Of the roughly 2,100 students that watched ASU men's basketball stun No. 18 Texas A&M at Wells Fargo Arena Saturday night, it's likely that there wasn't a consensus reached in terms of a contemporary – or even historical – comparison to what they had just watched.
To say that the Sun Devils pulled off an upset would be disingenuous – after leading by 13 in College Station last season only to lose by one in the final seconds, ASU played and carried itself like the better team from the opening tip onward. Even when the Aggies rallied closed the gap to within 10 points after trailing by as many as 25, there was little anxiety or fear that the game wasn't firmly in control.
Sophomore point guard Tra Holder was was only credited for two assists in the win, but made several slick passes (some of which were qualified to be "hockey assists") that helped facilitate a high-functioning offense, evoking flashes of Los Angeles Lakers point guard D'Angelo Russell at Ohio State.
Junior forwards Savon Goodman and Obinna Oleka were gritty and determined on the glass, combining to grab 19 rebounds with a spirited effort reminiscent of Golden State Warriors wing Andre Iguodala.
"Obi and Savon both play a lot bigger than their size," said head coach Bobby Hurley. "They’re very unique and they’re tough guys, they’re not soft so they’re ready for whoever is in front of them, and they believe in themselves. I’ll line up with them any day, those two."
Goodman was one of five Sun Devils in double figures.
And then there was sophomore guard Kodi Justice, who chipped in 10 points on 26 minutes off the bench.
He was one of the first to arrive to pregame warmups, starting by attempting several halfcourt shots, none of which fell. His regular shootaround, in contrast, went much smoother, a sign of things to come.
Justice demonstrated such impressive range in pivotal moments that the Aggies assigned to him paid dearly for disrespecting his shot.
After swishing his first triple in transition from the right elbow to give ASU a 17-8 lead, Justice waved his arms up and down, which he later explained was to fire up the crowd – they obliged.
He hit another just a step inside the Sparky logo on the left side of the court and well beyond the arc after making a slick move off the dribble to shake his defender.
And finally, he nailed another from beyond the top of the key to send the Sun Devil faithful into a frenzy.
Most of the students in attendance weren't born when Hurley starred at Duke.
They didn't grow up watching him make clutch shots, slash through opposing defenses to kick out to sharpshooters on the wings or dish sweet no-look feeds to talented Blue Devil bigs that might have been an inspiration to a young Steve Nash.
Perhaps the best way to describe how ASU played would be to emphasize just how confident Holder, Justice, and senior guard Gerry Blakes approached their biggest shots – there was no doubt they'd find nothing but net.
It's the same swagger with which their leader earned the distinction of being one of the top Duke guards ever.
No wonder Hurley seems to be having so much fun molding a team in his image – they enjoy playing freely as much as he enjoys allowing them to learn and grow on the fly.
“He really doesn’t have restrictions on offense as long as we don’t go out playing like we’re at a park or something," said senior forward Willie Atwood, who led the way for the Sun Devils with 15 points. "He wants us to be comfortable out there. You’ve got to have players to make plays. That’s how he wants us to play– without looking over our shoulder every time we mess up."
The new system has produced an entertaining brand of basketball, but no team in its first year under a new head coach is expected to have mastered such a change of pace in eight games. The Sun Devils did struggle to crack the zone defense the Aggies deployed in the halfcourt, resulting in a couple of shot clock violations, and several times, especially in the second half, the ball movement slowed and the shot clock ticked down to close to five seconds or less.
"I think as the game progressed, some of it’s on me as I was trying to shorten the game and I was discouraging maybe the guys from attacking," Hurley said. "I was just trying to hold the margin and get longer possessions of offense, make them continue to guard us. So I brought us deep into shot clocks more than the players did. That’s something, I’ll take a hit on that. Otherwise I felt like that was just normal."
Hurley's instinct to protect the lead and milk the clock was smart situational coaching, and ultimately it will fall on his players to execute and play at whichever pace they are asked to, which they did down the stretch.
To keep pace in a tough Pac-12 conference, ASU will need to have nights like Saturday or better offensively. However, the strong defensive effort from the Sun Devils went under the radar – the Aggies shot just 31 percent from the field and 23 percent from downtown.
It's been fun to watch this group, and the players all acknowledged and appreciated the renewed interest in what already feels like a completely different program.
Blakes was so excited that he momentarily had his back turned while the Aggies brought the ball up in the backcourt for a just a split second in the game's final minute, smiling and engaging with the student section eager to celebrate the toppling of a ranked SEC team.
But as fun as this early stretch has been, the most important takeaway from Saturday's win – a convincing, wire-to-wire effort – was that Hurley's crew is serious about being taken seriously.
Reach the sports editor at smodrich@asu.edu or follow @StefanJModrich on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepressport on Twitter.
