Arizona State men's basketball prepares for opening week of Pac-12 play

The last few years the Arizona State men's basketball team got off to a slow start in Pac-12 play and dug themselves a hole they couldn't crawl out of. Last year they were 2-7, the year before 1-5. In 2019-2020, the Sun Devils lost three of their first four conference games.

So coach Bobby Hurley is hoping his squad can change that trend and get some wins on the board early. Conference play starts this week and the Sun Devils (6-1) will travel to Colorado (4-3) for a 6:30 p.m. game on Thursday with the game to air on FS1 and then return home to face Stanford (3-4) at 5 p.m. Sunday at Desert Financial Arena, that game to be televised on ESPN2.

Hurley's team is coming off a 76-54 non-conference win over Alcorn State on Sunday so it will be three games in eight days including the two conference games this week. The coach is pleased with what has transpired thus far but wants to build on that performance.

"Kind of stressed to the guys, with three games Sunday to Sunday, two of them being Pac-12 games. Got to ramp it up, take it to another level as to how important it is to get off to a good start this week," he said.

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Hurley has been most pleased with his team's unselfishness which is reflected in some of the numbers. The Sun Devils are averaging 14.4 assists per game which is only one better than what they averaged last season but with a lot of newcomers in the mix and it took a few games for Hurley to settle on his starting lineup which now consists of brothers Desmond (9.2 ppg) and Devan Cambridge (9.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg) with a backcourt of Frankie Collins (12.9 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 5.1 apg) and D.J Horne (13.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg) and 7-foot forward Warren Washington (8.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 2 bpg).

In the last two games, ASU has 41 assists on 49 made field goals with Collins dishing out 12 of those.

"You look at the stat sheet and you see the assist total jump out and you say, `That's great. We're playing team basketball,' but we can't take that for granted, how high a level we're playing at that end and unbelievable energy," Hurley said. "We have a deep team with a lot of guys we can bring in and we've got a lot of length around the basket. Hopefully we can continue to play that way at that end of the floor."

Hurley is also pleased with his team's defense. It ranks fourth in the nation in field goal percentage defense (33.9%), third in 3-point percentage defense (22.1%) and 34th out of 352 Division I teams in scoring defense, allowing 59.7 points per game. ASU is also fifth in blocked shots (6.4 per game) with Washington managing 14. While it had a couple of games against SWAC teams to maybe inflate those numbers, ASU also held then No. 20 Michigan to 33.9% from the field and 18.2% from long distance in its win over the Wolverines at the Legends Classic.

"It starts with how we defend. If we guard like that every game, we're going to get stops and then we're going to get in the open court and then we could go on some of those scoring runs if we make that commitment. For the most part, all year we've guarded," Hurley said.

ASU's next foe, Colorado, has been hard to figure out so far. The Buffaloes, who went 21-12 last season, boast a 78-66 win over then No. 11 Tennessee and a 103-75 victory over No. 24 Texas A&M. But they also have losses to the same Grambling State team ASU beat convincingly as well as UMass and Boise State.

ASU played Colorado only once last season, winning 82-65 in Boulder in one of its better performances in an otherwise dismal season.

The Sun Devils played Stanford three times, losing two and both losses were not without drama. ASU lost 79-76 at Maples Pavilion with the Cardinal making three free throws with a second left for the decisive margin. Stanford had 41 free throws in the game while ASU had just nine which led to Hurley voicing his objections loud enough he was suspended for a game.

The last meeting of the teams came in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas, with ASU losing 71-70 on a tip-in at the buzzer. The Sun Devils blew the game after leading by 14 points with three minutes left.

There has been enough roster turnover the Sun Devils probably aren't dwelling on those past results.

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While there are a lot of newcomers, Hurley thinks the team has come together quicker than it did last year because of the natural connections with the Cambridge brothers already having that sibling bond. And Desmond Cambridge transferred in from Nevada where he played alongside Washington. That has helped the team's progression.

That inside presence was something the Sun Devils lacked last season. They were among the worst rebounding teams in the country. They currently rank 36th at 40.7 per game.

"We have got some guards that can pass and guys that can score and Des (Cambridge) already has that connection with Warren (Washington) to find him from years of playing together and I think guys are gaining confidence knowing they can get him the ball and he's going to finish around the basket," Hurley said.

Elsewhere in the Pac-12

• Arizona is the highest-ranked team in the conference at No. 4. The Wildcats (6-0) are coming off a win at the Maui Invitational led by Tournament MVP Oumar Ballou who averaged 21 points and 10.7 rebounds while shooting 79.4% from the floor. He was named Pac-12 Player of the week for that effort. The Wildcats open conference play at Utah (5-2) Thursday.

• Oregon (3-4) started the season ranked No. 21 but has played a difficult schedule. Three of the losses have been to ranked teams - Houston (3), UConn (20) and Michigan State (12). The more inexplicable loss was by 13 points to UC Irvine. The Ducks start conference play at home against Washington State (3-2) on Thursday.

• UCLA (5-2), ranked No. 21, starts its Pac-12 slate at Stanford on Thursday. Its losses are to Illinois and Baylor. Amari Bailey was this week's Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. He averaged 15.5 points, 6 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2 steals and shot 57.1% from the field in two home wins last week.

Reach the reporter at Michelle.Gardner@gannett.com or 602 444-4783.  Follow her on Twitter @MGardnerSports.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State basketball opens Pac-12 play vs. Colorado, Stanford