Junior guard Gerry Blakes drives to the basket during ASU's 68-44 win over Loyola Marymount on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 at Wells Fargo Arena. (Photo by Sawyer Hardebeck)For most of junior Gerry Blakes' playing career, he's been a scoring guard. But lately, the ASU men's basketball team is utilizing him as the starting point guard, which entails setting up the entire offense.
This season, Blakes is ASU's second-leading scorer, averaging 11.9 points, but has just 1.9 assists per game. He was previously at San Bernardino Valley College (California), where he averaged 20.5 points and 3.1 assists in 2013-14.
"To say I played this position, I know what I’m doing, I wouldn’t actually be telling the truth," Blakes said. "But I know what it is to bring the ball up but I don’t know what it is to actually play this position."
On Sunday, he drew a difficult assignment against No. 7 UA. The Wildcats play strong defense and the McKale Center is always a difficult venue for visitors. Blakes had nine points on 3-of-9 shooting and eight turnovers, though coach Herb Sendek said the turnovers weren't all Blakes' fault.
"We had some turnovers that may be attributed to him on the stat sheet, but they were because other guys didn’t get to their initial entry spots quick enough, didn’t get open the right way and Gerry gets the turnover, but really we could all take responsibility for that, so we have to continue to get better as a team and give him more help or whoever our point guard is for that matter," Sendek said.
For now, ASU is sticking with Blakes at point guard. Sendek said the time for lineup changing was in December. But with Blakes still being a relative newcomer to the position at the beginning of conference play, he'll need to learn fast.
“It’s a challenge," Sendek said. "For the first time, he’s not just responsible for himself, but for the other guys on the court. That’s what comes under the umbrella of being a point guard. So not only is he a new guy, he’s playing a new position."
Notables
- The development of junior forward Eric Jacobsen will obviously play a critical role for ASU as it progresses through conference play. Jacobsen is averaging three times as many minutes as he did last year and he's already scored more points in 2014-15 than in his first two seasons combined.
Sendek said he wants Jacobsen to average a double-double (currently averaging 9.9 points and 7.1 rebounds). "He can be that good," Sendek said. "He just has to be the first guy to believe that."
- Sendek said freshman Tra Holder is the "one true point guard" ASU has in its program, but he's still trying to make the adjustment from high school. Holder began the year as ASU's point guard, but is now coming off the bench.
Reach the sports editor at jmjanss1@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @jjanssen11
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