SERIES UPDATE: ASU now leads the series 18-10, as the last Tempe meeting was a 55-52 Sun Devil on Dec. 19, 2009. Last year at SDSU on Dec. 10 ASU fell behind 14-4 and was down 32-25 at the half but came back behind 10 three-pointers and 16-of-18 free throws to win at always tough Viejas Arena, where 2016 MWC regular season champion SDSU was 49-5 in its previous 54. SDSU entered 2017-18 having won an average of 25 games the last 12 seasons (including seven NCAA Tournament appearances) and has won the Mountain West Championship regular season title three of the past four years.
TRA HOLDER'S TOP SCORING GAMES
27 vs. Washington State (1/29/17)
26 at UCLA (1/9/16)
25 at Stanford (12/30/16)
24 vs. San Diego State (11/14/17)
24 vs. #9 Creighton (12/20/16)
24 vs. Cal Poly (11/13/16)
24 vs. #8 Arizona (1/3/16)
SUN DEVIL CAREER POINTS
1. Eddie House, 1996-2000/2,044
17. Al Nealey, 1957-60/1,304
18. Art Becker, 1961-64/1,284
19. Tony Zeno, 1975-79/1,282
20. Arthur Thomas, 1984-88/1,268
21. Jahii Carson, 2012-14/1,261
22. Tra Holder, 2014-present/1,257
NINE HALFTIME DEFICIT WINS UNDER COACH HURLEY
(-6) San Diego State 40, ASU 34-Nov. 14, 2017/ASU 90, San Diego State 68
(-1) USC 48, ASU 47-Feb. 26, 2017/ASU 83, USC 82
(-2) @Washington 41, ASU 39-Feb. 16, 2017/ASU 83, @Washington 81
(-1) Stanford 33, ASU 32-Feb. 11, 2017/ASU 75, Stanford 69
(-7) @SDSU 32, ASU 25-Dec. 10, 2016/ASU 74, @SDSU 63
(-3) #23 USC 30, ASU 27-Feb. 12, 2016/ASU 74, USC 67
(-12) @UNLV 37, ASU 25-Dec. 16, 2015/ASU 66, @UNLV 56
(-8) @Creighton 41, ASU 33-Dec. 2, 2015/ASU 79, @Creighton 77
(-2) UCSB 29, ASU 27-Nov. 29, 2015/ASU 70, UCSB 68
TWICE IS NICE: SDSU is 63-9 in its past 72 games when leading at the half, with two of the losses to Arizona State. Last year ASU came back from down 32-25 to win 74-63 at San Diego State on Dec. 10, 2016.
SUN DEVIL MOST POINTS IN FIRST GAME OF FRESHMAN YEAR
23, Jerren Shipp vs. Northern Arizona, Nov. 13, 2006
22, Christian Polk vs. Northern Arizona, Nov. 13, 2006
18, Jamal Faulkner vs. Kansas, Nov. 23, 1990
18, Eric Holloway vs. U.S. International, Nov. 29, 1983
17, Eddie House vs. Jacksonville, Nov. 22, 1996
16, Romello White vs. San Diego State, Nov. 14, 2017
16, Ron Riley vs. BYU, Dec. 1, 1992
15, Jahii Carson vs. Central Arkansas, Nov. 10, 2012
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QUOTES FROM ARIZONA STATE HEAD COACH BOBBY HURLEY POSTGAME (NOV. 14, 2017)
“I thought we made a strong statement early in the first half. We made some real effort plays on defense which kind of ignited what we were doing. Early in the game De’Quon (Lake) came in off the bench and continued where he left off from Friday with the blocks and the finishes. Unfortunately, he (De’Quon) picked up his second and I didn’t want to go back to him in the first half. But he came in and did very well. The only negative thing that I could say is we had a little stretch in the first half where our offense over dribbled and we stopped defending the way we have to get the lead that we got early in the first half. It was a great learning experience to come back from that adversity. In the locker room, we challenged the guys to play better, to make better decisions on offense, to make threes when your open and shoot it with confidence, and they did. Shannon (Evans) and Tra (Holder) early in that second half really got us going and Tra had a traffic all-around game again – just filling the stat sheet in different areas. It was just great to see and watch guys like Romello White rebound and score inside with the aggression he plays with. De’Quon as well, when they were both together, it didn’t seem like there was much hope to get a rebound other than those two guys for stretch in the second half. San Diego State is very good team that will win a lot of games in their conference and are well coached."
