Arizona State Basketball: 3 keys to beat Saint Mary’s in Hall of Fame showcase

Fix Their Shooting Woes

I really just don’t understand what is going on with Arizona State’s offense right now. They have plenty of talent and quite a few shooters on their team but just can’t seem to consistently knock down shots. Remy Martin has managed to bring his shooting percentages up this season and Luguentz Dort left for the draft, so ASU doesn’t have him attempting 5 3s per game at just over

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30% anymore. They returned Rob Edwards and Taeshon Cherry, who were the team’s two best 3-point shooters last year (not including Zylan Cheatham who shot less than 1 per game). They added freshmen and transfer shooters this season, but somehow none of this has led to them improving on the offensive end. Instead, they’ve dropped to 251st in 3-point shooting and they’ve seen their field goal percentage fall by a little over 2%. Things don’t seem to be turning around for them either, with their most recent game being their worst performance yet.

They did manage to shoot better than usual from inside the 3-point line, but were abysmal from 3, shooting just 24% against a team who had struggled all year to stop opposing shooters. They also shot an embarrassing 43.8% from the free throw line. Those two numbers didn’t end up hurting them against Georgia, but it was really their defense slowing down a team that was averaging over 80 points per game that really won the game for them. They can’t keep relying on their defense to win these games and instead will need to start taking advantage of their opponents’ defensive inefficiencies.

Saint Mary’s is average at worst across the board on defense, except for one key area. Much like ASU’s last opponent, they are awful defending the 3-point line, allowing opponents to make 36.7% of their attempts. They allow a low number of attempts per game, but when adjusted for their slow-paced games, they are pretty much average in that regard too. If ASU is going to beat a team that shoots the ball well from 3, plays a very careful style, and only has one obvious issue, they are going to need to take advantage of that issue.

ASU needs to find ways to make the open looks they are going to get in this game count, or they could squander one of their last chances to get a strong out of conference win.