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ASU WBB: The Devils Look to Get Back on Track vs. Oregon
No. 23 Arizona State will finish off their home stand of the Oregon schools Sunday, when they play host to the Oregon Ducks.
ASU is coming off a brutal stretch of four straight losses, including playing four of there last six games against ranked opponents. Its been a tough stretch and it just looks like that the other ranked Pac-12 teams are on a completely different level.
During that four game stretch, the Devils haven’t gotten as much production from their guards, who have needed to step up after the injury to forward Kelsey Moos.
Moos was a valuable asset on defense, often drawing the opponent’s best player. Without her the Devils have struggled keeping the guards from getting to the rim. She also was the Sun Devils best 3-point threat and was able to spread the floor for everyone else.
With Moos absent from the lineup, ASU has started three guards, and there is often a mismatch with a guard having to guard a forward.
In their last game against No. 11 Oregon State, Kiara Russell got her first start since getting injured against Florida in the seventh game of the season. She has been eased into the lineup since returning from her injury. She filled in the starting lineup for Sabrina Haines.
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ASU is currently ranked No. 23, and has played all of the ranked teams in the Pac-12, but has lost to all of the currently ranked ones. They don’t look like they’re on the same level; the Pac-12 has four elite teams (#8 Stanford, #10 Washington, #11 Oregon St., and #13 UCLA) and then there is a huge drop off, and ASU is at the top of the second tier.
The guard play has really slowed down since ASU has started playing better teams, especially Reili Richardson, who was flourishing early in the season, the leading scorer on a few occasions, has not scored 10 points in the last 5 games. It may be do to many teams switching to a zone and collapsing on the frontcourt.
ASU dealt with fatigue issues last season, and it looks the same this season. Their depth is not what it was at the start of the season, and the young players may not have had to ever go through a tough grind of facing the top teams in the country.
In order for ASU to compete with those top teams in the country, ASU will have to pull a full 360, getting their guards more involved by spreading the floor, and make the bigs dominant early. They may also need to change their defense to adapt to starting three guards.
The Devils will try to start that 360 on Sunday Afternoon, when the take on a beatable Oregon team.
