First and foremost, let’s give a round of applause for Bobby Hurley and ASU. This was the first win inside Matthew Knight Arena and first win at Oregon since 2011. This is on the heels of what Hurley describes as an “Epically bad” performance against Washington State in which they scored a measly 29 points. All while, Jalaen House, former afterthought at ASU, put up 31 points on his own in a win for UNM.
After making just 12 shots against WSU, they managed to beat a stumbling Oregon team in Eugene. Obviously, ASU shot the ball better, 38% from three, but the most prominent area they improved, was on the glass. ASU was able to keep up with Oregon, 35-36 in the rebounding category. Alonzo Gaffney and Jalen Graham both fouled out. Hurley learned early on size in the Pac-12 is going to win you a lot of games.
The original “Guard U” (2017-18) ran into all sorts of problems in conference play after catapulting to #3. After going on a “Miracle-type” non-conference run, they got exposed. For how great the guard play was, they lacked depth and experience at the forward positions. Looking back, the frontcourt consisted of R-Freshman 6’8/9 Romello White, Freshman Vitaly Shibel, Senior De’Quon Lake, and “Sticky Mickey” Mitchell. Unfortunately, they went 8-10 in conference play, and earned a First Four spot, where they lost.
This year, Hurley brought size and length. The conference is looking as big as ever and even with the additions of Alonzo Gaffney and Enoch Boakye, they are undersized. However, Hurley also brought in some wings/guards that can rebound. Muhammed, Heath, and Jackson all bring length and experience. Between all of them, they combine for 276 NCAA starts.
Although MAC Player of the Year Marreon Jackson has looked like a lost puppy dog all year, he is rebounding the ball way above average. I’m not sure if anyone on the planet could pay him enough money to make a shot but he sure does know how to rebound the ball. He had six at Oregon and they came up in crucial spots.
What is evident so far, this ASU team is not the high flying, exciting team, we may have seen in the past. Similar to the Dort/Cheatham (2018-19) year, this team is going to try and out work out on the offensive/defensive glass. Remembering back to the Oregon game, Hurley called a timeout immediately after Heath hit the go head three with 11.0 sec left. (21:00)
Watch Hurley during the timeout. Hurley never called the timeout to draw up a defense. This was pure passion. He wasn’t going waste this moment for his team coming off possibly the worst display of basketball in recent memory. I’m not sure what makes him go nuclear like he does here, but this why we love him. No matter how crazy he seems to look, you can’t question his passion. These type of games remind us why Hurley was able to sell out Wells Fargo Arena and instill relevancy in an otherwise dead fan base.