ASU falls in conference opener against Colorado
ASU basketball’s early-season shine is starting to show cracks. The Sun Devils opened 9-2, riding high off a near-championship run at the Maui Invitational, where they toppled Texas and Washington State. At the time, this felt like a program on the rise, a team distinctly different from last year’s squad.
But history offers a warning. The 2024 team also started 9-2, looked promising, and fizzled to just 13 wins. Now, after the current squad’s own two-game skid and with Big 12 play beginning Saturday against Colorado, the question looms: Is this gritty band of misfits built to survive a punishing conference schedule, or was the hot start just a mirage? ASU got a glimpse of the answer against the Buffaloes.
Colorado, coming off a last-place finish in the Big 12 and without a conference win in two years, seemed like a perfect proving ground for the Sun Devils. Early on, however, it was ASU playing like the team still finding its footing. A sluggish start allowed Colorado to build a 14-point lead. The Sun Devils clawed back, fueled by senior guard Moe Odum’s 21 points and 12 assists, but turnovers and defensive lapses kept the Buffaloes in control. Fourteen turnovers, a 21.4 percent mark from three, and a defense that gave Colorado (11-3, 1-0 Big 12) 38 free throws ultimately cost ASU (9-5, 0-1 Big 12) the game. The comeback fell short as the Sun Devils dropped their first Big 12 contest, 95-89.
“We fouled too much,” Head coach Bobby Hurley said. “We learned how to foul at halftime. We fouled three times in the first half. And we really… really did a great job of fouling them in the second half. They shot 31 free throws in the second half. So you can’t beat anybody doing that. I told them at halftime, it was probably as bad a first half as we’ve had this year.”
The box score paints a more encouraging picture. Odum’s 12 assists were a season high, and his late scoring burst energized the team. Freshman center Massamba Diop had seven blocks, a career high, along with 20 points. Senior guard Anthony Johnson contributed 20 points, running the floor for easy fast-break buckets. Graduate forward Allen Mukeba added 16 points and two blocks, complementing Odum in a breakout performance.
Still, ASU’s offensive spark, particularly in a 51-point second half, meant little against a defense that allowed Colorado to control the paint. The Buffaloes outrebounded the Sun Devils by 10, grabbed 14 offensive boards, and scored 40 points in the paint. Colorado made 32 of 38 free throws, emphasizing an inside attack that ASU struggled to contain, especially when Diop took brief rests.
“They’re a good team,” Hurley said. “They’ve beaten good teams. But 18 of 34 from the field. They also got eight of those 16 misses that they had in offensive rebounds. That’s just all effort. We weren’t ready to play and defend and play with energy at that end of the floor. It cost us. We had to play from behind.”
Three-point shooting also told a story. Colorado attempted only 15 shots from beyond the arc while ASU launched 28, connecting on just one more than the Buffaloes. Those early long-range misses, combined with turnovers, created the 14-point deficit that ASU had to fight back from.
“We were 6-28 tonight for three, and we had a number of good looks that we can’t make right now,” Hurley said. “So we’re in a tailspin right now from behind the three-point line in the last three games.”
Colorado converted ASU’s 14 turnovers into 18 points. On a night when the Sun Devils’ defense was already struggling, every possession mattered, and those mistakes were costly. Looking back, the turnovers were careless, with passes thrown out of bounds, balls slipping away, and other unnecessary miscues that fueled Colorado’s early lead.
Junior guard Barrington Hargress paced Colorado with 17 first-half points on 8-of-9 shooting, though foul trouble removed him from the second half. Even so, ASU allowed 31 second-half free throws across multiple Colorado players, diminishing the impact of keeping Hargress quiet.
ASU’s second-half comeback was sparked by Odum. After tallying just four points but dishing out 11 assists in the first half, he shifted into scorer mode in the second, pouring in 17 points. Early on, Odum played a point guard’s game, focusing on getting teammates involved and keeping the offense moving. When that approach stalled, he took over himself, hitting consecutive three-pointers late to keep ASU in the fight.
Diop added nine points and three blocks, including a crucial and-one dunk that gave ASU its first lead since the opening minutes. Mukeba contributed 12 of his 16 points in the second half, thrilling the crowd with high-flying dunks and key blocks. Johnson provided a consistent fast-break threat, helping ASU reach 20 fast-break points.
Mukeba said playing alongside Diop down low was a rhythm he could get used to.
“Really promising, yeah, really promising,” Mukeba said. “I’m used to playing with bigs that are mobile… I see everything, so it got the way for me, and that’s why I’m here.”
Those four accounted for nearly every big play. Junior guard Bryce Ford went scoreless in 15 minutes, and sophomore Noah Meeusen scored just two points, going 0-for-6 from the field with three turnovers and eventually fouling out. Beyond the top contributors, ASU managed only 12 points from the rest of the roster.
The Sun Devils trailed for 34 of 40 minutes but managed to tie the game late. Diop’s dunk gave ASU the lead, but in the final 53 seconds, Odum turned the ball over twice, and Colorado’s free throws sealed the outcome. Despite flashes of brilliance and a late rally, ASU fell short, leaving lingering questions about this team’s ability to endure Big 12 play.
“There’s basketball at the end of the day, we all play against big players, great stars and stuff like that,” Mukeba said. “So you just gotta keep your head up and go ahead and get into the tournament.”
