Losing at Utah hurts. Coming in to that matchup the Sun Devils had the advantages despite losing Trent Lockett and Keala King. They have more proven players and took care of more of their business than the Utes, non-conference or conference-wise. Unfortunately, the Devils started out slow and never caught up, giving Utah its second win in the Pac 12. In this rematch, the venue will be the comfy confines of Wells Fargo Arena, and we hopefully might have Trent back as well. A quick summary of the Utes after the jump.
I've already made a preview about Utah earlier, so here's a short version:
Save for some stats, the Utes are horrible on both ends of the floor. They are a slow tempo team that takes a lot of 3s and don't turn the ball over. However, they don't make a lot of shots, nor do they get to the line and make freebies either. Defensively, the Utes are at the bottom of almost every statistical category. Opponents shoot well from the floor, get to the line often, don't turn the ball over... in short, they play well on that end of the floor.
There's not many new wrinkles the last time I wrote a preview. Jason Washburn is the double digit inside threat. Chris Hines and Cedric Martin are the perimeter shooters. Dijon Farr is the slasher and Kareem Storey is the freshman point guard who replaced the dismissed Josh Watkins. Storey is an OK distributor but struggles with turnovers (what freshman point guard doesn't?). that's the main unit, and players like Anthony Odunsi and Javon Dawson.
Just same observations from the loss at Utah and other stuff.
- Where did everyone go? Carrick Felix, Cain and Bachynski showed up that time, and everyone has just simply vanished. Even if Lockett is back, our margin of error is really small. Everybody has to chip in and play.
- We made Washburn, Storey, Hines and Martin look better than they really are. They shot 50% from the field; we can't expect to win if we're giving up shots like that.
- I've been watching some ASU game footage, and I think I found the source of our turnovers: Lazy, easy to pick off passes, and extra pressure from the opponent. Can we be a lot harder with their passes?
- Can we see Carrick Felix be a factor without having to stroke the 3?
- If Lockett does come back, what will he look like? On an extended note, is he going to be the PG again? If so, we'll shoot the ball a lot better but increase our TO numbers.
- Is Herb Sendek getting enough sleep?
We'll find out the answers once tip off begins. GOOOO Devils!