ASU basketball is looking pretty impressive. The first win of the season was over Western Illinois, I had never heard of that team before, 87-35 which was the largest margin of victory since Herb Sendek started coaching the Sun Devils. 52 points is impressive. It was such a blowout that it gave the bench an opportunity to play and allowed the starters to rest. From arizonastate.scout.com;
“More importantly, the veterans were able to rest for long stretches (Glasser logged the most paying time with 24 minutes), while freshmen such as Walker, Ruslan Pateev and Trent Lockett each played 18 or more minutes. Glasser, who averaged 33 minutes a game last season, joked that it felt as if he had the night off on Friday. “That’s the least (minutes) since my freshman year,” he said. “I don’t have a problem playing as many minutes as long as we win.” So that was Saturday. The second win came in the first round of the preseason NIT on Monday night. ASU defeated Texas State-San Marcos 84-62. Defense is the name of the game for this Sun Devil team. From cbssports.com; ”Texas State (1-1) shot 36.2 percent from the field against Arizona State’s aggressive 3-2 matchup zone defense, three days after the Sun Devils limited Western Illinois to 23.1 percent shooting from the field in an 87-35 victory.” Wow, I think that pressure defense is going to give us an opportunity to win against better opponents later in the season.
