Sometimes a slight adjustment is all a struggling basketball player needs to regain confidence.
ASU junior forwards Serge Angounou and Bryson Krueger have shown flashes of brilliance this season, but they have been just that -- flashes.
But after Angounou narrowed his focus to rebounding and Krueger adapted to coming off the bench, both appeared to have turned a corner.
ASU coach Rob Evans said their inconsistency has been a question of being mentally ready to play.
"When Serge is active and rebounding the basketball everything else flows for him," he said. "It's the same thing with Bryson. When he's active defensively and on the glass his offense flows.
"If those guys are doing those two things then I know they're mentally into the ballgame."
Krueger started the season with a bang, averaging 19 points on 60 percent shooting in the first four games, but has experienced many peaks and valleys since.
After a promising start, the homegrown Mountain Pointe product fell into a horrendous slump with the start of conference play. He shot slightly under 30 percent from the field in the first seven Pac-10 games, which included 1-for-15 and 1-for-11 performances.
But Krueger said his inaccuracy from the field was a mental problem he had to work through on his own.
"I was worried about mistakes that I made, and sometimes I'd come off the floor unsure of why I was being taken out," he said. "But I let it go and it's been helping me. Now whenever I'm called upon I just do whatever I can."
Despite his struggles, Krueger is still second on the team in scoring at 12 points per game and leads ASU in 3-point accuracy, connecting on 42 percent of his attempts.
Although his shooting woes cost him his position in the starting lineup, Krueger appears to have regained his outside touch while coming off the bench the last four games. He has scored in double figures in three of those contests, and hit 9-of-18 from 3-point range.
"Once I started coming off the bench it kind of cleared my head up a little bit," Krueger said. "I know what I'm capable of and it's just a matter of me going out there and doing it everyday."
While Krueger's jump shot began to fall flat, Angounou's inside presence has been sporadic.
The Cameroon native strung together two of the best games of his career with 19 points and seven rebounds against USC (Jan. 5) and a personal-best 23 points two days later against UCLA.
But Angounou hit a lull the next four games, averaging 5.6 points and 5.5 rebounds before breaking through against the Los Angeles schools again last week. He tallied 11 points and nine rebounds in Thursday's 69-60 loss to the Bruins, and posted his first double-double of the season, 11 points and 10 rebounds, in Saturday's win over USC.
Angounou said the key to his rejuvenation was being more aggressive on the boards, a problem area for him this season.
"At the beginning of the season all I was doing was boxing out, I wasn't pushing for the ball," he said. "I know if I just let the game come to me it will help me stay consistent."
Like Angounou and Krueger, ASU as a team is playing through a difficult stretch. The Sun Devils will attempt to notch back-to-back wins for the first time since Dec. 22 tonight against Oregon State at Wells Fargo Arena.
"There is always going to be a time during the game when you're going to have a little adversity," Angounou said. "We just have to keep playing together and never give up."
Reach the reporter at derrik.miller@asu.edu.
