In her last game at Wells Fargo Arena, senior guard Alex Earl smiled as she let go of her free throw shot to end the game.
When Earl looks back on her years at ASU, she will smile again. When her coaches and teammates think about her, they will remember both her smile and the energy and passion she brought to the program every day.
“I’m sad,” Earl said. “It’s so bittersweet. It went by so fast. I’m excited to move on, but I won’t play here anymore.”
Earl first came to ASU in 2008 and has had a major impact on the team ever since.
On the court, she will be remembered for her aggressive defense and deadly outside shooting abilities. Earl made the most of her senior season as she broke her career highs in points, rebounds, steals and assists. In a road game against Colorado, she broke her scoring record with 14 points.
Looking back on her senior season, Earl said this year has been one of her favorites because of her teammates.
“Literally, we sit in the locker room for an hour and just turn on music and dance,” Earl said. “These are honestly my sisters. It’s just been fun to be around them and play with them. We are definitely very tight, and I think that’s why we have been able to step up this year and win some big games.”
Earl will miss her teammates a great deal, but she said the intense competition is what she will miss the most.
Coach Joseph Anders said he was tremendously proud of his senior class this season. When he looked back on Earl’s contributions to the program, he said he will always remember the energy she brought to the team.
“Alex Earl is a young lady whose spirit I just love,” Anders said. “When Alex is in the gym, you know she’s here because of the fact that she just covers the team with her love of the game.”
Earl will definitely bring that passion in whatever she does in the future. Earl will graduate this semester with a degree in communications, but her future is unknown.
She believes she has become the player she ultimately wanted to be, and has put the idea of professional basketball in her head.
Another dream of Earl’s is to work in sports media for ESPN.
Earl even hinted at playing soccer in her final year of eligibility, but she was unsure if that would work out.
Regardless of what she does in the future, Earl said the lessons she learned on the court will help her down the road.
“(One thing) our coaches talk about all the time is being a giver,” Earl said. “Don’t always think about yourself. Think about your team and think about what is best for the whole. When I get older, even if I am in a business or whatever, I would want my business or my group to succeed.”
In her freshman year, the Sun Devils made it all the way to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament. Earl said the entire experience, from the police escorts, free gear and playing on national television, was one of her favorites in her time at ASU.
With three more conference games and the Pac-12 tournament remaining, the Sun Devils control their own destiny and their chances of getting into the NCAA tournament.
Earl said she would like nothing more than to return to tournament with this team and go beyond the Elite Eight.
“We had so much riding against us this year,” Earl said. “I just think that it would be so cool to go to the tournament and go as far as we can. We can play with the best of the best. That would a dream come true: to go to the Final Four in the Big Dance.”
Reach the reporter at ehubbard@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
