On Sunday at 4:00 PM PT on ESPN2, Stanford men’s basketball will take on the Arizona State Sun Devils on the road in Tempe. Stanford comes in at 3-5 overall and 0-1 in the Pac-12 while Arizona State comes in at 7-1 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-12.
Last time out: On Thursday, Stanford fell to UCLA at home by a final score of 80-66. Stanford got down 17-0, pretty much ending their hopes of winning, but they did battle back to get withing eight points before fading away in a non-Michael Jordan kind of way.
RECAP: Stanford MBB falls to #21 UCLA in Pac-12 opener
On Arizona State: The Sun Devils have a lot of scoring balance as sophomore guard Frankie Collins (12.9 points), junior guard DJ Horne (12.5 points), sophomore forward Marcus Bagley (12.5 points), and senior guard Devan Cambridge (10.5 points) all score in double figures. Bagley has been out due to a suspension over a tweet he put out and it’s unclear when he’ll return.
The Sun Devils have some quality wins with their 60-59 win at Colorado to open Pac-12 play on Thursday as well as their 87-62 victory over then #20 Michigan in Brooklyn. Their lone loss is to Texas Southern on the road in overtime (66-67), so that was one hiccup that they’ve had this season.
As a team, the Sun Devils average 72.3 points per game on 43.4% shooting from the field, 30.5% shooting from 3-point range, and 69.8% shooting from the foul line. They average 39.9 rebounds, 14.6 assists, 7.0 rebounds, 6.0 steals, and 13.4 turnovers per game. They also average a +0.9 rebound advantage and a +1.5 turnover margin.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is come out with the right energy. They’ve been decent in the second half most nights, but as they learned against UCLA, you can’t get down by 17 points at the start and expect to come back. So, getting off to a good start and at least keeping it even with the Sun Devils at the start is going to be key.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is make some threes. 3-point shooting was supposed to be a strength of theirs coming in, but they are shooting 28.3% on the year. If they want to win this game, they have to shoot better from the perimeter.
Finally, Stanford needs to get Harrison Ingram going. On the road, your stars need to deliver and right now, Ingram is off to a slow start, averaging 10.4 points per game. If he could get rolling and have a big outing, that would be huge.
Prediction: Arizona State is at home and after their uninspiring home performance against UCLA, I have a hard time seeing Stanford winning this one. It’s possible Stanford wins, certainly a winnable game as Arizona State is favored by just 4.5 points, but I’m going to pick the Sun Devils in this one. 70-65 is my score prediction.
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