Five Takeaways From Sun Devils’ 82-70 loss at Colorado

(Photo Credit: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)

Exasperation would be the most apt description of the look plastered on Arizona State men’s basketball (11-12, 5-7 Pac-12) head coach Bobby Hurley’s face. His eyes told the whole story. An air of “how did we get here?” hung above him and his team. The ball was tipped off, and before anyone could sit down in their CU Event Center seats, Colorado had blitzed the Sun Devils to an opening lead of 21-3. ASU responded with a 20-6 run eventually closing the half only trailing by nine.

The team showed promise until it didn’t. Colorado opened the second half in the same vein it started the first. Through the first five minutes of the second half Colorado senior forward Tristan Da Silva had seven points to ASU’s entire team, scoring five. ASU fought back again — cutting the lead to as small as seven points with four-and-a-half minutes left — but could not seal the deal, eventually losing 82-70.

This game was yet another example of a team unable to finish games and, in a metaphor for the season, unable to fulfill early promises. Here are five takeaways from the matchup.

Any Tournament Hopes Lie in Vegas, and ASU Needs to Find its Scoring Touch First

Following the defeat to Colorado on Thursday night in Boulder, ASU has now lost five consecutive Pac-12 matchups. They haven’t won in 19 days and counting. A team that once flashed a sliver of March Madness pedigree beginning conference play 4-0 has since dulled out. At the time the, Sun Devils were riding high after beating Colorado and Utah consecutively. Those wins were powered by strong second-half and clutch time showings. Both the mountain schools have hovered around the high-Quadrant-2-to-low-Quadrant-1 region all year, so the ASU victories seemed like possible springboards to a fairly strong tournament resume.

Those positive early returns are long gone now. The game Thursday night proved once again that ASU may not be able to compete with the conference’s elite teams in big games. One main reason for seven losses in eight games has been the near-complete cessation of effective and efficient scoring. During the four-game winning streak, the Sun Devils averaged 76.3 points per game while shooting 44.6 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from deep. For comparison, in the last four losses they’ve averaged 67.3 points a game while shooting 39 percent from the field and 25.4 percent from deep. The scoring and shooting efficiency have gone missing.

Barring possibly two monumental victories over No. 8 Arizona who’s ranked No. 3 in the NET Rankings, an at-large bid seems long gone for Hurley’s group. That leaves just one road to postseason play for the Sun Devils, and it runs straight through the Las Vegas Strip. The Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament will take place Mar. 13 to 16 in Las Vegas, and the tournament winner gets an automatic bid come Selection Sunday. Every team in the conference has a chance in single-elimination play to win out and earn safe passage. The bad news for the Sun Devils is they likely won’t be highly-seeded, and thus will need four consecutive wins to steal a conference championship. The good news is it wouldn’t be the first time they win four straight Pac-12 games and they’ll know their season is on the line with every game. – Devon Henderson

The Rotation Changed, But the Impact Didn’t

In the midst of a losing streak, Hurley decided Thursday night was the time to make a change to the starting lineup. For the first time since the second game of the season against Texas Southern in early November, sophomore center Shawn Phillips Jr. started while graduate wingman Jose Perez came off the bench. The different starting look also came with an expanded rotation as Hurley gave more minutes to his bench unit.

Hurley allotted 64 total minutes to his bench — excluding the game’s last minute — against Colorado. He’s provided an average of 48.6 minutes to his rotation in ASU’s last three games. Expanded playing time for players like sophomore forward Kamari Lands, junior big man Bryant Selebangue and traditional starter Perez did not prove to be the winning answer. The trio provided little to no impact combining for a total of 10 points between them.

Perez who entered the game as the team’s second leading scorer averaging 12.9 points per contest shot one for nine from the field providing a measly two points in the losing effort. Hurley has preached that his bench players need to stay ready for their opportunity to prove themselves, and Thursday’s game did little to plead their case for bigger roles. – Devon Henderson

Hot and Cold Scoring

Colorado was able to jump out to a monstrous lead to begin the first half going up as much as 18 points in the opening seven minutes, despite the deficient ASU was able to climb back cutting the lead down to single digits going into halftime 44-35.

In the second half the story was much of the same, the Sun Devils went ice cold in the early part of the period, failing to register a single point for almost six minutes of action. In that time, the Buffs climbed out to another sizable advantage, going back up 17 points with 12 minutes to play.

Hurley’s team made yet another comeback attempt toward the end of the second half, sparking a 16-6 run to cut the lead down to seven once again. Colorado was able to hold off another valiant effort eventually closing out the night.

On the offensive end, ASU was unable to answer the Buffaloes’ fast start, missing its first seven field goals, and not getting on the scoreboard for the opening four minutes. The same story was painted in the second half run where it failed to score for over five minutes as well, this time missing eight straight field goals early in the period.

The reason for the Sun Devils’ offensive struggles comes down to the pace of play, Hurley’s team benefited from playing fast Thursday night scoring 22 fast break points. They also found success getting looks inside, scoring 40 points in the paint.

ASU gave itself multiple mountains to climb, going down big in both the first and second halves. The team’s offensive struggles at multiple points in the night created an uphill battle that was too steep to come back from. – Ryan Myers

Shooting Discrepancies

The Sun Devils did not have a woeful night from the floor, shooting 44% from the field and 32% from beyond the arch. They were bested by their opponent in both categories shooting 47%, and 40% on 3-point attempts. The difference on the stat-sheet did come however from the free throw line where the Buffs created a major advantage.

As ASU only shot 9-of-14 on free throw attempts Thursday night, CU took advantage making 26-of-29 from the charity stripe. Free throws played a key role in the matchup as the 17-point discrepancy from the line, ended up making all the difference when the final buzzer sounded.

Down the stretch the buffs converted with consistency, knocking down 14 of its final 17 free throws. While the Sun Devils did not have a terrible performance from line their high-pressure defensive scheme forced them to rack up fouls, as junior guard Frankie Collins and graduate forward Alonzo Gaffney both finished with four fouls, Colorado’s ability to hit its free throws with consistency on Thursday made all the difference. – Ryan Myers

Rebounding Struggles Present Once Again

Going into Thursday night, ASU ranked No. 348 in the nation in rebound margin. This makes the team a bottom-five rebounding team period and by far last in the Pac-12 as no other team has a margin less than one.

The rebound margin became apparent once again against Colorado, as the Sun Devils were outmatched on the glass 37-29, hitting the eight-board margin on the nose for another night.

The rebound margin did become a costly factor as ASU gave up 10 second-chance points to the Buffs as senior guard J’Vonne Hadley was able to snag 11 rebounds and score some easy points inside to round out his 19-point performance.

While the rebound battle did not make all the difference on Thursday, it shows another step not taken by ASU as it struggled to make any improvements on the glass, even with the sub-par standard it’s currently set at. -Ryan Myers