ASU sophomore Sophie Brunner steals the ball from the Colorado offense and charges her way to a Sun Devil basket during the second half of Sunday's game. The Sun Devils won their 26th game on March 1, 2015, at the Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. (J. Bauer-Leffler/The State Press)Stanford has fallen off the precipice of the Pac-12.
Oregon State has stepped up.
Cal’s play has improved throughout the season and they’re playing as well as experts predicted in the preseason.
ASU has exceeded all expectations, placing second in the conference when the Sun Devils were expected to be sixth to seventh.
The field for the Pac-12 tournament is as open as it has ever been. Tammy Blackburn, a Pac-12 Network analyst, said in a phone call on Monday that any of those four have a decent chance to win it all.
“The conference is greater, it’s expanding,” she said.
She has been impressed with ASU (26-4, 15-3 Pac-12) and wasn’t surprised to see it win out in its final five games. While she predicted top seed OSU (26-3, 16-2 Pac-12) to win the tournament, she said that ASU may be the team to beat.
“That’s a tough task to beat them,” Blackburn said. “I don’t know who can beat them.”
She indicated ASU’s team game and “team mantra” as a strength — the Sun Devils don’t play individually. They don’t have that one go-to player on offense, and they don’t play one-on-one defense. Everything is done as a team.
“There’s no individual one player,” she said.
ASU’s toughest challenge might be itself; it rarely plays full, 40-minute games strongly. The Sun Devils only had one game (Oregon) that was an all-around shutout. In each other game, ASU was either outplayed in a half or only outscored an opponent by a couple points (both Utah games, trailed to UCLA, poor second half against USC, poor first halves against Stanford and Cal, to give a few examples).
ASU is a great team. Blackburn was quick to note that and gave great praise to the school and seemed to think the Sun Devils had championship potential. She was also quick to add that other teams have the talent to defeat them.
One of these schools is Stanford (21-9, 13-5 Pac-12).
ASU swept the Cardinal this season for the first time in 31 years. The Sun Devils are in the same half of the bracket, and it’s likely that they’ll face each other in the semifinals.
ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said that even though Stanford lost twice by a combined four points to the Sun Devils, the Cardinal won’t be hungrier for this game.
“(We’re) going to have plenty of motivation,” she said. “It’s March; it’s win or go home.”
ASU has to get through the winner of Oregon (13-16, 6-12 Pac-12) and Washington State (16-13, 7-11 Pac-12) before it can play Stanford in a potential semifinal game.
Oregon has been improving all year, particularly behind junior forward Jillian Alleyne, the second-best rebounder in the nation. ASU defeated Oregon less than a month ago and rebounded 42 shots.
The two played recently, so ASU is focusing on WSU. The backcourt of senior Tia Presley and junior Lia Galdeira has paralyzed defenses all year.
Turner Thorne said team defense would be vital to guard those two. ASU can’t allow them to play one-on-one.
Blackburn said WSU has led games late but the Cougars haven’t been able to sustain leads. If they can in the tournament, ASU could be in trouble.
If ASU does manage to win twice, it will play for the championship. The favorite is OSU, a team that defeated ASU twice in the regular season.
Blackburn said ASU’s solution would be to press hard.
“They have shown throughout the season, in my opinion, some vulnerability to pressure,” she said. “OSU might be vulnerable to long-term pressure.”
She emphasized “might.” It’s not a full-proof plan. Luckily for ASU, pressure is its best attribute. The Sun Devils don’t allow easy baskets, constantly press and get out well in transition.
With that one possible weakness in mind, OSU has the chance to be upset by Cal (21-8, 13-5 Pac-12) if the two play in the semifinals.
Cal’s defense revolves around trapping the ball handler as she brings the ball up court. Blackburn called Cal’s players long and lean, and the Golden Bears are adept at getting into passing lanes and towering over the ball carrier.
“You can’t see and when you can’t see you can’t make a pass,” she said. “And when you do, you make a turnover.”
Cal defeated ASU once in the regular season behind its defensive scheme. If ASU plays Cal, it hopes to be able to outwork the Golden Bears.
Maintaining energy will be vital for the Sun Devils no matter the opponent. Constantly pressing can tire a defense out, and three games in three days is a lot to handle.
Turner Thorne said she’d use the bench.
“That’s I think a huge strength of ours and with Kelsey (Moos) having been out it’s only growing stronger,” she said.
Junior guard Peace Amukamara has been aggressive on offense and kick-started the team against Utah last weekend. The bigs who have backed up the injured Moos played well, and with Moos’s returning health, the team will be deep.
“Are we going to be able to transition as well in the second and third game? I don’t know, but we’re going to try to stay true to what we’ve been doing,” Turner Thorne said.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow @Logan_Newsman on Twitter.
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