(Photo: Alyssa Burato/WCSN)
Basketball season has almost fully commenced, as the NBA tipped off this past week, and college basketball is just under two weeks away. Arizona State basketball will take the hardwood in Desert Financial Arena in what should be a different but exciting time for ASU fans.
The team is coming off a disappointing season a year ago, finishing with a record of 14-18. Now, the Sun Devils enter the Big 12 where even more challenges await than a season ago. The Big 12 is considered the best conference in college basketball, but that beast is still two months away. A the moment, ASU will have its attention set on another college basketball titan – Duke.
ASU travels to Durham with a matchup against the Blue Devils on Sunday with a 6:30 PM tip-off. It’s an exhibition game with all revenue going to the Duke Children’s Hospital. ASU head coach Bobby Hurley will make his return to Cameron Indoor Stadium where his jersey currently resides in the rafters after he was inducted into the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.
“It’s going to be mixed emotions,” Hurley said. “Haven’t really been back there very much in the past. So it’s going to be a lot of fun to get an opportunity to see Coach K on the weekend and treat this like a high-level road game, and that’s the primary focus.”
It’s all business for the team as they prepare for their season opener against Idaho State on Nov. 5.
What the Sun Devils can get out of facing Duke
Duke is a great test for the Sun Devils early on this season. Even if it’s an exhibition game, it’ll be a great assessment to see where some of the freshmen and incoming transfers will handle top-of-the-line competition. Like ASU, Duke has an outstanding freshman class headlined by the 2025 projected No.1 overall pick, Cooper Flagg. The Blue Devils also acquired four other recruits that were listed in the top 35 by ESPN.
The Sun Devils participated in a closed scrimmage last weekend and Hurley mentioned the team “isn’t there yet.” Just days before the exhibition matchup the team has had lengthy film sessions to hopefully fix some of the problems. Even with new talent in the building, according to Hurley, the Sun Devils “didn’t shoot great,” and struggled defensively which were two problems a year ago.
“We’re still finding ourselves, and I’m focusing on the errors and the mistakes that we’re making and continuing to get better more than what Duke is doing,” Hurley said. “I’ll watch some film of Duke, but it’s more like what we’re doing right now.”
Playing at Cameron Indoor Stadium will be a good evaluation of how the team will handle tough road environments. ASU has road games versus Gonzaga and Kansas this year, and Duke won’t be the only top-10 opponent the Sun Devils face on the road.
The Sun Devils feature three new freshmen and some mid-major transfers this year, seeing how they adapt throughout the game and environment will be crucial.
“It’s just you treat it exactly like a game, what it’ll be like for our opener, just in preparation, how we warm up the crowd in that environment,” Hurley said. “ It adds a different flavor to it, just having a crowd there, and it’s one of the great places that you can play a road game. I think our freshmen, I wouldn’t say all three of them freshmen, but a couple of them were a little bit shaky in the first scrimmage. Nerves, I think, surfaced some.”
Starting lineup and rotations
With multiple different looks this ASU team brings a lot of potential as they enter the new season. Whether it’s a small ball lineup or having two bigs in at the same time, Hurley can experiment with whatever he wants on Sunday.
Duke has a lot of length and it’ll be a great test for guards like senior Adam Miller and senior Alston Mason who both are listed at or under 6-foot-3. Miller was one of the lone bright spots for the Sun Devils a season ago, so his role is still up in the air considering the type of players ASU brought in.
The Sun Devils collected more guard talent over the offseason with Mason and senior BJ Freeman transferring in, can’t forget top 25 recruit freshman Joson Sanon either. There is a lot of competition as expected for the starting guard spots.
“I just haven’t settled on any starting lineups yet,” Hurley said. “(Miller) started over the weekend, and we’ll just see what happens over the next 12 days. That’s how I’m using this.”
A lineup that Sun Devil fans can see is the double big lineup with junior center Shawn Phillips Jr. and freshman forward Jayden Quaintance. Phillips is more of a down-low threat with great length for boards, and Quaintance has that length as well, but can also help stretch the floor with his upside as a shooter. Hurley has mentioned that Quaintance may be the Sun Devils best playmaker and has also been given the “green light” to take shots behind the arc. He also mentioned the team will have combinations of Quaintance and senior forward Basheer Jihad or Phillips Jr. and Jihad on the court at the same time.
The Sun Devils have a lot of depth in the backcourt of the roster, so some more small-ball lineups are a possibility. With the limited depth in the frontcourt, forwards like Jihad and freshman Ameer Ali can see increased playing time depending on the matchup.
“We’ll have different combinations that will be available to us,” Hurley said. “We’ve been working a little bit more with some small ball stuff as well. So we’re just having options in case there are foul issues at (backcourt) those positions. So we’re prepared for anything.”
With no confirmed starting lineup expected as of yet, it’ll be interesting to see what type of lineups Hurley will lean on for Sunday’s game. A lot of new faces and young players on the roster, and with that Hurley alluded to riding whoever has the “hot hand”.
Going against Duke, expect to see the Sun Devils rely on their length a little bit more early in the game. Duke has a unique roster that features only one player under 6-foot-5, the Blue Devils like to get out in transition and score fast. A good test to see how ASU improves on its transition defense, as Hurley mentioned that was a weak point of their most recent scrimmage.
“I’m trying to get guys out of the mindset of thinking about a starting lineup and just thinking about maximizing your minutes and forcing me to not want to take you out of the game,” Hurley said. If you’re out there performing and playing the right way and playing well, then everything will take care of itself.”
Identity going into the Big 12
Now into the main headline of this season.
The Big 12.
As already mentioned ASU has a lot of new faces going into this tough conference. The Big 12 featured six teams in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. It’s a different type of rodeo than the Pac-12 a season ago. Each game will be a battle as the physicality will move up a notch.
Regardless of what the Big 12 is like, Hurley mentioned at Big 12 media day that he didn’t wanna change the Sun Devils’ identity heading into this season. The conference has multiple programs that are defensive-minded, have size, and play a physical brand of basketball.
“We got some good size on the front court,” Hurley said. I think our calling card has to be playing with pace, using the three-point line as a weapon, and being able to attack on offense. If we could do those things, then we’d be a little bit different.”
To make that work, hopefully, the shots behind the arc will start to fall for the Sun Devils. This year is a new team, but the squad last year heavily struggled to put the ball in the basket from downtown. The team shot 30% from three which equated to 328th in the country. Those numbers simply won’t cut it in the Big 12.
“It’s just a great thing for us to get tested this way,” Hurley said. “See where we stand on Sunday and then have more film to be able to break down to start getting ready for the real deal.”
