A new semester is upon us.
So to kick things off, here are five things that stand out with ASU Women's Basketball before the final month and a half of the regular season.
Robbi Ryan has turned into the Sun Devils go-to scorer
In her last seven games, ASU senior guard Robbi Ryan is averaging 15 points per contest and scored a career-high 25 points on 10-21 shooting in front of over 10,000 fans at the McKale Center last Saturday night.
“It’s been on point for sure,” ASU senior forward Ja’Tavia Tapley said. “The shots she’s making in the game, most of the time are the shots she’s practicing every day.”
Since the start of conference play, Ryan has been scoring at an efficient clip. Ryan is shooting 40.6% from beyond the arc and 44.6% from the field while leading the team in scoring.
“She’s definitely one of the best mid-range shooters I’ve ever coached in my career,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “Let’s just hope she keeps that going.”
Timely double-teams, help defense and gritty rebounding
Those are the character traits of a Turner Thorne defense.
Since the beginning of conference play, ASU has more than just earned that billing.
The Sun Devils have held Pac-12 opponents to under 58 points per game this season. They’ve won the turnover battle by forcing 15.5 of turnovers per contest and have recorded 64 steals in 8 conference games.
“I feel like we’re really getting tougher and we’re really going into things being able to take punches,” Turner Thorne said. “That’s a good thing because this conference is no joke.”
“We just believe in ourselves,” ASU sophomore guard Iris Mbulito said.
The Arizona loss wasn’t that bad
As mentioned above, last Saturday’s defeat to Arizona wasn’t ideal. But in reality, the loss wasn’t too damaging either.
The Sun Devils have played many top-20 opponents this season. Despite the loss to the then No. 18 team in the nation, ASU fell to just 2-3 against top-20 teams this year.
Also note that both wins came against, at the time, the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked teams.
“If anything, I’d say that his group is really hard on themselves,” Turner Thorne said. “(Being hard on themselves) is really a good thing for them.”
A loss is a loss, but this particular Sun Devils defeat shouldn’t be crippling towards their dreams of hosting a regional.
“We’re going to be in a lot of games if we can control what we can control,” Ryan said.
At some point, ASU will need somebody other than Ryan to start hitting threes
If you take away Ryan’s 13 made three-pointers, ASU, as a team, has only hit 27 three-pointers during Pac-12 play.
That will have to change if the Sun Devils have dreams of making a deep run in the NCAA tournament. For a team that is heavily reliant on its guard play, stretching defenses will be critical in that pursuit.
There have been a few players that have shown the ability to hit from long range. ASU senior guard Reili Richardson has hit more shots from beyond the line than Ryan this season.
But her production has tailed off from three since the start of Pac-12 play. Richardson has hit just eight threes compared to the 19 she drained during non-conference play.
Richardson, or perhaps someone like sophomore guard Taya Hanson or senior forward Jamie Ruden, will need to make more shots from deep for ASU to have a successful postseason.
"On Monday we shot higher from the three-point line than from two in practice," Turner Thorne said.
Jamie Ruden's health
Whether it was the herniated disc that required offseason surgery her sophomore year or the torn plantar fascia in her foot that forced her to sit out the vast majority of non-conference play this season, Ruden has dealt with injury.
When Ruden is on the court, the Minnesota native can play.
Against then No. 3 Oregon State, it was Ruden’s nine first half points that gave the Sun Devils the cushion they needed for their second victory over a top three team in two days. Her 12 points against No. 2 Oregon helped ASU pull off that upset as well.
“Clearly she’s helping us because she’s a primary scorer and a big threat,” Turner Thorne said. “She’s very hard to guard.”
“The huge emphasis with the Oregon and Oregon State games was locking in with the preparation of taking the scouting to heart, taking to film to heart,” Ruden said.
Reach the reporter at kbriley@asu.edu and on Twitter @KokiRiley.
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