ON TRA HOLDER AND SHANNON EVANS TAKING OVER A GAME
“That’s why in the college game particularly, experienced guards who have been in games like this before, it’s great to have them in the roles that they are in. Both of those guys are determined for us to have a great season and have us win and doing something special this year as a team. Individually, they are just really gifted players, they can make plays off the dribble and with the deep shot. That’s why we're different. I think we have a chance to be better with the balance that we have and with the guards and what they can do away from the basket in getting to the rim, along with the presence of Romello and De’Quon around the basket. It's going to make it harder to defend us.”
ON EVERYTHING COMING TOGETHER AT THE END
“We struggled late in the half and there wasn’t a ton of life in the first half, and even in the locker room. You don’t know how a bunch of guys are going to respond. They responded as well as you could expect. Just continuing to get stops and show energy on defense. I thought the defense was excellent in forcing them to miss. We got to (Max) Montana early. I think he was a part of the problem in the first half. We lost him a few times for threes. We were closer to him in the second half. The first half when we didn’t do something well on offense, we didn’t get back on defense as well. They had too many layups. We eliminated easy points from them in the second half.”
ON REMY MARTIN'S DEFENSE AGAINST DEVIN WATSON
“We were switching a lot of their action...guard to guard. Remy was on him, but I think everyone had a turn or chance. I talked about how much of an impact he had on guarding the ball, pressuring and creating plays out there. Even though he didn’t shoot well, he still was real positive in some other areas.”
QUOTES FROM SAN DIEGO STATE HEAD COACH BRIAN DUTCHER POSTGAME (NOV. 14, 2017)
"The strength of our program has always been our defense and it wasn’t there tonight. We knew they were an attacking team, they have excellent guards that really get to the rim and they got there on us in the second half. I thought our defense was not what it needed to be in a game against a good team on the road. Offensively we didn’t shoot the ball great, we had some layup that just did not go in. A frustrating night for the Aztecs.
ON MALIK POPE
"Yea I think Malik (Pope) getting his third foul early in the second half hurt us. I wanted to rest him until the twelve-minute timeout and it just never came. They went on a big run and eventually I had to take one to try to stem the momentum and get Malik back in the game. At that point, they had a lot of momentum in their favor and we just couldn’t overcome that.Even though we had the lead at halftime, I told the kids it was about a C performance. We had nine turnovers and we didn’t play nearly as good as I thought we should have played. You multiply that by two in the second half and it wasn’t a great game for the Aztecs. Like I said it has to start with our defense. Offensively I though we made some decent plays. Devin Watson had seven assists at halftime and ended up with nine for the game. We just turned the ball over too much, we had 15 turnovers. Credit Arizona State, they played a good game and they’ve got good veteran guards that won out over ours today."
ON ADJUSTMENTS THAT WILL BE MADE
"You know, it is going to start with our defense. We tried to build it this week from one on one, two on two, three on three, back to the basics because we knew we had to stay in front of people this game because this is a team that drives the ball aggressively. From an X and O stand point I think the thing that I probably failed on was not treating their bigs with enough respect. I mean they did major work on us, usually we post double a team like that, we didn’t double them. We were going to drop off the ball and try to dig a little bit, but they were too quickly into their shot, so maybe I could’ve given the team more help at the post defensive end. Arizona State really punished us inside and I think their bigs had an outstanding game...I think one was 7-of-7 (Lake) and one was 5-of-10 (White) and they played very well."
