The ASU women's basketball team will be spending its Thanksgiving holiday in sunny Cancun, Mexico.
But for the No. 14 Sun Devils (2-1), it won't be much of a vacation.
While in Cancun, the Sun Devils will face No. 10 Oklahoma on Thursday and Iowa on Friday in the Caribbean Classic.
"Obviously it's a business trip first and foremost," ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. "Our goal is to get there and win two games and then we always take a play day on the backend. You don't want to travel all that way to someplace beautiful and not get to enjoy it a little bit."
ASU will have the task of not only matching up against a Top 10 team in the Sooners (0-2), but arguably the best player in the nation in junior center Courtney Paris.
Paris was the 2006-07 AP Player of the Year and was a unanimous preseason All-America selection this season.
The task of containing Paris will fall on junior center Kirsten Thompson, junior forward/center Lauren Lacey and junior center Sybil Dosty, and Turner Thorne said the new depth in the post this season should help the Sun Devils in that area.
"If you would have asked me last year, I would have been really, really nervous because we didn't have the big girls," she said. "(This year) we give up a few pounds but I definitely don't think we'll be overmatched."
Paris leads the team with an average of 15 points and 12.5 rebounds in two games this season.
Paris' twin sister Ashley also has an impact in the post for the Sooners and has been averaging 12 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
"That's the key to Oklahoma, you have to contain the Paris duo," Turner Thorne said. "That's going to be a team effort. (We need our) guards getting out and pressuring their guards and not allowing them to find their post players."
Turner Thorne said matching up against professionals like WNBA star center Lisa Leslie and Team China center Xiaoni Zhang in their exhibition games helped prepare the Sun Devils to face "the twins."
"We got to have a couple practice games against two teams with just dominant, dominant post players," she said. "We've had some good dress rehearsals and some good competition with great inside games."
Because of Oklahoma's strong presence in the post, Turner Thorne said that out-rebounding the Sooners will be a huge key for the Sun Devils.
"If we can keep control on the boards, I think we'll control the game," she said.
New to the Sooner squad this year but already making an impact is freshman guard Danielle Robinson.
Robinson is already averaging 14.5 points per game in her young career.
"Danielle Robinson is just a phenom point guard," Turner Thorne said. "Really containing her and not letting her run the team will be a key to the game."
Turner Thorne also said the Sun Devils have to cut down on their fouls and their turnovers in order to be successful on Thursday.
Oklahoma does not have a game in the win column yet, but the Sooners have had arguably the toughest schedule in the nation so far.
The Sooners opened the season with a loss against No. 3 Maryland in the State Farm Tip-off Classic on Nov. 11 and then lost to No. 1 Tennessee in the CP3 vs. CP3 Battle on Nov. 15.
After falling in their first regular season game at No. 5 North Carolina on Nov. 11 and dropping two exhibition games against Team USA and Team China, the Sun Devils bounced back to blow out UC Santa Barbara, 66-42, on Saturday and Yale, 84-38, on Monday.
Like most ASU teams under Turner Thorne, the Sun Devils continue to get great guard play this season from junior Briann January, grad Jill Noe and sophomore Dymond Simon.
January is averaging 10 points and six assists per game, while Noe nearly had a triple double in the Sun Devils' win against UC Santa Barbara.
Simon, who missed the final 16 games of last season because of a torn ACL, has been in the starting lineup the past two games and scored 17 points against Yale.
One of the guards that will not take the floor for the Sun Devils is junior Danielle Orsillo, who is expected to be out for about a month because of a bruised left knee.
Reach the reporter at: gina.mizell@asu.edu.
