Senior wing Carrick Felix (0) goes up for a layup past UA sophomore guard Nick Johnson during the Sun Devils’ 87-80 win over the Wildcats on March 4.
(Photo by Sam Rosenbaum)
The new-look ASU men’s basketball team made its public debut Saturday.
The Sun Devils took part in their annual maroon-and-gold scrimmage at Wells Fargo Arena with an up-tempo emphasis.
ASU lacked the personnel to run an offense that revolved around “burn,” which focused on pushing the ball in transition to create scoring opportunities.
This season, it’s a different story.
Freshman point guard Jahii Carson, junior guard Evan Gordon and senior guard Chris Colvin pushed the ball on every possession, which led to easy points. But it also led to sloppy play.
“I felt our guys got winded and found themselves surviving sometimes rather than really focusing on the details,” coach Herb Sendek said. “The thing is we really got to help each other on both ends of the floor. We still have to become a team.”
Sendek said he looked for effort in Saturday’s scrimmage, quantifying it by certain aspects in the box score.
Carson led the team with 18 points throughout the scrimmage. What’s even more impressive? Carson had two rebounds, zero turnovers, four deflections and three steals.
“Coach Herb let me play my game,” Carson said. “That’s the one thing that he allows me to do is let me play my game.”
Sophomore forward Jonathan Gilling had three points and six rebounds. He felt the tempo was a lot faster in practice with Carson and Gordon at the helm, but it’ll translate once the season starts.
“We get up and down the court really fast (in practice), but it’s always hard to play against your own team because we know exactly what we’re going to do,” Gilling said.
Senior wing Carrick Felix had nine points, six rebounds and the play of the game. Felix froze the defense in transition with a hesitation and dunked on freshman forward Kenny Martin. Felix flushed the slam and finished the three-point play at the free throw line.
“You can expect it all year,” Felix said about his aggressive play. “I’m bringing it. This is my last go, and definitely (feel) like this is a spot where I need to be aggressive.”
Senior forward Ruslan Pateev surprisingly had a solid scrimmage. He posted 10 points on 5-of-11 shooting and five rebounds. Junior forward Jordan Bachynski had four points, seven rebounds and four blocks.
“He (Bachynski) just has to be aggressive and put himself in the mindset that he was (in) the last third of the season,” Sendek said of Bachynski. “He really came on about mid-January last year, and we really need him to continue on that trajectory.”
The Sun Devils have less than three weeks to work on its new scheme before the season opener against Central Arkansas on Nov. 10.
“We just got to always compete,” Felix said. “We just got to always compete and go. At the same time, none of them need to think how they’re going to play this season off the scrimmage. If they play bad, they’ve got a whole season ahead of them. Don’t just base it off this one scrimmage.”
Reach the reporter at mtesfats@asu.edu
