(Photo: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)
Disappointment.
It has filled the Arizona State men’s basketball season, and once again, that emotion was felt in Desert Financial Arena, on Tuesday.
A game’s worth of disappointment turned into anticipation, as freshman center Jayden Quaintance stood at the free throw line with ASU down one and 4.1 seconds left on the clock.
A clunk was heard, then another and a sea of sighs followed. Quaintance missed both free throws, solidifying an ASU (12-10, 3-8 Big 12) loss 71-70 against the Kansas State Wildcats (11-11, 5-6 Big 12). The Sun Devils haven’t won in Tempe in a month and their home loss streak has extended to five.
“We all are searching,” ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said postgame. “We’re right there, we’re knocking on the door. … I’ve tried to do the best job I can with this team, and I’m not getting through to them enough. It’s not going well.”
The Sun Devils have been “right there” in multiple outings this season, including close games against then No. 3 Iowa State and Arizona. Lack of offensive cohesiveness and defensive intensity allowing teams to go on runs against ASU — putting it in large deficits or losing late in the game.
On Tuesday it was different game, same story against the Wildcats. The Sun Devils seemed to put away an emotional loss against their rivals three days earlier, jumping out to a 15-0 lead. Following that score, the Wildcats went on a 46-20 run to take a double-digit lead in the middle of the second.
It comes in bursts for ASU. It’ll play cohesive basketball, and then a switch flips. Lack of effort and sloppy turnovers follow.
“It just comes down to stepping up,” Senior guard Alston Mason said. “All of us got to step up and stick together. … A Big 12 game is 40 full minutes. You can’t win it in the first four, last four in between, you have to finish the whole 40 minutes. And we’re having a tough time doing that right now.”
ASU came into the clash, averaging 24 three-point attempts a game. At half on Tuesday night, the team attempted 25, only shooting seven field goals from within the arc, a complete identity shift from the normal offensive identity.
It wasn’t a game plan switch or strategy — they were just open. According to Hurley, the Sun Devils had 19 three-point attempts that were labeled as “unguarded,” the team only made five of them in the first half.
A team that came in was in the top five in the Big 12 in three-point shooting left a lot of opportunities and points on the board.
“We just got to step up and make those shots,” Mason said. “It’s weird because that’s a shot we want. You want (freshman guard Joson Sanon) shooting a wide-open three. You want (freshman wing) Amier Ali shooting wide-open threes. You want these guys shooting wide-open threes. So it just comes down to stepping up.”
Defensive impact. It’s hard to sustain throughout the season, but only a few elite athletes can do it night in and out. Quaintance has been that for the Sun Devils, and despite only being 17 years old, he’s tied for third in the nation in blocks a game with three.
He’s been a reliable option for ASU, an anchor.
Free throws got the best of the anchor tonight, and with it, the ship may have sailed on the NCAA tournament. Despite it all, the Sun Devils wouldn’t have close games if it weren’t for Quaintance’s impact. It was a challenging moment for the freshman.
“He wanted to make them,” Hurley said. “He’s made a lot of winning plays for us all year. Most of it doesn’t show up in a stat sheet, so he’s upset. But I thought he was going to step up and make a winning play that just didn’t go his way at the line.”
The Big 12 is hard to navigate in a team’s first year—talent sprinkled everywhere – a hard prediction at the beginning of the season. ASU sits at 12-10, good enough for Tuesday night 13th in the Big 12.
Cohesiveness is needed to finish out the year. An NCAA tournament, while slim, can still happen within a conference like the Big 12. Tough loss after tough loss has tested this Sun Devil team, and for the first seven minutes of Tuesday’s game – it looked like they responded.
Another loss can be fatal for this team. They’ll have to dig deep to ensure that disappointment won’t be the only thing remembered about the inaugural season in the Big 12.
“It’s just a collective thing right now,” Mason said. “It’s not like we losing by 20, it’s like we lose in close games. So we all trying to figure it out together and just kind of keep our spirits high and stick together.”
