Arizona State Basketball: 2019-20 keys to beat Oregon in battle for 1st
By John Vaccaro
Get Rob Edwards Involved
The Sun Devils certainly look like they’ve figured out the offensive issues that plagued them in late December and early January. It’s obvious that Remy Martin’s dominance throughout the PAC-12 season has been a big part of the turnaround and the emergence of Alonzo Verge has certainly helped as well. Now, the next step in their offensive evolution is to find a 3rd scorer who can consistently draw attention away from the team’s two top scoring threats.
Romello White has been this player in some games and will be an important piece in this game, but he doesn’t score consistently enough to make himself that 3rd option right now. Instead, the guy the Sun Devils really need to step up is Rob Edwards.
This season was supposed to be the year Martin and Edwards formed one of the conference’s most dangerous backcourt duos. Unfortunately, only one of them has consistently held up their end of the bargain.
Edwards has shown flashes of the player we all expected him to be on the offensive end, but he just hasn’t knocked down the outside shot regularly and has gone through stretches where he has struggled to get anything going on the offensive end. However, he has appeared to be the X-factor for the Sun Devils in conference play.
In the team’s four PAC-12 losses, Edwards has averaged eight points per game. In their eight wins that number rises to 13.75 and he has put in a few very impressive performances in those wins.
He has cooled down in the last couple of games, only managing 11 points between the last two games. The Sun Devils will need to find a way to get him rolling on offense and get him back into double figures to win this game. If Edwards can become a 3rd option for the Sun Devils and stretch the Oregon defense, then it will open up opportunities for Martin, Verge, and White to attack the basket and should make the offense much more effective.