The Sun Devil bench erupts after ASU junior guard Katie Hempen hits a 3-pointer late in the second half vs. Stanford women’s basketball on Feb. 6, 2015, at the Wells Fargo Arena. (Daniel Kwon/The State Press)For the first time this year, No. 12 ASU women's basketball will play against UCLA and USC.
“Normally you have the team scouted and you have some familiarity,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “Everything’s new.”
It works the other way too, though. UCLA and USC haven’t had a chance to experience ASU’s defense firsthand, and those schools haven’t had to try to stop the expanding post game.
“They haven’t seen us, they haven’t played against us yet,” she said. “The difference is they’re at home.”
This will be the Sun Devils' second road trip in a row and their third in the last four weeks.
Turner Thorne said this takes its toll and practices have been less intense to maximize recovery time.
“This is a really tough window for us,” she said. “We’ll be ready but it’s challenging.”
ASU is hoping those two things will be their only issues. The two schools haven’t done much to impress this year: USC sits in sixth place and UCLA is in seventh in the Pac-12.
ASU’s wish will likely not come true. The schools do things that ASU has struggled with this year.
“Both are great rebounding teams,” Turner Thorne said. “Both of them press and play aggressive defense.”
Rebounding has been an on-and-off issue for ASU. The Sun Devils are routinely outworked on the glass but then they had a 42 rebound performance against Oregon. Turner Thorne called rebounding the “number one key” for the weekend.
Against Cal, high-pressure defense proved to be a problem. The difference between the two is that Cal plays half court trap. However, the press and aggression will be similar and ASU will have to work with ball movement to overcome it.
As far as transition, ASU allowed Cal some easy baskets by allowing players to leak back too quickly and trying to rely on their own athleticism too much.
Neither USC nor UCLA is as good as Cal, though, despite USC’s victory over the Golden Bears last weekend.
The Trojans have held their opponent to 71 points or fewer in 12 of the 14 Pac-12 games. Six times, they’ve allowed fewer than 65 points. They defeated Cal 65-54.
“They kind of mixed up their defenses,” Turner Thorne said. “Cal had a lot of turnovers.”
ASU is coming off a weekend with two single-digit turnover games. It’s an impressive stat that the Sun Devils will need to post again if they’re to defeat USC.
As for UCLA, the Bruins win games they’re expected to win. They lose to the better teams.
The Bruins swept Utah, Colorado and USC. They were swept by Oregon State, Oregon, Stanford and Cal. According to the Pac-12 standings and AP polls, ASU ranks in the area of the latter group.
UCLA's strength is junior guard Nirra Fields.
“She’s a top guard in our conference,” Turner Thorne said. “(She) shoots threes, midrange, gets to the rim, posts you up. She’s just a really good scoring guard.”
ASU senior guard Promise Amukamara will pose a threat to her, but she hasn’t done a ton of post-up defense. Amukamara is most successful defending the arc, bothering the ball handler and forcing turnovers.
Sophomore forward Kelsey Moos’ status is still uncertain. She’s officially day-to-day after an elbow injury at the end of the Cal game on Feb. 8.
Turner Thorne said she may be healthy enough to play, but she’s not mentally prepared.
“She’s to the point where she could probably play, but she’s got to get confidence back,” Turner Thorne said.
Reach the reporter atlogan.newman@asu.eduor follow@Logan_Newsmanon Twitter.
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