Arizona State Basketball: 2019-20 keys to beat Oregon in battle for 1st
By John Vaccaro
Take away Payton Pritchard
There is no denying that the Oregon Ducks are an incredibly strong team, but they have one glaring issue that has held them back from reaching the heights many expected early in the season. That problem is that the team goes through long stretches where it seems like Payton Pritchard is the only player who can score.
We’ve seen this issue cause the Ducks a lot of problems this year. It’s the reason why they only scored 53 points in a loss to Oregon State. It cost them their first game against Colorado (Pritchard scored just under a third of the team’s points). It almost cost them against Washington when they needed OT and some magic from Pritchard just to reach 64 points. He even scored more than a third of the team’s points when they beat ASU earlier this season. Unfortunately, his teammates don’t give him enough help.
You wouldn’t think this would be such an issue for the Ducks. For the last couple of years, I watched Anthony Mathis carry New Mexico to wins with his incredible scoring ability, but now he’s only averaging 8 points per game. Will Richardson and Chris Duarte have each put in some impressive scoring performances this year, but neither has been consistent enough for Oregon to rely on as a secondary option.
To me, this means the most obvious path to a Sun Devil win is just making sure Payton Pritchard can’t take over the game. That should mean that either Rob Edwards or Jalen House is guarding him at all times. It should mean the Sun Devils regular double him to get the ball out of his hands. It should mean that defenders go over all screens to cover him and the man covering the screener steps up to help out as well.
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Oregon should have the talent to survive even if Pritchard doesn’t end up scoring in the 20s, but his supporting cast has yet to show they can be trusted to regularly step up when he doesn’t. ASU should make those players beat them and if they do, I don’t think those supporting players will be able to keep the Sun Devils from winning this game.