The Zags look to move to 2-0 after the first week of college basketball.
A friendly reminder that the results of an exhibition don’t mean much. It would have been hard to envision that Sunday’s Arizona State-Gonzaga matchup ends up anywhere close to as much of a blowout as it was in the 103-47 explosion from Duke over Arizona State at Cameron Indoor Stadium about two weeks ago. But who knows after what was witnessed by the nation when the Zags dismantled Scott Drew’s program inside the Spokane Arena on Monday, 101-63.
Bobby Hurley’s Sun Devils have had a busy opening week of college basketball. After the underwhelming 55-48 win over Idaho State in the season opener, Arizona State came out more assertive in the 81-74 victory over Santa Clara in the Las Vegas Hoopfest. The Sun Devils still have yet to find their true identity as they have struggled on the glass and with finding any consistent shooting rhythm from both the field as well as from deep. In the third and final game this week, Hurley expects to have his players fueled up to come out strong in the Kennel and play more inspired.
Hurley has preached discipline and taking pride on the defensive end. His freshman phenom Jayden Quaintance has been especially locked in when swarming his opponents out on the wing with two steals through the first two games. It looks like he’s on a pogo stick when protecting the rim as Quaintance already has a total of ten blocks on the season. It’s his offense where improvements are needed to be made from his game if the Sun Devils want to make some noise in the Big 12 Conference.
One of the youngest players in the game will have quite a tall task when trying to size up with the likes of Ben Gregg, Braden Huff and Graham Ike. It’s going to take a complete team effort from Arizona State on that end of the floor with all the different scoring threats that Mark Few’s roster consists of. The Gonzaga offense was nearly perfect as seven of the eight key rotation pieces finished with 9+ points against Baylor this past Monday.
Player to Watch For:
BJ Freeman (senior, guard) – 14.5 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.0 BPG
At 6’6, the Milwaukee transfer has been the go-to option for the Sun Devils and really has been the only one filling it up. Arizona State is going to need someone else to step up offensively from Hurley’s loaded transfer recruiting class (Missouri State’s Alston Mason, Ball State’s Basheer Jihad) if they have any chance at taking down the Zags. It’s a completely new roster in Tempe so the team chemistry is still a work in progress.
This will be the first game at the McCarthey Athletic Center where it actually counts towards #6 Gonzaga’s overall record. Let’s hope everyone’s egos didn’t get too big after that annihilation of Baylor. Catch the tip-off against Arizona State on Sunday at 2 PM PT on ESPN.
Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area… Follow him on Twitter @a_cravalho