(Photo Credit: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)
In its two losses this season, Arizona State men’s basketball was blown out by Mississippi State and BYU, both of whom have cracked the AP Top 25 this season. This defeat was different from the rest, as ASU led for over 30 minutes against a San Diego team predicted to finish last in the West Coast Conference. But the Sun Devils allowed 61 points in the second half, leading to their demise against the Toreros.
ASU was up six points with six minutes left in the game, but USD scored 13 unanswered points in two minutes and 20 seconds to take a 78-71 lead. The Devils eventually tied the game back up, but it was not enough as they would lose 89-84 in San Diego.
The Sun Devils were on a four-game win streak, winning the first three games by double digits and erasing a 13-point deficit to defeat SMU by two on Wednesday. ASU did not allow its opponent to score over 40 points in the second half of any of those games, but that trend ceased in the loss to the Toreros.
Here are four takeaways following ASU’s first loss since Nov. 23.
Brycen Long’s unexpected big performance
Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley was active in the transfer portal this past offseason, acquiring seven players from Division I programs, and the transfers have been an integral part of the squad. While newcomers like graduate guard Jose Perez and junior forward Bryant Selebangue have carved out spots in the starting lineup, senior guard Brycen Long has sparingly seen minutes this season.
Before Saturday, Long only played seven minutes in three games, which have come during garbage time in blowouts. The guard is a local product from Gilbert High School, so Long returned to the Valley of the Sun to play for his hometown team after three seasons at Houston Christian. The Gilbert native started every game for the Huskies, averaging 14.8 points per game, which was the second-most on the team.
Going from the Southland Conference to the Pac-12 is a big jump, but the aspect of Long’s game that was expected to translate to the Power 5 level was his three-point shooting. The then-Husky shot 41.6% from behind the arc last season, so the Sun Devils need him to replicate some semblance of that proficiency with the team shooting 28.7% from three entering Saturday. Fortunately for head coach Bobby Hurley, Long delivered when his name was called.
Long scored 15 points against San Diego, making all four threes and three free throws in 18 minutes. The senior played more than freshman guard Braelon Green, who has played in twice as many games as Long and has consistently been the backup point guard. With the recent news that the NCAA denied redshirt junior Adam Miller’s waiver — preventing him from playing this season — it will be interesting to see if Long’s game against the Toreros affects how Hurley plays his rotation to finish non-conference play.
Free-throw woes continue a troubling trend
In the past, Hurley has emphasized that his team’s poor free-throw shooting is cause for concern.
“It’s just a little puzzling because we were not doing that in Europe or any of our scrimmages, so it just kind of surfaced out of nowhere,” Hurley said after the Texas Southern win on Nov. 11. “I can attribute it to new players, new environment and hopefully that is not something that is going to be an issue for us, because I think we are a better free-throw shooting team than what we showed tonight.”
A big reason why ASU was able to come back against SMU was because it accumulated 43 free throw attempts — making 32 — but the it experienced a major setback against the Toreros. The disparity at the charity stripe was stark on Saturday, as the Sun Devils made 14 of their 24 free throws while USD hit 11 of its 15 attempts. ASU shot 33.3% from the line in the first half, but it was the misses during crunch time that were paramount in the loss.
With just over five minutes remaining in the game and amid a 6-0 Toreros scoring run that tied the game at 71, junior guard Frankie Collins stepped up to the line for the Sun Devils. Collins shoots 62.5% from the charity stripe, but he one of team’s leaders and had the opportunity to reclaim his squad’s lead and take back some momentum. The junior proceeded to miss the front end of a one-and-one, which immediately resulted in a layup from junior guard Deuce Turner to give USD the lead.
Later on, Collins received a chance to redeem himself at the line and tie the score with ASU down 85-83. However, the guard only hit one of two and the Sun Devils never recovered. The Michigan transfer only missed two free throws in the game, but these two late-game misses proved costly.
ASU experiences defensive nightmare in loss
The Sun Devils had not conceded over 80 points in a contest going into Saturday — even in a 27-point loss to BYU on Thanksgiving — yet the Toreros ended just shy of 90 points due to an uber-efficient offensive night.
During ASU’s four-game winning streak, it never allowed opponents to hit more than six threes in a single game. SMU shot 6-for-20 from beyond the arc on Wednesday, but that was nothing compared to the damage USD did from deep, hitting 12 threes shooting over 40% as a team.
Individual performances proved too much for the Sun Devils, as Turner and senior PJ Hayes dropped 23 points each for the Toreros. Coincidentally, the duo combined for 10 made three-pointers, splitting them 50/50.
Early on in 2023-24, ASU has often relied on its defense to wreak havoc and create problems for the opposition. This season, opponents’ assist-to-turnover ratio sits at 0.9, an incredible mark showing how difficult it is to play against Hurley’s team. However, USD end with a 1.5 ratio on Saturday.
Missing a home-court advantage
The Sun Devils have yet to lose a game at Desert Financial Arena this season, and a large part of that is the added intensity in their stifling defense. In all five of its home wins, ASU has held opponents to under 40 second-half points, as the crowd gets involved late in games and has made an impact on the defensive side of the ball.
On Saturday, USD put up 61 points in the second half, a beyond-horrific defensive showing for a team that prides itself on playing with high intensity. This game is also the first time ASU has played in an opposing team’s home gym, with all of its previous games away from home being held at neutral-site locations.
The Sun Devils understand the advantage of playing on their home court, and Perez was thankful for all the fans in attendance in their last win over SMU on Wednesday as knows the impact they have on winning.
“It was good having a crowd to feed off energy,” Perez said. “The louder it is the more energy we’ll have, and it’s good having home-court advantage in college basketball as well.”
