Amid roster changes and answer-searching, Arizona State freshman Amier Ali is seeing more consistent playing time in recent games.
After seeing just 12.6 minutes per contest across his first 21 games played, Ali has averaged 28.2 the past five.
And what he’s doing with those added minutes and opportunity has head coach Bobby Hurley encouraged with the freshman’s trajectory.
“I think he’s most likely struggled with (confidence) some this year and that’s attributed to the role that he was in,” Hurley told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Tuesday. “He was not getting consistent stretches of playing time. Your hope is that as the season grows and goes on, the freshmen get better.
“I think he’s a really good example of that. He has a great attitude. He’s worked hard at practice. He hasn’t put his head down when he wasn’t getting the minutes or the opportunity.”
In the Sun Devils’ 66-54 win over Kansas State on Sunday that snapped a six-game losing streak, Ali was 4 for 8 from the field and 3 for 6 from long range on his way to 11 points.
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Since his uptick in playing time, Ali is averaging 10.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.2 steals across the past five games.
And with his stepped-up play paired with BJ Freeman’s recent dismissal from the team, all signs point to Ali continuing to get added run with the regular season winding down.
“Due to the things that have happened on our team, he’s now become a bigger part of what we’re doing,” Hurley said. “It started I think in Stillwater when he had a double-double. He’s doing more than just shooting the basketball for us. He’s playing defense and rebounding and doing all the things you hope a guy would do as the season would progress. He’s starting to really figure things out. Excited really by the performance of all three freshmen.”
From Amier Ali to Jayden Quaintance
Speaking of freshmen, Hurley didn’t have an update regarding center Jayden Quaintance, who left Sunday’s win over KSU with an apparent leg injury.
“We got back fairly late on Sunday night and we’re still going through all the medicals,” Hurley said. “We should have more information I would say (Wednesday) on that.”
Quaintance put together an impressive game against Kansas State before going down with 4:47 left to play. He finished with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting that included a pair of 3-pointers. He added seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block before exiting.
“Jayden arguably played his best game of the season on both ends of the floor. We had him guarding the point guard from Kansas State who’s one of the quickest guards in the Big 12,” Hurley said. “That was his matchup with the big lineup we started.”
ASU is back in action Wednesday night against No. 25 BYU. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. and can be heard on the Arizona Sports app, 98.7 and ArizonaSports.com.
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