Freshman spotlight on Sun Devils’ Dort

Luguentz Dort is a freshman in name and age only.

At 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, he’s built like linebacker on the Arizona State football team, not some scrawny t eenager disdainfully bumped out of the lane on a basketball court.

The Sun Devils’ 19-yearold guard is supremely confident and has already taken on a leadership role on a team filled with older players, like he’s been in Tempe all along,

“He doesn’t play like a freshman,” Arizona State junior guard Rob Edwards said.

Duke’s trio of NBA lottery picks garnered most of the freshman attention heading into the 2018-19 season, with players like North Carolina’s Nassir Little, Oregon’s Bol Bol and Indiana’s Romeo Langford also mentioned well ahead of Dort.

Through No. 20 Arizona State’s first eight games, Dort has proven he belongs in the elite freshman spotlight and, possibly, on a much bigger stage beyond his college playing days.

Dort fired out of the gate in his first game, overcoming some early jitters to score 28 points against Cal State Fullerton, an Arizona State freshman debut record.

Able to initiate contact in the lane or shoot from the perimeter, he leads the Sun Devils (7-1) with 22 points per game on a team full of capable scorers and is second on the Sun Devils with 6.3 rebounds as a guard.

When point guard Remy Martin went out with an injury, Dort adeptly took over primary show-running duties. Known for his defensive aggressiveness before arriving in Tempe, Dort has lived up to those expectations, leading the Sun Devils with 16 steals.

“As soon as he got here in our workouts, he got the players’ respect,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. “We knew what we had. I kind of knew before he got here, but he validated that real quick.”

“He was one of the coaches who really put in my head that I could be a professional player one day,” Dort said of Hurley. “He told me what I needed to do to get better and get ready for the next level.”