TEMPE – Steaming from frustration after being hit with his first technical foul of the season, Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley paced back and forth in front of his bench before asking an usher to get up so Hurley could take his seat.
“I just needed a timeout,” Hurley said after the Sun Devils fell for the first time this season, losing to 19th-ranked Gonzaga at Desert Financial Arena Friday.
ASU will have a chance to return to the win column Monday night against Georgia State, and despite the coach’s frustration against the Bulldogs in a 77-65 loss, Hurley has found joy in his unselfish and gritty team.
“It was remarkable, with all that went on, that we still had a chance,” Hurley said, noting how his players continued to battle. “It is a tribute to their resilience and fight, and I told them that after the game.”
Hurley’s technical came just 45 seconds after another technical foul, this one called against ASU’s Santiago Trouet. The two technicals ultimately seemed to swing the momentum in favor of the Zags.
Hurley was still hot when he arrived at his postgame press conference, where he quickly spun a question back on a reporter, who had asked about his feelings about the officiating.
“Did you watch what happened?” Hurley said. “Did you see all the things that happened? I do not know if you watched that play or not, but what did you think?”
It was the kind of reaction one might expect after a 20-point loss to an inferior team, but the Sun Devils were able to hang tough in a 12-point loss to a perennial college basketball power.
Hurley’s Sun Devils played Gonzaga and coach Mark Few’s Bulldogs as tight as any team this year, and despite his frustration, Hurley said there are positives to pull from the defeat.
The Sun Devils held a lead through nearly the first 12 minutes of action until the Zags went on a 22-5 run, snatching the lead. Instead of throwing in the towel, ASU fought back.
To start the second half, the Sun Devils let in rain from deep and cut the deficit to five before another crushing Bulldog run. It is a fight that Hurley’s teams have lacked in recent years, and it is a credit to the roster Hurley and his staff have constructed.
Instead of taking the traditional route in the offseason, Hurley went overseas and to the mid-major level to bring a band of unproven and hungry hoopers together.
And the player who best embodies the team’s underdog mentality is senior point guard Moe Odum.
Odum grew up in the Bronx borough of New York City and said his upbringing molded him into the hard-nosed player he is today.
“Growing up, I used to always play with the older kids,” Odum said. “If you lose, you aren’t getting on the court anymore, especially me, because everybody was older than me. Once I got on the court, it was either you play hard or you get off, and I never wanted to get off the court.”
As a traditional pass-first point guard, Odum is third in the nation among active players in assists with 539 in 101 career games. The Pepperdine transfer has brought that approach to Tempe. Through three games this season, Odum is averaging seven assists, second-best in the Big 12 Conference.
As the initiator of the ASU offense, Odum has already elevated the play of guys around him, such as freshman Massamba Diop and NAIA transfer Anthony “Pig” Johnson.
Diop comes to Tempe by way of Rufisque, Senegal, and has put his name in the national spotlight. The 7-footer has shown an ability to score and defend at a high level in the paint, but what might be most impressive about his game is his ability to run the floor and shoot from behind the arc.
Diop created a viral highlight when he broke the ankles of a Utah Tech defender and buried a 3.
Odum was asked about the ceiling of the freshman phenomenon following that performance against Utah Tech.
“He has no ceiling, he is through the sky,” Odum said. “I’m on him every day. I tell him, ‘Hey, you’re young, but I see a lot in you. You’ve got to advance your mind and not your age.’ He is going to be really, really good.”
Johnson, the University of the Cumberlands transfer, led the NAIA in scoring last season with 779 points while taking home the Mid-South Conference Player of the Year award. The explosive combo guard immediately made a name for himself in the Sun Devils’ season opener against Southern Utah. His 17 points were a game high, showcasing high energy and effort on both ends of the floor.
After the Sun Devils’ season opener, Johnson, who has been ASU’s sixth man this season, said he doesn’t care what role he is playing; all he wants is to win.
“I would like to start, but it doesn’t matter,” Johnson said. “Whenever I get in, I am willing to play dog minutes and do whatever I have to do to win.”
ASU closes out a season-opening four-game homestand against Georgia State, and guard Bryce Ford, a Scottsdale native and Pinnacle High School graduate, already sees good things ahead for the Sun Devils.
“For being such a new group of guys, and having to gel together so fast, we have a lot of potential,” Ford said. “I would say we are a tournament team.”
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