On Wednesday night in Lawrence, Kansas, two Big 12 teams clashed in a matchup featuring bright stars and veteran coaches.
Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks welcomed Bobby Hurley and the Arizona State Sun Devils to Allen Fieldhouse for the third game of the Big 12 regular season. The pair traded blows in the first half, where the Sun Devils ended the first period up six. The second half was all Kansas as the team rocketed back to advance to 2-1 in conference play.
With that, here are three takeaways from the contest.
Pressing Issues
Simply put, Arizona State cannot break a press.
Anytime a team scores nearly single-digit points in 20 minutes of basketball, it’s safe to say there’s a problem. That problem happened to be Arizona State’s inability to break a press. The team did not score their first points of the second half until nearly the second media timeout at 12:56.
At the time of the score, Arizona State trailed Kansas by five after leading the Jayhawks by six at the halftime break. They scored eight of their 13 total second-half points in the opening 13 minutes, going 3-14 from the field, 1-7 from three, with nine turnovers and six steals surrendered to Kansas.
They finished the game shooting 35.8% from the field and 25% from three, with 18 turnovers on the day.
Defining Roles
A story that quietly took shape in the matchup was the defining of roles for the Jayhawks. Star players like Zeke Mayo, Hunter Dickinson, and Dajuan Harris continued their usual dominance, while the team found some production from new faces in the starting lineup and off the bench.
That included Mississippi State transfer Shakeel Moore, who singlehandedly rattled Arizona State’s backcourt with his on-ball pressure. Moore finished with eight points and two steals on an efficient 3-5 from the field.
One major difference on the court that didn’t have an impact on the stat sheet was the absence of Wisconsin transfer AJ Storr, who was brought in to be one of the team’s top players in the transfer portal. Storr saw just three minutes of game time, where he recorded one rebound and two turnovers.
Close, But Not Yet
While the Arizona State Sun Devils have the making of a Top 25 college basketball team, it’s just not quite there yet. The group of young stars entered Allen Fieldhouse without one of their top scores, Joson Sanon, who missed his second straight game with an ankle injury.
Regardless, the team got out to a fast start, clashing with the nation’s 11th-best team. They even led Kansas by six at the half, 42-36.
That did not last long, however, as the group’s immaturity showed up. The Sun Devils struggled to adjust to Kansas’ full-court pressure, which resulted in several careless turnovers and easy buckets going the other way.
Arizona State hosts back-to-back games at Desert Financial Arena vs. Baylor and UCF in their next two outings.
