The Arizona State men's basketball team (0-1) meets the always good Belmont Bruins (1-0) on Monday, Nov. 16 at 8 p.m. MT on the Pac-12 Networks, with Roxy Bernstein and Dan Belluomini on the call. Tim Healey and Kyle Dodd have the call on radio for the Sun Devils on 92.3 FM. ASU has met Belmont once, beating the Bruins 92-44 on Dec. 22, 2000. Monday marks the 100th career game for Eric Jacobsen, while it also is Gerry Blakes birthday. Belmont won at Marquette on Friday 83-80.
COUPLE OF QUICK COACH BOBBY NOTES: Coach Hurley and Danny Manning are the only current college coaches who earned NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors. Buffalo was 285-369 (.436) in 22 seasons after going Division I (1991-2013). Under Bobby Hurley the Bulls were 42-20 (.678) in his two seasons.
ABOUT BELMONT: Coached by Rick Byrd, the Bruins posted a 22-11 record last year in winning the OVC championship and earned their seventh NCAA Tournament bid in the last decade. Only Gonzaga has earned seven automatic bids in the last decade and only Gonzaga and Kansas have won more league titles than the 14 by Belmont since 2006. Coach Byrd welcomes back four starters in 2015-16, led by first-team All-OVC senior guard Craig Bradshaw (18.3 ppg, 94 assists) and second-team All-OVC junior swingman Evan Bradds (14.2 ppg, team-high 7.2 rpg). The Bruins were picked to win the Ohio Valley Conference.
ANOTHER NOTE ON THE SCHEDULE: Joe Lunardi released his preseason Bracketology on Nov. 11, and it included 12 teams on ASU's schedule (although only can play 11 of them). Belmont, North Carolina State, Marquette, LSU, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Stephen F. Austin are the teams in the non-conference slate, while Arizona, California, UCLA, Oregon and Utah were picked from the Pac-12. ASU will play North Carolina State on Nov. 23 and then play either LSU or Marquette on Nov. 24 in the Legends Classic in Brooklyn. ASU will play Arizona, California and UCLA twice in Pac-12 play, but won't host Utah or travel to Oregon. So the Sun Devils are scheduled to play 31 games this year, 14 of them against Bracketology projected NCAA teams.
SACRAMENTO STATE 66, ASU 63 (11/13/15): ASU opened the 2015-16 season and the Bobby Hurley era Friday with a 66-63 defeat to Sacramento State. The Hornets, who were 21-12 in 2014-15 and made their first Division I postseason appearance and set a school record with the 21 wins, shot 13-of-25 (.520) in the second half and out rebounded the Sun Devils 41-34. ASU led 48-38 (11:37) and 55-47 (6:42), but Sacramento State outscored the Sun Devils 19-8 in the final six minutes. Tra Holder had a career-high 17 points (including 8-of-9 from the free throw line. Willie Atwood posted his first double-double 11 points and 11 rebounds. ASU struggled from the three-point stripe (2-of-17 including 0-of-8 in the first half) and free throw line (15-of-27/.556).
TRA HOLDER TOP SCORING GAMES
17 vs. Sacramento State (11/13/15)
16 vs. Oregon (1/30/15)
15 vs. Stanford (3/5/15)
15 vs. #6 Arizona (2/7/15)
15 vs. Pepperdine (12/13/14)
ABOUT THOSE 47 @SUNDEVILHOOPS HOME WINS
ASU is 47-9 (.839) in the past four seasons at home, and is the only team to beat the past three Pac-12 champions in that time (UCLA in 2013, UA in 2014 and 2015). Wondering how the 47 wins from 2012-15 stacked up? In the Pac-12 it is fourth, but in the nation it is tied for tenth. ASU posted records of 16-4 (2012-13), 16-1 (2013-14) and 15-3 (2014-15) the past three seasons that includes a 21-6 mark in the Pac-12.
47-9 PRETTY DARN GOOD
The Sun Devils are 47-9 (.839) at home in the past four seasons, one of the best marks in the four decades of hoops in Wells Fargo Arena. Since the Lionel Hollins-led Sun Devils opened the building in 1974-75, the most home wins in any four-year era is 51 (1991-95 and 2007-11). The best winning percentage in a four-year span came from 1979-83, when the Sun Devils went 49-12 (.803).
