Arizona State basketball uses strong non-conference schedule to boost profile
LAS VEGAS — It didn't take Bobby Hurley long to notch a signature victory. He did that in 2017, early in his third year, when his team stormed into Lawrence, Kansas and upset the then-No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks by 10 points. Then the Sun Devils did it again the next year when Kansas traveled to Tempe, then as the No. 1 ranked team in the country.
When it comes to making the NCAA tournament, teams have to start building a resume in November. There is no waiting until conference play rolls around. That's one reason Hurley traditionally seeks to challenge his team early in the season.
The Sun Devils faced one of their more formidable tests of the still young season when they squared off against Creighton Monday night in the Jack Jones Hoopfest at Mandalay Bay and emerged with a hard-fought 73-71 victory to improve to 10-1 on the season for the team's best start since 2017-2018 when the Sun Devils won their first 12 of the season.
The two teams played a thriller last season as well with the Sun Devils prevailing 58-57 in Omaha. It's an opponent Hurley has come to respect. Creighton started this season ranked No. 9 nationally, although it has struggled of late.
"We've been able to have some games with Creighton. I like to challenge my teams. I want to play the very best and we know when we play Creighton that these games have been close. You just learn a lot about your team when you play team like this," Hurley said, after his team's most recent victory.
Many Power 5 teams are comfortable having opponents come to them. The Sun Devils may be just 11 games into the season, but they have already played six games away from the friendly confines of Desert Financial Arena and traveled to four different states.
When it comes to building a resume, who you play and where you play them is important, especially if you're a bubble team come March and the tournament selection committee is comparing you to other candidates for the postseason field. The win against Creighton gave the Sun Devils what is deemed a "Quad 1" victory, their second of the season.
A Quad 1 game is one against a team with a NET ranking of 1-30 if you're playing at home, 1-50 if at neutral venue or 1-75 if on the road. The scale goes on from there, Quad 2, Quad 3 and Quad 4. Not only is that metric used to measure the quality of a win but the impact of losses as well. For example, ASU's 67-66 overtime loss at Texas Southern is a bad one, a Quad 4 since that opponent is 2-7 with a NET ranking of 254.
That equation is also ever changing. As it stands now ASU has two Quad 1 wins — Creighton and Colorado (60-59 win at Boulder). But Creighton's NET ranking is 50, so if the Blue Jays, who have now lost five in a row, slip one spot, then that win by ASU then becomes a Quad 2 win rather than 1.
No doubt ASU's best performance of the season was its 87-62 win over then-No. 20 Michigan in the championship game of the Legends Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. When that game was played it stood as a Quad 1 victory. But the Wolverines are now just 6-3, with two other losses after the setback to ASU. Its NET ranking has dropped to 80; this it is now a Quad 2 win.
That assessment system is a reason teams are pulling for those teams they've already played. The better the record of those teams, the better their NET ranking and your strength of schedule.
While Hurley likes to challenge his teams, it can also backfire, as was the case last year when the Sun Devils got off to a 2-6 start that included losses at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas to Baylor, Syracuse and Loyola Chicago. Playing that caliber of competition early was a tough order because the the Sun Devils had only three returning players. Not only was the level of competition stiff, but Hurley was trying to work a lot of newcomers into the mix and the team didn't quite gel.
A tough start to Pac-12 play meant the Sun Devils were an abysmal 6-13 at one point. That meant ASU's only shot at qualifying for the postseason was to win the conference tournament. It was a second straight postseason spent sitting at home after back-to-back appearances in 2018 and 2019 with the 2020 event canceled due to COVID-19.
Hurley's current team has come together nicely though, with team chemistry something all have talked about. Four of the five starters are transfer portal acquisitions in brothers Desmond and Devan Cambridge, point guard Frankie Collins and forward Warren Washington. Guard D.J. Horne is the lone returning starter. The chemistry has likely been aided by having brothers who already have a natural bond, and then adding Washington who was a teammate of Desmond Cambridge at Nevada.
The team is 5-1 this season in games decided by six points or fewer with the win over Creighton fitting into that category. The Sun Devils overcame a lot of foul trouble, which affected the trademark defense.
"I just want to say how proud I am of us," said Desmond Cambridge, who had 19 points in 18 minutes, with his court time limited by that foul trouble. "Just because, no discredit to the refs. Just games like that, you know you can get frustrated by some of the calls but we stayed poised. We showed we could be a real poised team. When we play big games they're going to be calls like that and we can't fold."
There are plenty of opportunities ahead for Quad 1 wins with perennial powers Arizona and UCLA looming as well as Utah, who along with ASU have been the most pleasant surprises in the conference thus far.
"This is eight in a row for us and we lost at the buzzer in overtime our only defeat. Played lights out in New York against Michigan, another high profile game in a very similar way and so it felt like an NCAA Tournament game. It wasn't always the cleanest game in the world but it had that feeling of two really good teams going at each other. It will prepare us for our league pay] and certainly give us confidence moving forward," Hurley said.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU men's basketball using quality opponents to boost resume
