had an extended winter break over the last couple weeks to regroup and get ready for the remaining two months of the season.

Since the Sun Devils last took the court, it’s been nearly two weeks since the team’s game against Colorado was postponed on Dec. 20 due to COVID-19 issues in the Buffaloes’ program.

“We’re there, we’re prepared, the table is set,” head coach Charli Turner Thorne said in her weekly media availability on Tuesday. “[The team] didn’t even know that we weren’t going to be able to play the game until they were in the lobby. They were dressed, taped and ready to leave for the game, so I think it was hard for them. But I think it was the right decision.”

Now, ASU will host California and No. 1 Stanford over the weekend in its first game action since Dec. 18 at Utah.

In that game versus the Utes, the Sun Devils were once again slow out of the gate, being down 11 points early in the second quarter. Yet, they put together another gutsy performance in the second half, taking back the lead with three minutes left in the third quarter and never relinquishing it from then on.

Turner Thorne attributed the slow starts to the struggles on the offensive end.

“In some of those quarters, [we] weren’t that bad defensively; we were just really bad offensively,” Turner Thorne said. “We gotta stop passing up shots, we gotta know when to score it, know when to share it. Believe me, we’re very much in our infancy stages of that collectively as a team, and that’s what you guys see sometimes out there.”

On Friday, ASU will try to improve to 7-2 against Cal, who is 0-7 on the year.

The Golden Bears have been outscored by their opponents by an average of 21.5 points. They have three major contributors out for the season due to injury, so they have had to shuffle their lineup around as a result.

“They started four post players in the [USC] game,” Turner Thorne said. “So they’re still finding themselves. They’re very young like us, figuring things out like us, but super talented.

“I think they’re the hungriest team in our conference … because even though they’ve played some really good basketball, they haven’t been on the winning end of things yet.”

An emerging player for Cal is freshman forward Dalayah Daniels, who is the only Pac-12 freshman with three double-doubles and leads the conference in minutes played per game (37.39).

On Sunday, ASU will completely flip the switch and play its toughest opponent of the season – No. 1 Stanford (7-0). The Cardinal have outscored their opponents by over 38 points a game and have five players averaging double-digits in points per game.

They are led by head coach Tara VanDerveer, who recently passed Pat Summit to become the winningest coach in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history. In the 1980s, Turner Thorne actually played for VanDerveer for three of the coach’s 42 seasons at Stanford.

While starting strong is not as much of a priority against a lesser opponent like Cal, it will be imperative for the Sun Devils to set the tone early if they want a chance at the upset against Stanford.

One aspect that could play a major factor in both games is the offensive rebounding battle, which has proven to be important in several of ASU’s wins this season. All three teams fall inside the top half of the conference for offensive rebounds per game.

Turner Thorne emphasized that they can’t look ahead at Stanford, and have to stay focused on the game in front of them.

“I’m not a coach that ever looks past anybody,” Turner Thorne said. “Yes, having only one day of prep for Stanford is not ideal, but … if they’re gonna be thinking about Stanford, it’s not because of what we say. Everything’s gonna be ‘this is what Cal does.’

“I don’t see us—this kind of naive team, young team—taking anybody lightly. I just don’t think it’s who we are.”

Both games will be broadcasted on the Pac-12 Network. Tip off against Cal is scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. MST while tip off against Stanford is scheduled for Sunday at 4 p.m. MST.