Q&A: Arizona State a work in progress entering Sunday’s game against Gonzaga

Nov. 9—For just the second time in Gonzaga head coach Mark Few’s 26 seasons, the Zags are opening the season against a pair of power conference opponents.

No. 6 Gonzaga crushed No. 8 Baylor 101-63 in Monday’s opener at the Arena. The Zags return to action Sunday against Arizona State, another Big 12 Conference foe, at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

It worked out well for the Zags the last time they faced two power conference opponents out of the starting gate, handling No. 6 Kansas 102-90 and Auburn 90-67 in Fort Myers, Florida, to open the 2020-21 season. GU then defeated No. 11 West Virginia 87-82 and No. 3 Iowa 99-88 on neutral courts to move to 4-0. The Zags stayed unbeaten (31-0) until falling to Baylor in the national championship.

Big 12 newcomer Arizona State was picked 12th in the 16-team conference’s preseason poll, eight spots below Baylor. Like most college basketball teams, the Sun Devils are experiencing growing pains trying to blend returners, transfers and a promising recruiting class.

We caught up with Michelle Gardner, who covers ASU for the Arizona Republic, to learn more about the Sun Devils.

Q: ASU has an interesting roster with five transfers, the highest-ranked recruiting class in school history and six players with a combined 110 career games of experience in a Sun Devils uniform entering the season. This team might look a lot different in January, but how challenging has it been thus far to build chemistry and get everybody on the same page?

Gardner: It has been very challenging just because you have a lot of players who are used to being THE guy. ASU had a similar team in 2020-2021 when it had two highly touted high school prospects and a bunch of other alpha dogs. That team never did gel. Time will tell on this one. They have a lot of scorers, but just who will be the ball distributor, catalyst? That’s the issue I see right now.

Q: The Sun Devils’ 2024 recruiting class was ranked seventh nationally by 247sports, anchored by 6-foot-9 Jayden Quaintance…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/q-arizona-state-progress-entering-030300496.html

Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.

Publish date : 2024-11-10 03:03:00

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