ABOUT THOSE ROAD GAMES
ASU will play at Kentucky (Dec. 12), UNLV (Dec. 16) and Creighton (Dec. 2) this year. Kentucky (23,572 average attendance) trailed only Syracuse (23,854) in average home attendance last year, while Creighton (17,048) was sixth behind only Louisville, North Carolina and Wisconsin. In addition, Kentucky was ranked No. 1 in the RPI last year. Want more? In ASU's nine Pac-12 road games last year the Sun Devils played in front of 69,519 fans. Kentucky, UNLV and Creighton, who ASU plays in a 14-day span in December, averaged a total 52,377 fans.
GOOD SCHEDULE
ASU has at least 10 non-conference games against teams in the top 155 of last year's RPI with Kentucky (1), Stephen F. Austin (33), NC State (39), LSU (57) or Marquette (147), Texas A&M (67), UCSB (87), Belmont (105), UNLV (114), Sacramento State (142) and Creighton (151). Kentucky, Stephen F. Austin, LSU, NC State, and Belmont made the 2015 NCAA Tournament. The Sun Devils will travel to Creighton (Dec. 2), Kentucky (Dec. 12/ESPN/1:15 p.m. ET) and UNLV (Dec. 16/CBS Sports Network/7 p.m. PT) in a two-week span, and host Texas A&M (Dec. 5/ESPN2/8:30 p.m.), who is in the ESPN Way-To-Early Preseason Top-25.
EJ MAKES SHOTS
He doesn't take a lot of them, but when he does, he makes them. Eric Jacobsen shot .626 from the field (102-of-163) last season, the fourth-best season mark in Sun Devil history. Jacobsen averaged 28.6 minutes, 8.3 points and 5.9 rebounds last year in 34 games after averaging 8.8 minutes, 2.1 points and 1.8 rebounds in his first two seasons. He is a career .580 shooter (152-of-262) in 99 career games.
FINAL FOUR IN 2017
Remember that Arizona State and Phoenix host the 2017 Final Four, the first Final Four held west of Texas since Seattle in 1995. It will be held at University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals. The 2017 Final Four will also mark the 25th anniversary of Bobby Hurley earning 1992 Most Outstanding Player honors.
REMINDER THIS GUY COULDN'T PLAY THE FIRST NINE GAMES LAST YEAR
After not playing in a college hoops game for 635 days and missing the first nine games last year after transferring, Savon Goodman in the final 12 games averaged 12.9 points and 9.7 rebounds while shooting 66-of-107 (.617) from the field. He posted 18 points off the bench in the 89-70 loss at Stanford on Jan. 17 and had 15 vs. No. 6 Arizona on Feb. 7 (7-of-9 shooting) to go along with nine rebounds. At Washington State he had career-high 14 rebounds, and then he went bonkers at Washington on Feb. 15 with 19 points and 13 rebounds prior to doing nearly the same Feb. 18 vs. UCLA with 20 points and 12 rebounds. His final game of the season he was off the charts at Richmond in the NIT, notching 14 points and 17 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end, in the NIT overtime loss to Richmond.
WHEN WAS LAST TIME ASU PLAYED THREE NON-CONFERENCE ROADIES?
When you toss out neutral site tournaments and talk only true road games, the 2015-16 season will be the just the second time since 1989-90 (also in 2010-11) that ASU will play three non-conference road games. This year will mark just the sixth time in ASU's 38 seasons of Pac-12 play it will go on the road for three non-conference games.
SEASONS OF THREE NON-CONFERENCE ROAD GAMES (1978-79 TO PRESENT)
2015-16 (at Creighton, Kentucky and UNLV)
2010-11 (at New Mexico, Baylor and Nevada)
1989-90 (at San Francisco, Northern Arizona and Kansas)
1982-83 (at DePaul, Ohio State and Kansas State)
1981-82 (at Kansas, Utah and Marquette)
1978-79 (at Purdue, Hawaii and San Diego State)
GOOD COMPANY: Here is a look at how Tra Holder's freshman season compared to former Sun Devil Derek Glasser (2006-10), a four-year starter at point guard who set Sun Devil career records for games played (131), assists (551) and free throw percentage (.838) and is the only Sun Devil with 1,000 career points and 500 assists. Tra’s 115 assists in 2014-15 is second on the Sun Devil freshman list behind only Jahii Carson (177/2012-13).
DEREK GLASSER (2006-07)/TRA HOLDER (2014-15)
MPG: 27.9/27.0 FT PCT: .778/.708
ASSISTS: 97/115
PPG: 6.3/7.0
DOUBLE DIGIT SCORING GAMES: 7/13