Sun Devils' blockbuster win gives them newfound life in latter stages of the season

Texas Tech guard Christian Anderson had enough time to tie the game, 8.5 seconds to be exact. The sophomore guard had already knocked down four 3-pointers in the contest, so when he turned the corner, every Sun Devil fan anticipated the worst. Down three points, Anderson’s eyes lit up, gazing toward the rim as his adidas shoes glided past the Desert Financial Arena logo. 

But in a flash, the ball was tipped from Anderson’s grasp. Senior guard Anthony “Pig” Johnson caused a spurt of chaos, causing Anderson to tip the ball out of bounds with 1.5 seconds remaining. Just as they’d done all night, the Sun Devils forced the Red Raiders mistakes, leading to their success.

“We were planning on trying to take a foul at half court if the opportunity presented itself,” ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said about the gameplan during that play. “But it appeared that Anderson kind of mishandled the ball, and there was no reason to foul at that point.”

Senior guard Moe Odum was subsequently fouled, his first free throw nailed without a shadow of doubt, inciting a roar from the Tempe crowd. It was done, Arizona State (14-12, 5-8 Big 12) earned its first ranked win of the season, knocking off No.13 Texas Tech (19-7, 9-4) 72-67 on Tuesday night. 

“I’m thrilled for our guys,” Hurley said. “It was probably as good a defense as we played all year … it’s hard to find a lot of faults in our effort tonight.”

Jubilation began just as the final buzzer sounded. Odum was lofted into the air and surrounded by fans, suffocating the players on the hardwood. Despite playing in 123 college basketball games in his career, Odum’s time at Pacific and Pepperdine never prepared him for Tuesday’s moment. 

“I never beat Gonzaga, and I never beat Saint Mary, so there was no way I wasn’t storming the court,” Odum said. “That’s all I was thinking of when I got in the portal. I’m like, ‘we’re gonna be ranked, or we’re just gonna knock some teams off and just gotta storm the court.’ I’ve dreamed of this. So I’m just so happy we could finally get one.” 

David knocked off Goliath, ASU slayed the powerhouse from Lubbock by forcing 17 Texas Tech turnovers, the most it had in a game all season. 

It doesn’t take a basketball savant to break down the Red Raiders’ offensive attack, two players, junior JT Toppin and Anderson, combine for over 40 ppg and lead the offensive charge for them through a mix of athletic ability and skilled shot making from all ranges.

“We knew they had two main guys that they’re gonna start weighing down because the game went along in the second half,” Sophomore forward Santiago Trouet said. “So we just trusted the coaches and what they told us to do, and we just stayed disciplined.”

With that knowledge underway, Hurley was fortunate enough to have a full week between contests, giving the maroon and gold time to drill in necessary defensive schematics, while the Red Raiders spent the weekend down in Tucson, where they knocked off No.4 Arizona in a blockbuster overtime win. 

“We had a week to get fresh and prepare for this game. And Texas Tech is an outstanding team,” Hurley said. “[Director of Operations] Mickey Mitchell was actually important to that. Mickey’s a lefty, and he was, like, forcefully trying to get to his left hand in our practices to kind of simulate what Toppin is trying to do out there. We, I thought, overall, did a pretty good job guarding those guys.” 

Mitchell, a former ASU player from 2017 to 2020, was a part of the most successful period of Hurley’s tenure as head coach of the program. Mitchell was on the roster for six of Hurley’s 14 ranked victories in his career. 

With 6:03 to play, Toppin left the game after falling hard and injuring his right knee. He scored 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting in 32 minutes but did not return after being helped to the locker room. 

Hurley and the Sun Devils stated their condolences for Toppin, wishing him a speedy recovery after the game, but Meeusen noted that not having him on the floor certainly opened things up in the final moments of a nervous contest. 

As time was winding down, Odum hit a 3-pointer to put ASU up 11 points with just 3:28 left on the clock. Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland called a 30-second timeout, as Odum jockeyed over to the student section, pumping up a rabid crowd of fans. 

