(Photo: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)
The 2024-2025 ASU men’s basketball season has been nothing short of a disaster.
Few would have guessed that the Sun Devils, who had a 9-2 start, would be just a few games away from finishing last in the conference come season’s end. After practically everything that could have gone wrong with such a talented team has gone wrong, here they are, at rock bottom.
One of those “gone wrong” moments occurred in the final minutes of a February 1st game between the Sun Devils and the Arizona Wildcats, when senior forward BJ Freeman opted to headbutt senior guard Caleb Love, resulting in an ejection from the game.
A few minutes later, head coach Bobby Hurley declined to shake hands with the Wildcats after the loss and alluded that Love would not receive his all-conference vote, escalating the already intense rivalry between the two teams.
That was the energy leading up to the two teams’ early March rematch, with the Sun Devils wounded and bruised but eager for any opportunity to throw some havoc on Love and the Wildcats’ senior night. There was certainly a fight, but the depleted Sun Devil lineup ran out of gas. Despite a 33-point career night from senior guard Alston Mason, Arizona (20-10, 14-5 Big 12) was able to cap their recent rivalry dominance, winning 113-100.
The two teams scored 100+ points and combined for fewer than ten turnovers, the first time this has happened in the last fifteen years.
The Sun Devils were once again on the losing end of “history,” but it doesn’t take away from the fight ASU put up. In a game in which senior guard Adam Miller was injured on the second possession and Arizona began the game as 18.5 point favorites, the Sun Devils didn’t let Arizona catch a breath despite playing most of the game with just six scholarship players.
Mason scored 33 points tonight, which was the most by a Sun Devil since 2019. This game appeared lost from the start, but Mason made it feel quite in grasp. With six minutes remaining, two Mason free throws and a three-pointer on consecutive possessions reduced the score to 86-89.
Unfortunately for ASU, the Wildcats went on a 24-14 run to end the game, and dashed any hopes of a comeback. Part of the run included a three-pointer from sophomore forward Henri Veesar, who scored 22 points, a career high for the 7 ‘0 Estonian. ASU’s lack of size down low was a weakness throughout the night.
Arizona’s first ten points were in the paint, foreshadowing what would come. The Wildcats tried 39 free throws tonight, making 31 of them, and scored 52 points in the paint, accounting for 83 of their 113 total points. ASU’s three-guard lineup, along with size injuries, left them with few options.
Both senior forward Basheer Jihad and senior center Shawn Phillips Jr. fouled out of the game, leaving ASU with only four scholarship players at the end of the game. With all size taken from the game, freshman forward Amier Ali even logged a few minutes at center.
Freshman guard Joson Sanon was another player who carried the load until the final whistle, with 19 points and his third consecutive high scoring game. Sanon famously decommitted from Arizona before the beginning of the season, sadly for Sanon, his “revenge” will not be part of this year’s Sun Devil team.
With tonight’s loss, the Sun Devils are now 1-10 in their previous eleven meetings with Arizona, with their only win coming from Desmond Cambridge’s miraculous half-court heave in 2023. ASU has been unable to construct a team to compete with their rival and couldn’t compete with the whole Big 12 in their inaugural season.
A team that was unprepared for what was to follow when they attended this star-studded conference. Hurley’s team was unfit to mesh in the way he had anticipated. The frustration, instability, and dysfunction have made it clear why.
