Three takeaways from Arizona State basketball’s rough loss to TCU

Arizona State basketball suffered its fourth loss of the season to TCU in blowout fashion Saturday night, 79-59. Though the game was closer throughout than the score indicated, the Horn Frogs dominated the second half en route to their victory.

ASU took an early 14-5 lead and stretched that lead to 14 points midway through the first half. But TCU went on an 11-2 run over a span of 3:09 late in the half to cut the Sun Devil’s lead to four points at halftime.

TCU came out on fire to begin the second half and never cooled off. The Horn Frogs scored more than double their point total from the first half and outscored the Sun Devils 53-29 in the second half en route to their lopsided victory.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Three takeaways from Arizona State basketball’s loss to TCU

Adam Miller showed flashes

The last week and a half came with a whirlwind of emotions for redshirt junior Adam Miller. First, the NCAA finally came to a decision on his eligibility, which was not in favor of Miller. Then, a court case ruled that for 14 days second-time transfers were eligible to play but could end up facing a penalty for playing. But Miller had already redshirted one year, and head coach Bobby Hurley said the team was prepared to face any penalties to come its way, and that Miller would be playing.

So, Miller made his season debut Saturday night and started the game on fire. Miller scored 13 of ASU’s first 16 points of the game, shooting 4/5 from the field including three 3-pointers. Miller would finish with 20 points on 5/9 from the field and a perfect 7/7 from the free throw line. He played 31 minutes in his debut, which alongside graduate student guard Jose Perez, paced the team.

Saturday night was Miller’s sixth 20-point game of his career, the first of which he did on fewer than 10 shot attempts. Miller has only averaged about two free throw attempts per game in his career, but his seven trips to the line led the team Saturday.

Miller’s debut obviously didn’t warrant the outcome ASU hoped for, but showed a lot of hope for his future as a Sun Devil.

Second half meltdown fed by technicals

ASU led by four points at halftime and was feeling pretty good. The Sun Devils came into the game as heavy underdogs after a heartbreaking loss in San Diego and went toe-to-toe with the Horn Frogs in the first half. But the second half was an entirely different story.

TCU opened the second half on a 9-0 run to take a five-point lead. A few minutes later, junior forward Bryant Selebangue made a layup to give the Sun Devils a one-point lead.

Following the play, it appeared graduate student forward Alonzo Gaffney said something to the referee. Gaffney was issued a technical foul, which led Hurley to argue and pick up a technical foul of his own. Hurley then needed to be held back by his players so he wouldn’t pick up a second technical foul and be ejected.

This led to a seven-point possession for TCU behind four technical free throws and a 3-pointer. That jumpstarted 16 straight points for the Horn Frogs to open a 15-point lead. TCU followed that with an 11-4 run that turned into a 27-4 run by the Horn Frogs over a 5:11 stretch, which widened their lead to 22 points.

That was the turning point of the game, but ASU’s defense looked like a completely different unit from the first half to the second half. The Sun Devils held TCU to 35.3 percent from the field and 1-9 from 3-point range in the first half. The Horn Frogs shot 55.9 percent from the field and 5-9 from beyond the arc in the second half. They also converted 10 of their 12 trips to the charity stripe in the second half versus just 1-3 in the first half.

ASU is known as a second-half team that can come back from any deficit, but Saturday night unraveled too quickly for them to save it.

Success will take patience for Arizona State

Many people won’t want to hear it, but it’s going to take time for Arizona State to regain chemistry now with Miller in the lineup. It may take time, but this team has talent and if they can grow together and get healthy, the Sun Devils can make a splash in Pac-12 play.

We watched the first game of the season when ASU was blown out on the national stage. That was the first game with Perez, junior guard Frankie Collins, and junior guard/forward Jamiya Neal playing together in the backcourt, in addition to sophomore Shawn Phillips Jr. at center. The Sun Devils put up 56 points that game.

ASU had finally started to get into a rhythm offensively averaging over 78 points per game over its last five. Collins and Perez had looked better driving to the hoop and scoring when they needed to while spreading the ball around allowing other players to alternate good nights. Finally, the bench had found a way to bring a spark when it was their time and add another dimension to this team.

Saturday ASU scored 59 points and looked out of sorts with a lack of chemistry at times. When you add a player to the lineup who plays a pivotal role, it’s going to take time for everything to gel. Unfortunately, this time the Sun Devils have one final non-conference game against power five opponent Northwestern, before starting Pac-12 play.

Saturday showed that Miller brings another reliable scoring option to the table for the ASU offense, but there are plenty of kinks to work out. Collins had six turnovers and zero blocks or steals. That’s just his eleventh game without a block or steal and his second game with six turnovers since he arrived at ASU. Collins had never done both in the same game.

The addition of Miller makes ASU’s backcourt one of the best in the conference if not the country. Now Hurley is tasked with figuring out how to utilize all his guards to create the best performance on the floor. If the Sun Devils can get healthy in the frontcourt, and find rhythm and chemistry in the backcourt, they can make some noise in 2024.

ASU will return to Arizona to play a neutral site game against Northwestern at the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix, on Wednesday, December 20 at 6:30 MST.

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