5 things Arizona State men's basketball needs to do to compete in Pac-12
Arizona State men's basketball kicks off Pac-12 play for the last time this weekend with a trip west, with games at Stanford (5-5) at 9 p.m. on Friday and California (4-7) at 6 p.m. on Sunday. Normally that would be a good place to start because both of those foes have struggled in recent years, which led to Cal making a coaching change during the offseason.
But the way ASU (6-5) has played of late hasn't been much reason for optimism. They have lost three straight games, two of those in lopsided fashion.
The Pac-12 as a whole has not gotten off to a good start either. While rival Arizona which is ranked No. 4. Utah, Colorado and Washington State have each lost just two games, more traditional powers USC and UCLA have each lost five games already. USC was once nationally ranked and the Bruins lost to Cal State Northridge and just barely beat UC Riverside.
The Sun Devils went 6-4 on the road in Pac-12 play last season, the best mark since the 1980-81 team went 8-1. Two of the best four Pac-12 road marks in the previous 39 seasons have come under coach Bobby Hurley.
The Sun Devils have been short on depth with Shawn Phillips and Zane Meeks both missing significant time with foot injuries. Both could return this weekend which would help.
Let's take a look at the things the Sun Devils are going to have to do better if they are to make some noise in conference play:
Share the basketball
The Sun Devils are averaging 12.5 assists per game, that's ninth in the conference and 249th out of 251 Division I programs. Part of this equation comes with players getting comfortable in their roles. The Sun Devils don't seem to have that yet, which probably isn't surprising given they have 10 newcomers. Team chemistry has been slow to develop because of other factors too, with bigs Meeks and Phillips out with foot injuries for most of the 11 games and Adam Miller only brought into the mix in the last two games. ASU's assist-to-turnover ratio is 1:10 which is in the middle of the Pac-12 and 185th nationally. Last year the team went 23-13 and the biggest factor there was team chemistry and the way they moved the ball and worked for the best shot.
Rebounding
This has been a problem area for ASU in recent years although it got slightly better last season. ASU is last in the Pac-12 in rebounding at 35.4 per game. That puts them 236th nationally, which might not seem that bad but when it comes to rebounding margin ASU is 343rd at -7. In a loss to BYU, ASU was outrebounded 51-32. Of course part of that is because of the absence of Phillips and Meeks. But right now ASU's top three rebounders are guards: Jamiya Neal (5.7), Frankie Collins (5.5) and Jose Perez (5.0) while 6-foot-9 Alonzo Gaffney and 6-foot-8 Bryant Selebangue are at 3.4 and 4.8 respectively. Those two players have to be more productive than that. The Sun Devils are routinely coming up short in categories that go hand-in-hand with rebounding in points in the paint and second chance points.
3-point shooting
The Sun Devils are shooting 29% from long distance, 65-for-224. That's easily last in the conference and 319th overall. Neal has the most attempts, 51, and he's hitting just 27.5%. Gaffney is second in attempts with 47 and he's hitting for 21.3%. Take away the 5-for-7 Gaffney has against Vanderbilt and he's 5-for-40 on the season, 12.5%. The best on the team in this department is graduate transfer Brycen Long but the sample size is small. He's 7-for-9 but his playing time has been sporadic because he doesn't have the defensive skills to warrant a major role. So how much he plays really depends on the opponent and how it matches up against ASU.
Free-throw shooting
The Sun Devils are shooting only 62.1%, not just last in the Pac-12 but last by a lot. That's also better than just 11 other Division I schools. What's problematic is that Collins is shooting only 59% and he's the point guard so he is going to be the player handling the ball late in games. Miller is 10-for-11 in just two games, so his recent addition is going to help immensely in this regard. Perez is shooting 68.7% (57-for-83), which isn't too bad and he has twice as many attempts as any other Sun Devil because of his style of play. When the offense is struggling you have to at least make the free throws and the Sun Devils aren't doing that.
Shooting, period
The Sun Devils are hitting 41% from the field, last in the conference and 311th overall. They're not making 3-pointers, but lately they're not even making layups either. Selebangue is the best on the team at 65.2% (30-for-46), but that is not surprising because his shots are all coming at close range, in the paint around the bucket. Perez (44.2%) has been the best of players that are drawing significant playing time, but again, most of his shots are coming around the basket.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU men's basketball team kicks off Pac-12 play in California
