HURLEY’S HURDLES
Sun Devils running into trouble in Pac-12 play
An occasional search of the soul can be a good thing for most of us, but conducting two in a little more than a week is a troubling sign.
That’s the situation in which the Arizona State men’s basketball team finds itself four games into the Pac-12 Conference season.
This was supposed to be a season the Sun Devils contended for their first conference championship in 44 years. Yet, they are 2-2, have played well just once and hardly looked the part of being the best team in a bad league.
Two things are apparent about this Sun Devils team:
It’s the most talented team in Bobby Hurley’s four seasons as coach.
It’s the most challenging team Hurley has had.
It’s a team that exhilarates and confounds. It has wins over Kansas and Mississippi State, yet it’s been beaten at home by Princeton and Utah and looked unenthused last week on the road against California and Stanford.
The day after the Utah loss, Hurley held a blunt video session and a challenging practice. That seemed to get everyone’s attention, for a day anyway, as the Sun Devils played well against Colorado the next day.
Then they returned to languishing in a pool of malaise. The loss to
“This isn’t the Big 12 or the Big Ten or the ACC, where you can be 2-2 and still feel, ‘Hey, there’s a lot of season left.’ ” Bobby Hurley ASU men’s basketball coach
Stanford last Saturday led to Hurley leading another day-after soul search. Players came in Sunday morning, normally a day off, for a video session and practice.
In effect, it was Hurley asking – again – who are you and where do you want to go?
Because at this point, the Sun Devils look more like a mid-level seed in the NIT than a conference champion and Sweet 16 contender.
The backdrop to the story is just how bad Pac-12 basketball is this season.
Rarely has the conference been this ripe, both in smell and for the picking. Not one team is ranked in the Associated Press Top 25, while Arizona and Washington are the only schools in the conference to receive votes.
In the Pomeroy basketball ratings, Washington is the highest rated at 43rd. Arizona State is 63rd.
“This isn’t the Big 12 or the Big Ten or the ACC, where you can be 2-2 and still feel, ‘Hey, there’s a lot of season left,’ ” Hurley said. “Not this year with the way things have played out in our league.
“Our (the Pac-12’s) winning percentage in non-conference was so low in puts pressure on you to have a really good conference regular season. And so far we’re behind in that regard.”
ASU has issues with both skill and toughness.
Over the last few weeks, the Sun Devils have proven they are not hard to guard. They are not overtly selfish, but they don’t share the ball well. Too often, they drive to the basket, force shots among three defenders and fail to realize that someone should be open from 3-point range.
Shooting overall is a problem. Among Pac-12 teams, ASU is last in field-goal percentage (44.3), tied for ninth in free-throw percentage (66.4) and sixth in 3point percentage (33.7).
There is no question this is Hurley’s most talented team, and it likely is the most athletic one ASU has had since the early ‘80s. But too often, the Sun Devils look like a collection of mismatched parts.
Luguentz Dort, a fivestar recruit, is an excellent defender and penetrator. But he doesn’t shoot or pass well. Guard Remy Martin’s energy sometimes works against him, resulting in some poor passes and shots, and he’s better coming off the bench than starting.
Senior Zylan Cheatham has been the team’s best player, which isn’t surprising since he is also its most experienced and versatile.
Cheatham is the heartbeat of this team, which makes the Sun Devils’ performance last Saturday at Stanford even more perplexing.
Cheatham flew in from Phoenix that day, where he attended the funeral for his brother, who was shot and killed two weeks before.
Hurley thought his players would rally around Cheatham and be ready to play on Saturday. But the Sun Devils were flat in long periods of the game, as they were three days earlier against California.
Consistent effort, mental toughness and intelligence have been lacking in three of the Sun Devils’ four conference games.
The best thing the Sun Devils have going for them now is the calendar. It’s only mid-January. Fourteen conference games remain, beginning Thursday night against Oregon State.
Since last fall we’ve heard this is a team that should improve as the season progressed.
The season has progressed. The Sun Devils have not.