Michelle Gardner couldn’t believe what she was watching.
The Arizona Republic reporter, who’s covered the Arizona State men’s basketball team for five years, kept shaking her head as she tried to process the performance that was unfolding at Matthew Knight Arena on Thursday night.
“This is unbelievable,” she said time and again. “I’ve never seen them shoot this well.”
“I keep putting off starting my story,” she continued. “I’m trying to see the scoring records [the Sun Devils] could touch tonight.”
That same astonishment was present in the faces of the Oregon men’s basketball players as the Sun Devils shot out to a 35-14 lead in the first 12 minutes of the game, shooting 56% from the field in the first half.
Guard Desmond Cambridge Jr. used his quick dribble to create space on multiple possessions and scored seven of ASU’s first 14 points. Then, on the back end of a sloppy offensive possession, guard D.J. Thorne hit a stepback three with Will Richardson draped all over his shooting pocket.
The streaky shooting worked its way into the bench unit as Austin Nuñez poured in seven points in just five minutes of play.
As the lead reached that 19-point margin, Ducks head coach Dana Altman had already used two of his four timeouts,.where he gathered a team of players who looked as if the energy had been sucked out of them: scared to even attempt to create a jumpshot or try to force a turnover.
Apart from Richardson putting together a solo nine-point run just before the half, the Ducks displayed no signs of matching the Sun Devils’ devastating shooting clinic.
And how could they?
ASU — a team, that despite being 14-3, entered Thursday night ranked No. 10 in the Pac-12 in field goals — shot 52% from the field and 45% from three as the Ducks got blown out for the second time in three games, 90-73.
It easily could have been worse. If not for the Sun Devils letting up in garbage time, they could have put up 100. They could have won by 30, if they wanted to.
But it wasn’t just Cambridge Jr’s team-high 21 points or the Sun Devils’ contagious shot-making that dropped the Ducks to 9-8.
No.
This Ducks team went from an undermanned bunch to a team — now healthy — that is 17 games into their season and still searching for a consistent rotation, one without a clear distribution of roles throughout the roster, or an effective defensive scheme that could cool down an offense.
Early on, the Ducks sifted through a slew of strategies. When they scored on the offensive end they would set up in a 1-2-2 three-quarters court press, with guard Brennan Rigsby at the apex. When they failed to score, they would drop back into man-to-man. A back-and-forth like that is tough to pull off but, when run correctly, it can throw an offense out of rhythm.
On Thursday, neither scheme was executed effectively.
“[The Sun Devils] got whatever they wanted,” Altman said. “They haven’t shot the ball that well but when you give somebody good looks early, they can get rolling.”
A press like that 1-2-2 usually works when a defense is aggressive with high hands, communicating and jumping passes. The Ducks didn’t check any of those boxes, and once Altman realized that strategy was futile he employed a 1-3-1 that rendered just as liable.
The Ducks didn’t have a deflection for the first nine minutes of the game. They didn’t force a turnover until the 2:49 mark of the first half.
Their defense put them in a hole and their offense lacked the creativity and decisiveness to get them out of it.
Rigsby’s opening stint lasted just over four minutes before guard Jermaine Couisnard checked in for him. It was a move that Altman administered trying to match Arizona State’s offense. It also pushed Richardson, the Ducks’ most efficient shot creator, into a secondary role.
After returning to the lineup against Colorado last week, Couisnard had done little in the way of looking for his own shot. Most of his attempts came on drive-and-kick threes, or one-dribble pull-ups. That bringing-him-along slowly process was sped up tonight and made for an uncomfortable distribution of tasks throughout the guard rotation.
At one point, for a short stint, Couisnard, Richardson and guard Keeshawn Barthelemy — who returned from injury — shared the court and seemingly couldn’t decide whose job it was to run point and facilitate and whose job it was to create a shot or get to the basket.
Each of the three decided to shy away from all of the above, instead swinging the ball to each other waiting for the other to make something happen.
In addition to Richardson’s lack of touches and the timid nature of the guards, forwards Kel’el Ware and Nate Bittle each logged under 15 minutes.
“I mean, we don’t have a rotation,” Altman said.
Clearly.
To be honest, how could they?
This team started the season wishing for a fully healthy roster with Cousinard, Rigsby and forward Lök Wur out with injuries. It only got worse from there, as Barthelemy went down with an injury, as did Bittle and guard Tyrone Williams. They were down six scholarship players by the end of November.
That injury excuse, the one Altman attributed a number of his team’s losses to early on, citing their lack of bodies at practice, or guys being forced to step into roles they don’t normally perform. It can’t be the scapegoat anymore.
Thursday night was the first of the season with all hands on deck, and it was clear that an injury bug was far from this team’s only issue. It merely masked the apparent weaknesses that Arizona State exploited or the ones Colorado took advantage of last week.
“We can’t keep doing the same thing. We can’t stay with the same lineup,” Altman said. “I’m going to give some guys a chance… We’re going to evaluate a lot of things here.”
There’s not much time for him to do any of that.
The Ducks sit at 9-8 without a significant win against a quality opponent. Sure, they went toe-to-toe against Michigan State and No. 1 Houston, but it’s at the point where if the Ducks don’t run the table they’ll have to win the Pac-12 tournament in March to earn an NCAA Tournament berth.
While they bounced back against Utah after the historic loss to Colorado, No. 9 Arizona presents a challenge the Ducks have seldom overcome, this season.