INJURY TO MAX MONTANA
"Max (Montana) has had knee problems in the past, so I think he was worried than anything when he went down.We just tried to calm him down a little bit and had the game been closer and we needed him, Sergio said he was available to come back in. I didn’t want to run the risk, I wanted to let him rest for a little bit knowing we have a game on Friday, so with the score the way it was I decided not to bring him back in to let him rest it, ice it, and make sure it’s solid for Friday.
ON TRA HOLDER
"I mean he led the Pac-12 in free throw takes and makes. He’s a 1,200-point career scorer for them going into this season. Arizona State, you have to realize, last year, was the third most three-point shooting team in Pac-12 history in terms of makes, so we know they can shoot the ball. We didn’t give them any the first half, they only had two and ended up eight for the game, but what we did is we gave up way too much inside."
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PREGAME MEDIA AVAILABILTY (NOV. 13, 2017)
COACH BOBBY HURLEY
ON DE’QUON LAKE
"I mentioned after that he by far had his best week of practice, battling Romello head-to-head and holding his own. His motor is getting better, I think he’s getting more comfortable on what he has to remember and he’s playing more on instinct. Again, I think this is a good situation for him because our guards are so good at getting into the paint and making things easy for him. He’s got to play with that motor and he did that for sure the other night."
GETTING CONSISTENT EFFORT FROM DE'QUON
"To never take a possession off and to keep reminding him and encouraging him to do that. Using his gifts, he’s such a gifted athlete and very light on his feet. Very quick jumper, just to get him thinking about doing that on both end of the floor; challenging shots and finishing above the rim."
ON DE'QUON BEING A BETTER REBOUNDER
I mean he still has to keep developing in those areas. Certainly, we are talking to him about that, giving multiple efforts and things. Hopefully he will continue to develop those areas. Then the other thing, you can throw it to him on the block, he’s got a good feel for post moves and touch. Not only a dunker, he can shoot some jump hooks. He’s got a little bit of a repertoire he can go to in the post."
ON KIMANI LAWRENCE
"Yeah Kimani he’s having surgery now. He’s probably finishing up surgery on his fifth metatarsal in left foot. It was a stress fracture, the doctor inserted a small pin in there. It’s likely to keep him out, ballpark is somewhere around Christmas based on the timeframe that we’ve been given right now. But there’s no set date on his return. It is very encouraging it looks like we would hopefully in a good case scenario have Kimani back for the entire Pac-12. That’s our goal, he’s disappointed and it’s a hard way for him to start his career and we feel terrible for him that he had to go through this just one day before his first game. It’s just a minor setback. I think he’s going to approach his theory and recovery the right way.
ON KIMANI’S INJURY
No, it was a sudden, freak situation. He never talked with any of our medical personal about it being a problem prior to it happening. I’ve been lucky over the last year to not have to go through any injuries like this and we hope to not have to in the future. We look forward to getting Kimani back and he has a good attitude about it. The initial news is never good for anyone to know that they are going to miss time, but he’s handled it well.
ON DEPTH ISSUES
Well, Kimani is a hell of a player. He’s a young guy that we want to develop and get experience. So, he’s losing time with that process, but in the mean time we have some guys that will become eligible. Mickey Mitchell, with the transfer rules becomes eligible and Romello when we can get him out there. Then we’ll have enough as long as we can try and stay healthy from this point on.
ON SIMILAR DEPTH ISSUES FROM LAST YEAR
Having a short rotation is not something I’m unfamiliar with so in that way it helps. Just the guards, Shannon can play every minute and not get that tired. It’s just how he’s wired. Tra is used to playing big minutes. Kodi is. Now we have Remy to add to that rotation. As you saw with Austin as a walk-on, I mean I don’t really think he’s a walk on to be honest. He comes in there, knows what he’s doing, runs our offense and makes good plays so I have confidence in Austin as another option on the perimeter. We are starting to get to the point when we get the rotation going in the frontcourt, I think it’s pretty solid.
