Preview:
ASU has been a bit under the radar in recent years, compared to the problems Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, and even Colorado have posed for us. But Charli Turner Thorne has been the most consistent "thorn" in our side for years. Her teams have been notorious for defensive intensity. But what is this year's ASU like?
Massey has them at 52. They did themselves a lot of good by beating Colorado last weekend, but undid the good by losing to Utah. The win over Colorado was by far their best win, then next best is Fordham. Their worst loss is to Creighton, but they have "good" losses to BYU and Baylor. They have played some good teams--they just have lost to all of them until they beat Colorado.
ASU is 9-6 overall, 1-1 in conference, with a whopping 6 Pac 12 games postponed. How the heck would we know what they are like, given so many fewer games against serious competition? In the Colorado win they held the Buffs to 33% shooting so it sounds like the CTT philosophy continues to function. Offensively they were led by senior guard Taya Hanson, who seems to have been most of their offense for the last few years. But this year she is only coming in 4th in scoring--so they have some diversity of talent.
This year's leader is Jade Loville at 16 ppg, and shooting a whopping 48% of her treys--and quite a few of them at that. Jade is a senior, 5'11" wing, and she did not play in the Colorado game (although she was back for the Utah game.)
Mael Gilles and Jadden Simmons at 10 ppg each round out the top four scorers. Gilles is a 6'1" grad transfer from Rutgers who should be known to Alyssa Jerome since they both came up through the Canadian national system about the same time. Simmons is a sophomore guard who was last year's freshman sensation.
As is usual for a CTT team, ASU has 12 players averaging more than 10 minutes. Expect hockey style lineup substitutions as she tries to keep her players fresh and keep up the defensive intensity.
As is NOT usual for a CTT team, she has 4 players averaging 26 minutes or more--the four with the most offensive output just mentioned above.
The ASU formula for success would be for their defense to stay fresh enough to frustrate our shooters while their big 4 scorers do just enough to edge us. CTT will have watched a lot of tape and will try to replicate what Texas did to us for a game and what numerous other teams have done to us for a quarter or two at a time. The fact that they have a phenomenal three point shooter to go along with reliable players like Hanson makes them seem more dangerous to me than they did a year ago. Last year we had a close game with them in Tempe but we won behind Belibi's outstanding 23 points, and we blew them out when they came to Maples when four of our players scored in double digits.
ASU has been a bit under the radar in recent years, compared to the problems Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, and even Colorado have posed for us. But Charli Turner Thorne has been the most consistent "thorn" in our side for years. Her teams have been notorious for defensive intensity. But what is this year's ASU like?
Massey has them at 52. They did themselves a lot of good by beating Colorado last weekend, but undid the good by losing to Utah. The win over Colorado was by far their best win, then next best is Fordham. Their worst loss is to Creighton, but they have "good" losses to BYU and Baylor. They have played some good teams--they just have lost to all of them until they beat Colorado.
ASU is 9-6 overall, 1-1 in conference, with a whopping 6 Pac 12 games postponed. How the heck would we know what they are like, given so many fewer games against serious competition? In the Colorado win they held the Buffs to 33% shooting so it sounds like the CTT philosophy continues to function. Offensively they were led by senior guard Taya Hanson, who seems to have been most of their offense for the last few years. But this year she is only coming in 4th in scoring--so they have some diversity of talent.
This year's leader is Jade Loville at 16 ppg, and shooting a whopping 48% of her treys--and quite a few of them at that. Jade is a senior, 5'11" wing, and she did not play in the Colorado game (although she was back for the Utah game.)
Mael Gilles and Jadden Simmons at 10 ppg each round out the top four scorers. Gilles is a 6'1" grad transfer from Rutgers who should be known to Alyssa Jerome since they both came up through the Canadian national system about the same time. Simmons is a sophomore guard who was last year's freshman sensation.
As is usual for a CTT team, ASU has 12 players averaging more than 10 minutes. Expect hockey style lineup substitutions as she tries to keep her players fresh and keep up the defensive intensity.
As is NOT usual for a CTT team, she has 4 players averaging 26 minutes or more--the four with the most offensive output just mentioned above.
The ASU formula for success would be for their defense to stay fresh enough to frustrate our shooters while their big 4 scorers do just enough to edge us. CTT will have watched a lot of tape and will try to replicate what Texas did to us for a game and what numerous other teams have done to us for a quarter or two at a time. The fact that they have a phenomenal three point shooter to go along with reliable players like Hanson makes them seem more dangerous to me than they did a year ago. Last year we had a close game with them in Tempe but we won behind Belibi's outstanding 23 points, and we blew them out when they came to Maples when four of our players scored in double digits.
