TEMPE — Arizona State men’s basketball passed its first test on Tuesday with a comfortable 81-64 win over Southern Utah in its season opener.
ASU never trailed and led by as much as 22 points.
Head coach Bobby Hurley said he couldn’t be too enthusiastic about the win, though, because among other issues, ASU allowed 44 points in the paint and turned the ball over 14 times.
“The program needed to win today and just get off to the right start, so mission accomplished there,” Hurley said postgame. “There’s a lot of work to be done. … We lost containment of the ball way too much, I thought we were too spread out on defense and not helping when a guy drove the ball.
“We can’t really afford to do that as the water gets deeper over the next couple weeks.”
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Point guard Moe Odum will be near the top of the team in shot attempts and assists in every game he plays, but the ball doesn’t stick to his hands for very long.
7-foot-1 center Massamba Diop flashed potential to be the most impactful player on the team given his mix of scoring at the rim on offense and rim protection on defense. He showed some versatility with a coast-to-coast bucket and some playmaking vision.
“We’re gonna encourage to keep getting Massamba touches,” Hurley said. “He can make some things happen down there and he’s a willing passer.
“Thought his debut was okay. He started challenging shots more. He wasn’t doing that as much in the first half, so I was glad to see him, you know, try and be a give us a little more protection around the basket.
Odum and Diop appeared to work out kinks in real time about where to place his passes, as Odum finished with eight assists and Diop finished with 14 points.
Allen Mukeba provided physicality off the bench with four blocks and a couple high-flying dunks. He was coming back from injury on the back end of the preseason and played on a minutes restriction.
“He was productive but you could tell there were times when he got tired and then kind of his motor stopped,” Hurley said. “I mean he’s not alone. We had some bad post defense, he was involved in that … not getting 50-50 balls, things that we have to do a better job at but I thought he was he was fairly productive.
“We all need to get better on defense. We did not defend the way I’d hope we would tonight.”
Rebounding was also a key issue, as Southern Utah outrebounded ASU 40-39 overall and 16-11 on the offensive glass.
“We got a lot of guys that are 6-foot-8 or bigger on the floor, so we ought to be able to take care of business on the backboard,” Hurley said. “But we’ll find out who the culprits are in the video, and then we’ll take a look at that and we’ll make everybody accountable for it.”
Of course, ASU (1-0) won’t define success this season by how it looks against Southern Utah (0-1) in its season opener. The Sun Devils started 9-2 in the 2024-25 nonconference schedule before winning just four Big 12 games.
ASU was picked by the Big 12 coaches and media to finish 16th in the conference after it finished 15th in its inaugural season.
The biggest keys to finding better long-term success will be playing as mistake-free and with as much physicality as possible, while retaining health into conference play.
Already without Vijay Wallace (ankle) for the season and Noah Meeusen (ankle) for “a few weeks,” ASU was also without Georgia Southern transfer Adante’ Holiman (elbow) in the opener. His timetable is unclear, Hurley said.
The Sun Devils play next on Sunday when they host Utah Tech at 1 p.m. MST.
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