ON HOW ASU DEFENDED VS. IDAHO STATE
I thought we defended fairly well in the first half in terms of creating turnovers. I think that is something we have the potential to do with our speed and ball pressure. I thought once the game hit a certain point, like we were up 25 or whatever it was, we stopped guarding as well as we needed to. We talked about that, about sustaining that and not losing sight of that regardless of the scoreboard.
ON FIRST GAME PREPARATION AFTER FIRST GAME
Just the balance, I talked a lot about it last year. Being a little one dimensional. Shooting the three, guards driving and scoring in the paint, trying to get to the free throw line that way. Now we have more of guys that want to play inside and teams need to honor around the basket that can make something happen when the ball is in their hand. De’Quon showed flashes of that the first game and Romello I know can do that as well. I think that’s where I’m really looking forward to getting to the point where these guys are playing together for a period of time and I think over time we have the potential to be a pretty good team when you talk about the balance we will have.
ON BIG MEN HELPING GUARDS
I think what it’s going to do is free them up and do things they are more naturally capable of doing. Last year we talked to the guards about trying to rebound and rebound more. They’ll certainly get in there and get some long rebounds, when you have a bigger lineup that has guys that can go get the basketball off the board it makes it easier for the guards to play their natural game and position. I’m hoping there is a positive effect of just being bigger. Those guys, they’re screeners. Melo is going to be able to score form the post, teams are going to have to figure out how to guard him and he can pass out of the post as well. I think you’ll see some inside out as opposed to outside in.
ON SAN DIEGO STATE
I don’t see the values of a program changing when everything was done in house. That’s been their calling card, in the film I watched. I watched last game, I watched their first game. They’re picking up, they’re pressuring, they’re getting after it defensively. They have good athletes, they have big guards. Pope looks very good, he had a great first game for them. He looks better on film then I saw from last year. Then their depth, they played 10 guys in the first game. I would assume they will do a lot of the things they have done in the past.
DE'QUON LAKE
ON HAVING A NICE FIRST GAME
“It felt good. It felt good for my first college game. I had a lot of energy out there. I put up 24 points so that’s a good start off to the season. I wanted to have that kind of performance. That’s my goal for every time, to have high points and high rebounds every time...work hard, play hard. I came out with energy, especially in the warm ups. The team encouraged me, got me up when I’m down. Get energy going all the time.”
ON WHAT HAS BEEN THE HARDEST ADJUSTMENT COMING OUT OF JUNIOR COLLEGE
“I would say the pace. The pace is pretty different from junior college, you know we go up and down, up and down non-stop. Just how hard you got to go all the time. You can’t let up. That’s different. You gotta finish the ball somehow. You can’t go up soft and get your stuff blocked. Can’t go soft.”
ON WHAT COACH HURLEY WANTS TO SEE FOR HIM TO BE SUCCESSFUL
“He Wants to see the same performance that I had. Obviously I can get better from that performance, but he wants to see me go out and play hard all the time, have high energy just do what I have to do all the time...constitantly have a high motor. Keep going, non-stop. Don’t let up. It has taken a while to get adjusted, but I’m taking a step forward each time.”
ON ASU NOT HAVING AS MANY BODIES IN THE FRONT COURT
“That’s more playing time. Getting down the floor and getting your minutes in and doing what you have to do for those minutes.”
ON HOW COMFORTABLE HE FEELS ON HIS RANGE AND GOING OUT FURTHER AWAY FROM THE BASKET
“That might be a little later on, but right now I’m going to stay by the basket where I feel comfortable to.”
ON THE CHALLENGES ON DEFENSE
“I don’t really have much of a challenge, just keep moving my feet, getting to help-side, just blocking shots, rebounding, that’s it.”