(Photo: Madison Sorenson/ WCSN)
TEMPE – When the horn inside the Lahaina Civic Center on the island of Maui in Hawaii blared for the final time a day shy of Thanksgiving on Nov. 26, it signified that Arizona State men’s basketball had fallen just short of defying all odds.
Undefeated and now ranked No. 24 Southern California bested the Sun Devils 88-75, earning Bobby Hurley’s squad a runner-up finish in the Maui Invitational.
Even without climbing to the mountain top step of Hawaii’s premier basketball attraction as it once did in 1994, the Sun Devils headed back to the mainland as a team with an emerging identity.
Arizona State (6-2) entered the Aloha State as an underdog, first against Hawaii, before taking part in the Thanksgiving week tournament. The Sun Devils showed determination, however, beating the Rainbow Warriors 83-76, before late-game heroics propelled them over Texas and Washington State, 87-86 and 100-94, respectively.
Back in State 48, ASU is trying to carry that momentum into its final slate of non-conference matchups, and into the new year against Big 12 opponents.
“I’m proud of the way we competed,” Hurley said after ASU’s Dec. 5 practice. “Winning three out of four and getting to the championship. I think it was a good trip in a lot of regards. We came back in a lot of games, showed a lot of grit in the Hawaii game and Texas game, and even (against) Washington State.”
The Rainbow Warriors controlled their matchup against the Sun Devils until ASU grabbed onto the lead with 5:30 left in the game. Sun Devils senior guard Moe Odum helped pull off the upset against the Longhorns with an improbable 3-pointer in the final moments of the first-round affair, and an all-around offensive effort pushed ASU past the Cougars after falling down by double digits in the second half.
Playing gritty basketball was ASU’s way to survive and thrive, but Hurley knows the team needs to improve in other areas of its game to continue its winning ways.
“We grew in some areas and regressed in some others,” Hurley said. “It was kind of like the balance was tilted more toward the offensive end. We put up points against Hawaii and Texas and then 100 points against Washington State, and we need to do better at that end of the floor.”
Improving defense, rebounding and securing loose balls are identifiable areas that the Sun Devils have been working on ahead of their matchup against Oklahoma on Saturday.
ASU hasn’t struggled in those areas due to a lack of talent. Graduate forward Allen Mukeba’s 249 rebounds ranked him inside the top-10 in the Horizon League last season, and 7-foot-1 freshman center Massamba Diop has the talents to make him a force on the glass and in the interior.
Odum, who’s firmly established himself as the team’s leader, knows improvement in those areas comes from having the right mindset.
“It’s just effort,” Odum said. “It’s whether we want to do it or not. I explain that to my teammates all the time, either you’re going to do it or you’re not, or somebody else (is) going to do it. That’s just how life is in general. I just try to invest that into them.
“You can take anybody on the street and go rebound hard and play defense hard, but you’ve got to want to do it.”
Odum’s presence as a veteran leader stems from his no-nonsense attitude and a relationship with Hurley that’s built on a mutual understanding of doing what it takes to make the team better.
Odum serves as something of a middleman between the coaching staff and the rest of the players. If Hurley needs a message sent to the team, Odum can be a messenger. If Hurley needs to put the team in its place himself, he can do it by making an example of Odum – A relationship that Hurley likened to the one he had with former Sun Devil forward Zylan Cheatham.
“I grew up getting coached like that,” Odum said. “It’s a regular day. You need somebody to be mad at, just be mad at me.”
While Hurley and Odum have grown closer, the team’s 10-day trip to Hawaii offered the players an opportunity to continue becoming tighter-knit.
The team celebrated Thanksgiving together at their hotel Thursday before flying back to the mainland, and spent off days and downtime on the islands exploring and walking the beaches.
Odum, in particular, grew closer to Diop, who serves as his roommate on road trips. The veteran put effort into learning words in Wolof, one of the five languages he claims the freshman can speak. He would put effort into teaching Diop, too, putting on ESPN and YouTube highlights in an effort to see what they could do better.
“I learned that in order to win games, we have to bond off the court,” Odum said. “Talent is just not going to win games. We have to be able to have the chemistry, take constructive criticism, and I feel like that’s what we did.”
The Sun Devils will all need to be on the same page, working efficiently as a singular unit, to overcome what lies ahead. The first of ASU’s final five non-conference games is against an Oklahoma team (6-2) that received votes in the latest AP Poll.
Once the calendar flips to January, things don’t get any easier with the Sun Devils having to compete in the third toughest conference in the country, according to Warren Nolan.
ASU will have to maneuver through the rest of its non-conference schedule without senior guard Adante’ Holiman, who’s yet to make his Sun Devil debut after transferring from Georgia Southern, where he averaged a team-best 16.9 points per game, knocking down 81 3-pointers.
Hurley announced that Holiman is still working back from his elbow injury, and while he’s been participating in practice in a limited fashion, he doesn’t believe it’s likely that he’ll play in the coming weeks.
Hurley also announced that freshman forward Jovan Ićitović and freshman center Dame Salane are redshirting the 2025-26 season.
It’ll be up to the same group of Sun Devils who went to battle in Hawaii to take the fight to Oklahoma and start the upcoming mainland stint off strong. The Sooners play an aggressive style of offense and are led by redshirt senior guard Nijel Pack, who leads the SEC conference with a 50.7% mark from beyond the arc.
Odum is taking responsibility to ensure ensuring that his team is ready for the challenge.
“I can’t say what I want to say on camera, but I do get on them before the game,” Odum said. “I’m going to get on them before the game and make sure that we are here to be felt. If somebody (is) going to go down, it ain’t going to be us. Somebody (is) going to bleed, it ain’t going to be us.”
The collegiate basketball landscape counted out ASU before the season tipped off as the program was picked to finish last in the Big 12 Men’s Basketball preseason media poll, but Hurley and Odum are trying their hardest to prove pundits and skeptical fans wrong. A strong game against Oklahoma – even if the Sun Devils don’t ultimately pull off an upset victory – would help prove that its strong Hawaii road trip wasn’t a fluke, and that the best might be yet to come.
“Looking at them, they’re an NCAA tournament team,” Hurley said. “If you want to have a chance to compete in March, then these are the type of teams you have to be able to compete with and beat.”