The next few minutes, however, the game began to unravel for the host. Multiple turnovers and timely shot-making from beyond the arc quickly made it a close game once again, giving Hurley some qualms after the contest.

The most noteworthy blimp came from sophomore guard Noah Meeusen, who didn’t realize ASU had timeouts left, so when he was trapped in the backcourt with 23 seconds to go, he heaved a pass toward the center of the court, which was stolen. The pass didn’t end up hurting ASU’s chances at getting over the line, but it did make the difference between winning and losing in those moments.

“We would have had to do almost everything wrong, possibly to lose or to see the game go to overtime, and we tried at times.” Hurley claimed. “We committed some bad fouls, and we had timeouts, so we didn’t take them, and we threw the ball away a couple of times. So we got to do a better job of trying to clean that up in late game situations.”

For the Sun Devils, those late moments on the court began to bring up setbacks from earlier in the season. Meeusen noted the team had fantastic first halves before leading at the break on the road against then-No.1 Arizona in January, and then again on Tuesday. Yet playing for a full 40 minutes and closing out the game became the only objective once they led by under two minutes.

“We talked in one of the huddles at the game, three minutes left or five minutes left, we said, Remember UCF? Remember Colorado home?” Sophomore forward Santiago Trouet said. “We’re not losing this game. Just stay disciplined. And then we came, we came out with the win.”

The aggression continued for ASU offensively, playing through Odum, his teammates worked off of him, and found ways to stay confident in their plays. Johnson was advised to keep playing downhill. He scored 11 points while getting to the line just three times. Hurley credited his efforts to finish through contact despite not getting class, which paid off late when he did get fouled at the rim and converted a free throw with eight seconds to play.

“I feel like they need me to come out to attack the paint,” Johnson said. “That’s what I did. Moe told me, Don’t stop attacking the paint, no matter if they call them fouls or not. And that was what I did.”

Now with three wins from its last four, the Maroon and Gold are beginning to climb the table in the Big 12 standings. Whilst it remains just outside the 10th seed in the conference, the energy around the program is much better than at the beginning of the New Year, when slip-ups to end the non-conference slate bled into the beginning of Big 12 play, which resulted in nine losses from 11 games. 

“We went to a black hole,” Meeusen said. “We knew we were better than this. And now just sticking together, again, getting some good wins, quality wins already, like gives us the confidence that we can really do this.”

Since joining the conference at the beginning of the 2024-25 season, Hurley and everyone around Big 12 basketball have admittedit’ss a gauntlet. On Jan 21. West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge claimed the Big 12 is the third-best league in all of basketball, only trailing the NBA and the Euroleague. 

“(Texas Tech) just beat the number one team in the country,” Hurley noted. “You beat a team like that, you gotta, you gotta feel like, if you play the way you’ve been playing, that you could compete with any team, and we had done it at Arizona, being in a one possession game inside a minute, but to be able to close the team out and get the win, that’s a separator. 

“That’s the beauty of this league, and it’s a gift and a curse.”

Through his 11-year tenure at the helm, Hurley has faced many highs and lows as any coach does. Despite making the NCAA tournament just three times in the decade, Hurley doesn’t doubt his ability to lead a program, nor does he question the quality of players he goes to battle with on the floor. As showcased on Tuesday, they have the potential to make magic happen, with an updated NET ranking that will put them in the 60’s and in the possible tournament bubble conversation. 

“I don’t care about doubters, what people say,y and all that stuff,” Hurley claimed. “I mean, I’ve coached against some of the best coaches in the country. I’ve been doing it now for 11 years here, and so I feel like I’m in my element, that I could go toe to toe with anybody. So I’m very confident in my abilities, but for me to have that confidence, you need to have guyaske I have, and the players that I played tonight, when you have guys that fight and battle like that, then there’s going to be a level of confidence on my end in my abilities.”