Weak In Review: ASU Goes 0-2 In Washington

by Cory Williams on Mar 1, 2009 6:07 PM MST in ASU Basketball

What happened?

This is the question on the minds of many Sun Devil fans this afternoon as we ponder the sudden downturn of the basketball team.

Interestingly enough, this weekend has a parallel.

January 21st, 2009: ASU wins a tense battle in Tucson against their rivals, the Arizona Wildcats. With the 53-47 win, the Sun Devils have legitimized themselves in the Pac-10 as a true contender.

That previous Saturday, ASU had just beaten UCLA in Los Angeles, and was riding a huge wave of momentum.

Then, the unthinkable occurred. Washington State and Washington swept us at home, leaving all of us scratching our heads at the inconsistency of the team.

We quickly forgot about this as we went on a 5 game winning streak, beating both Oregon schools, both SoCal schools, and once again winning a heated matchup against the Wildcats on February 22nd.

Then, the unthinkable occurred. We got swept in Washington by both schools.

Common denominator? The Arizona Wildcats.

Both weeks, our team was drained from the colossal effort of beating Arizona. The rivalry games enforced our superiority in Arizona, but left us ill-equipped to beat the Washington schools.

Unfortunately, we cannot go back and fix these mistakes, but it is clear to me that the Washington schools were the beneficiaries of the rivalry.

What do you think? Was it mere coincidence, or a real possibility?

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Comments

I think

we are nothing better than a 2nd round or maybe sweet 16 team. I wouldn’t be shocked at a first round loss depending on the matchup. We just don’t dominate any one phase of the game consistently enough.

"He will not coddle them. Nolan Ryan doesn’t coddle." - Jeff Passan

by Dirk Diggler on Mar 2, 2009 12:49 PM MST reply actions

Also

common denominator: Washington Schools!

Don’t overthink this. It took an outstanding night from Klay Thompson beyond the arc to beat you guys at home, and UW had both guards shoot over 50% as well as make 10 free throws each. You guys didn’t shoot the ball particularly well against a decent UW defense and that definitely hurt.

In Washington this week, you lost both games in overtimes when you didn’t have your best player. Against UW you simply couldn’t keep up with their offense once Harden went out, and against WSU you missed his rebounding and defense in the closing minutes. Don’t forget it took a near-miracle shot to beat you guys in Pullman, by a Senior on Senior Day.

I don’t think you guys match up well with UW, but both games against WSU definitely could have gone either way. We always play each other tough, and I wouldn’t worry too much about failing to close the deal. In the NCAA tourney your defensive intensity will surprise teams and Harden will get a lot more calls going his way imo. This is still a Sweet 16 team to me and I will be rooting for you guys to go further for sure!

Tony Bennett for Heisman!

by johnnycougar on Mar 2, 2009 3:02 PM MST reply actions