In the modern game of basketball, shooting is king, but for ASU men's basketball, that sentiment has been a mixed bag.
Not many things have gone right for head coach Bobby Hurley's squad this season, but when the Sun Devils can put the ball in the bucket from beyond the arc, their chance of winning improves by leaps and bounds.
When ASU shoots above 36% from three this year, it has a record of 8-2, a stark contrast to the 5-10 record it holds when going below that mark. Even in those two losses, the Sun Devils played their opponents tight; one was a close 89-82 loss against No. 1 UA in Tucson, and the other a 79-76 loss to UCF, where ASU led by double-digits with six minutes remaining in the game before squandering that advantage.
The Sun Devils' scoring doesn't revolve around long-range shooting, but it's a large part of their offensive philosophy. While ASU's 22.8 three-point attempts per game account for 38.6% of its overall field goal attempts, which is middle of the pack in the Big 12, its 34.1% make rate is tied for third-worst.
Conference play hasn't helped boost the Sun Devils' accuracy either, with ASU falling to 32.3% against Big 12 opponents. While the Sun Devils take a decent amount of three-pointers, the roster construction provides additional context to the lack of shooting diversity.
Nearly a third of ASU's three-point attempts flow from senior guard Moe Odum, the Sun Devils' top scorer at 17 points per game. Odum's 2.8 three-pointers made per game rank seventh in the Big 12. Despite the constant on-ball attention he receives as ASU's primary offensive weapon, his 37.9% three-point percentage leads the Sun Devils.
Even in games where the ball isn't bouncing his way, Odum's outside shooting is one of ASU's biggest strengths on offense. Against Oklahoma State on Feb. 10, Odum only shot 3-10 from the field, but in pivotal moments, the senior had the ball in his hands to make a play.
With only two points in the second half and no field goals made, Odum came off a screen and buried his third three-pointer of the night to push ASU's lead to six and effectively clinch his team's fourth Big 12 win. The Sun Devils' lead guard has run hot and cold throughout the year, typical for a volume shooter, and his teammates haven't always stepped up to the plate.
Junior forward Andrija Grbović is a unique archetype, as a 6-foot-11-inch player who primarily plays behind the three-point line; his 36.1% three-point shooting is second on the team behind Odum's. Over 65% of his field goal attempts come from beyond the arc, but his lack of self-creation and overall attempts (3.9 per game) limit his ceiling.
This lack of attempts carries over to guards as well as Anthony "Pig" Johnson and Noah Meeusen, two of the three other Sun Devils to shoot above 30% from three, who are both shooting less than 3.5 attempts per game. This compares to Odum's nearly 7.3 attempts per game.
ASU's inability to rebound has also restricted the number of attempts it has per game to 59 — third-worst in the Big 12 — and its efficiency is unable to make up the difference.
After a 78-70 loss to Colorado on Feb. 7, Hurley had pointed comments post-game, stating that "chances are (ASU is) not going to be able to rebound" and that they "stink on defense," per Dominic Pasella of WCSN. The Oklahoma State performance softened his stance, though, leading him to open by saying it looked like ASU "figured out how to rebound."
The disparaging words apparently worked, as the Sun Devils took down the Cowboys 85-76. ASU shot just 5-21 (23.8%) from three against Oklahoma State, with 19 offensive rebounds and a tied season high of 24 second-chance points filling the void.
"We didn't shoot it great again, this is the second time in three games that we went 5-20 against Utah and 5-21 tonight from three and still were able to win," Hurley said. "So that's good, because usually we would need to be around 10 made threes in a game to win against an opponent like this."
READ MORE: By the numbers: ASU defense, rebounding struggles highlighted in conference play
Mentality also plays a role when shots aren't falling. Against the Cowboys, instead of forcing up threes that weren't there, the Sun Devils decided to go inside to the tune of 35 free throw attempts.
"We just said don't take bad shots in key moments, go to the rim, get fouls," redshirt sophomore forward Santiago Trouet, who led the team with 10 rebounds, said. "Obviously, we're at home. We got to use that … but we just wanted to be aggressive, and we did it."
Whether it was Hurley's criticism or the reality of ASU's place near the bottom of the Big 12 that led to the Sun Devils' spirited effort, the team requires more of that energy with six regular-season games left.
"That's our head coach; everything he says, it goes straight to our heart," graduate forward Allen Mukeba said. "We take this personally, not in the wrong way. Obviously, I was trying to get better and improve so, yeah, we take this personally."
Edited by Alan Deutschendorf, Henry Smardo and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at pvallur2@asu.edu and follow @PrathamValluri on X.
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Pratham Valluri is a sports reporter at The State Press. He is a junior majoring in sports journalism with a business minor. He’s in his 5th semester with The State Press working previously as an opinion writer.
