As day turned to night in Las Vegas, the sun officially set on Arizona State men’s basketball’s rocky 2024-2025 campaign.
On Monday evening, the Sun Devils fell to Nebraska 86-78 in the opening round of the College Basketball Crown tournament.
Although the Devils held as much as an 11-point lead in the second half, the Cornhuskers stormed back late to snatch the victory out of ASU’s hands in the waning minutes. Nebraska outscored Arizona State 47-29 across the final 15 minutes of play.
Part of this can be attributed to the Maroon and Gold’s lack of depth at this point in the season. Both teams entered the night shorthanded. However, the departure of freshman guard Joson Sanon to St. John’s and a nagging injury that sidelined freshman forward Jayden Quaintance for the remainder of the season left the Devils especially thin heading into their date with the Cornhuskers.
Despite the setbacks, ASU managed to get off to a strong start behind quality performances from its seniors. Senior forward Basheer Jihad racked up 15 points in the first half by getting to the free-throw line. His aggressive approach netted him 14 shots at the charity stripe and paved the way for a 21-point performance.
Meanwhile, senior guard Adam Miller added another nine in the first half to complement Jihad’s efforts. Even though he only shot 1-for-7 from beyond the arc, he still managed to tally 15 points on the night and played for nearly every minute of Monday’s contest.
Perhaps the more than 20-day layoff affected Nebraska early on, which shot just 37% from the field in the first half. Additionally, the Sun Devils remained active on defense by creating turnovers, as they forced eight takeaways in the first 20 minutes.
Following a 14-4 run to end the half, Sparky went into the break up 38-30.
But, after ASU controlled the first five minutes of the second half, the game began to spiral for the Devils.
As a team, Nebraska – well-known for its streakiness all season long – caught fire and completely flipped its offensive trends from early in the evening. In the second half, the Cornhuskers shot 65% from the field and an improved 36% from the 3-point line.
Senior guard Brice Williams exploded to score 17 points in the second half and led the furious Cornhusker charge down the stretch. He finished with 30 points on an efficient 50% shooting.
Being in foul trouble didn’t help ASU’s case either.
Junior center Shawn Phillips Jr. fouled out with six minutes to play and remained sidelined for spurts of the second half with four fouls. His absence only further constricted the ASU rotation and limited the squad’s size with only one true forward remaining in Jihad.
Senior guard Alston Mason pieced together one last heroic effort with 23 points to lead all Sun Devil scorers – 15 of which came in the second half. Yet, he couldn’t save his team from its destiny of defeat, as ASU dropped its sixth straight game to end the season.
With the loss, the Sun Devils finish with a 13-21 record – marking the most losses in one season in head coach Bobby Hurley’s collegiate coaching career.
Hurley is expected to be active in the transfer portal, with the Sun Devils needing to replace some key contributors and add some depth to compete in the rugged Big 12.
Regardless of the lack of clarity in the program’s direction moving forward, it most certainly can’t get much worse for ASU than how things played out this season.
From player misconduct issues to injuries to late-game collapses, Sparky saw it all in a brutal stretch of conference play. And for a team that had postseason aspirations after a strong showing in the non-conference, it feels as though the Sun Devils didn’t come close to reaching their full potential in their inaugural year in the Big 12.
Leave a Reply