(Photo: Courtesy of Sun Devils Athletics)
Like a shark, the Sun Devils could smell blood.
At one point in the night, Arizona State men’s basketball looked more like a fish out of water, lost and uncoordinated. The team had been trailing its opponent, Santa Clara, by 17 points at halftime. After the break, that deficit grew to 19.
Yet, the Sun Devils didn’t give up. They scored and defended with precision and intensity. Shot after shot found its way swishing through nylon netting as their point total on the scoreboard grew closer and closer to the Broncos.
Santa Clara’s redshirt sophomore center Bukky Oboye managed to momentarily throw off ASU’s steamrolling comeback with a driving layup, but it was a band-aid for a growing wound.
The very next possession, Sun Devils slashing senior guard Anthony “Pig” Johnson threatened to attack the rim once more. Instead, he passed the opportunity away to redshirt sophomore forward Marcus Adams Jr. in the corner.
Adams Jr. unleashed his shot from beyond the arc, and when it went through the basket, Arizona State (9-2) had tied the game with 8:16 left. From there, freshman center Massamba Diop hit two free throws and slammed home a dunk. ASU had gone on a 21-2 run, giving it a lead it held over Santa Clara (8-3) the rest of Saturday night at the Jack Jones Hoops Classic hosted at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, to win 82-79.
Here are three takeaways from the Sun Devils’ victory.
Bye-Bye Bobby
Before ASU had reached rock bottom in the second half, even before Santa Clara redshirt sophomore guard Christian Hammond ended the first half with a buzzer-beating layup to cap off a Broncos 9-0 run, ASU head coach Bobby Hurley was sent packing by the officiating crew.
Hurley was ejected as a result of two technical fouls awarded to him in quick succession with 4.3 seconds left in the first half. It was his first ejection of the season.
After a half of frustrating calls, this particular sequence started with Hurley arguing over what he perceived to be a Broncos offensive foul that wasn’t called by the officials after Hammond made contact with Sun Devils sophomore guard Trevor Best while driving.
For his efforts, Hurley received his first technical, but that didn’t stop him from continuing; it only seemed to heighten his anger.
The 13th-year head coach – who’s in his 11th year at the helm of the Sun Devils – got in the face of an official to give him a piece of his mind. Hurley started to walk away, but turned around to have one last word, which is when he received his second technical foul.
That decision sent him into a ballistic fit.
Hurley had to be held back as he pointed and yelled, getting his money’s worth before exiting into the tunnel.
Normally, it’s not the best idea to have to play an entire half without the leadership of your head coach, but the ejection seemed to light a fire underneath his players and assistant coach Nick Irvin, who led the team to an improbable and impressive second-half comeback — fist pumping and wearing his heart on his sleeve along the way.
A Tale of Two Halves
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a team that looks more different between halves than the Sun Devils did against the Broncos.
ASU was able to get the ball to fall through the basket in both halves, shooting above 50% from the field and 45% from beyond the arc in both. However, the team’s defensive efforts in the first half couldn’t stop the Broncos from doing anything they wanted, and the sloppiness that Hurley’s squad exhibited was the antithesis of winning basketball.
The Sun Devils allowed Santa Clara to convert 58.1% of its shots in the first half and 9-of-15 shots from beyond the arc. Hammond and senior forward Elijah Mahi were exceptionally unaffected by the defense, scoring a combined 31 points.
The Broncos were also able to get to the free throw line 11 times, knocking down 10 of their attempts, while ASU only managed to convert 1-of-3 – a potential reason for Hurley’s level of hostility toward the officials.
The Sun Devils additionally committed 10 turnovers in the first half after entering the night averaging 10.7 per game on the season. It wasn’t just that they were committing turnovers, though; it was that they couldn’t stop the Broncos from taking advantage.
Santa Clara scored 17 of its season-high 55 first-half points off turnovers, compared to ASU managing a paltry four points off seven turnovers.
In the second half, the sloppiness was cleaned up. The Sun Devils stopped making bad passes and mistakes at the level they did in the first, committing just six turnovers, and importantly, let those turn into just seven points at the other end.
The defense stepped up, too. The team played aggressively, while still being smart, limiting the Broncos to 27.7/11.8/66.7 shooting splits and enabling long scoring runs.
ASU also managed to get to the line at a higher rate, shooting 16 shots from the charity stripe and nailing 13 of them, while maintaining its efficiency from the floor.
The game of basketball is about more than making the shots you put up, and few games highlight that more than the Sun Devils’ Jekyll-and-Hyde-esque performance. Once the team started to play a complete game, everything changed and ASU pulled off its largest halftime comeback win in program history.
No Ford, No Problem
Through the first 10 games of the season, Hurley penciled in the same starting lineup every time: senior guard Moe Odum, junior guard Bryce Ford, redshirt sophomore forward Santiago Trouet, junior forward Andrija Grbovic and true freshman center Massamba Diop.
In the team’s 11th game, Hurley was forced to make an adjustment.
Ford was unavailable Saturday night, and while no official reason was given, it’s worth noting that late in ASU’s Tuesday night game against Northern Arizona he hit the ground hard and didn’t return to the court after being subbed out.
Johnson was inserted into the starting lineup in Ford’s absence, and by the end of the night, his stats, as well as the team’s, showed the promotion worked out, but it didn’t look like that at first.
The NAIA transfer committed two fouls in the first four minutes of game action and was relegated to watching most of the half from the bench. When he was on the court, he only made one free throw, missing both of his scoring attempts from the field.
In the second half, as the team started to find its footing on defense, Johnson found his footing on offense. He led the team in scoring over the final 20 minutes, recording 14 points on perfect efficiency and tying Diop for a team-leading +18 plus/minus.
Hurley said after the Sun Devils’ 81-66 victory over Utah Tech on Nov. 9 that Johnson had “earned the right to start,” before explaining that it “just works better for our rotations to come off the bench.”
In his role as a substitute over the first 10 games, Johnson averaged 13.3 points per game, not only leading the second unit, but second on the team to Odum’s 16.7.
Just as he had to find his footing as a starter, the bench had to find its footing without its leader.
The bench only scored seven points in the first half before Adams Jr. himself reached that mark in the second, helping pave the way for a 16-point half from the reserves. In total, the 23 points scored for the unit were still short of their 28.2 points per game average, but a more than respectable number with Johnson operating in a different role.
Johnson and the bench unit both had to become comfortable without each other, but once they did, they helped ASU ride off with one of its most impressive victories of the season.
