Sun Devils’ Comeback Falls Short in First Conference Game

(Photo: Joshua Eaton/ WCSN)

Since the Sun Devils’ first game of the season against Southern Utah, head coach Bobby Hurley has preached that simply winning isn’t enough. His team needed to “set a bar” at a higher standard in order to compete with Big 12 opponents.

Seven weeks later, their first conference opponent marched into Desert Financial Arena and proved Hurley right. Colorado won 95-89, showing that Arizona State can no longer expect to win sloppy games.

However, the Buffaloes (11-3, 1-0 Big 12) didn’t cruise to their victory. After trailing by 14 points late in the first half, the Sun Devils (9-5, 0-1 Big 12) made a furious comeback to lead with 4:05 left.

Sparking their 10-0 run to retake the lead was Allen Mukeba’s incredible play. Trailing Anthony Johnson on a fast break, he caught a pass from his guard at the arc, took one dribble from and stretched toward the sky. He jumped with no regard for the defender in front of him, slamming home arguably ASU’s poster of the year, earning a foul and a 3-point play with it.

Despite Mukeba’s electric play and his team’s comeback, ASU collapsed with 1:53 left, giving up a costly turnover and missing its final four 3-point attempts.

While the game was lost in the final minutes, all 40 minutes provided valuable insights into how the Sun Devils shape up for the rest of the season.

Too much weight on Odum’s shoulders?

Odum’s turnover with 30 seconds left sealed the game and left a sour aftertaste from an otherwise great second half. After scoring just four points through the first 20 minutes, he finished the game with 21 points and a season-high 12 assists. According to ESPN, he became the first ASU guard with 10-plus assists since 2022.

The problem was that when he wasn’t scoring, ASU wasn’t either. The Sun Devils went into the half down 10. Odum’s four points carry some of the blame, but so do Bryce Ford, Noah Meeusen and Trevor Best, who combined for just 2 points in the first half. They finished with those same 2 points across 49 combined minutes.

All of the guards’ scoring weight fell to Odum and Johnson. Together they tallied 41 points, but it wasn’t enough.

Similarly, the playmaking responsibility fell solely on Odum’s shoulders. The senior point guard threw 12 of the team’s 19 assists. Seven assists paired with 10 non-Odum turnovers is a problem. A persistent problem that has led to a 1.24 assist-to-turnover ratio, second worst in the Big 12.

If the Sun Devils can’t find a way to generate consistent production from their guards other than Odum and Johnson, it could be a long conference schedule.

No Trouet. No problem?

Forward Santiago Trouet missed his first game of the season with an undisclosed injury. Coming into the game, he was third on the team in total minutes played and first with 5.5 rebounds per game.

In his absence, Mukeba and center Massamba Diop stepped up in a big way.

Mukeba scored a season-high 16 points in his first start as a Sun Devil. He was shooting 70% with six rebounds before fouling out late in the second half.

Diop appeared to be playing more confidently and freely than he has all season. The freshman made seven of his nine shots for 20 points. He also added an incredible seven blocks, the most by a Sun Devil in a game since Jordan Bachynski had eight in 2014.

While Diop and Mukeba’s highlight-level play distracted from the loss of Trouet, it didn’t solve it.

ASU finished with just 20 rebounds, its third lowest in a game this season. Coming into the game, the Sun Devils averaged 33 rebounds per game, dead last in the Big 12. In fact the 3.1 rpg gap between them and 15th place West Virginia is the exact same as between Baylor and Kansas State, the second and tenth best rebounding teams in the conference.

That discouraging stat is with Trouet on the court. Without him, they gave up 14 offensive rebounds to a team that ranks 12th in that stat in the conference.

The long road ahead.

There is no such thing as an easy opponent in the Big 12, but there are certainly more difficult ones than Colorado. 11 of them according to the NCAA’s NET Rankings. The Buffaloes came into the game ranked 83rd in the country and 13th in the conference, one spot behind ASU.

The Big 12 features four teams in the top ten of the AP rankings, including No. 1-ranked rival Arizona. Kansas comes in at No. 17 to give the conference 20% of the teams in the top 25.

As it stands, ASU is near the bottom of the Big 12 in record and almost every major statistical category. It ranks 13th or lower in point margin, shooting percentage offensively and defensively, and rebounding.

With 17 conference games ahead of them, the Sun Devils will have to punch above their rankings to earn a shot at the Big 12 and NCAA tournament. That starts in four days when they travel to Provo, Utah, to take on No. 10 BYU. A competitive game with the Cougars could go a long way to prove to the voters and themselves that ASU belongs with the best.