Lady Sun Devils Still Not Ready for Primetime?
In our weekly women’s hoops update, the Sun Devils fall short against another Top 10 opponent but bounce back with a quality win. And one of Arizona State’s best players is missing time with a foot injury.
Last week (1-1, 8-3 overall): Texas 81, ASU 71; ASU 75, Xavier 57
What Did We Learn: That the Sun Devils aren’t quite ready to match up with the country’s elite – at least, not yet. However, ASU can take heart in the fact that it led a Top 10 opponent on the road for most of the first half and gave itself chances to beat fifth-ranked Texas.
We also learned that the results can turn ugly when the Sun Devils’ normally solid defense turns sloppy. Quoth coach Charli Turner Thorne: “We had some big breakdowns in our team defense, and there were times when we started to get beat, and we just hacked them.” As a result, Texas went to the free throw line 33 times and converted 30.
The Sun Devils were able to bounce back and knock off a solid Xavier team three days later in Tempe thanks to sharp shooting (47.6 percent from the field) and rugged defensive play (eight blocked shots).
They were able to hand the Musketeeers their most lopsided loss of the season without starting point guard Dymond Simon (pictured above), who was out with a strained foot.
Star of the Week: Starting center Sybil Dosty is never going to be the flashiest player on the team. But she’s certainly proven that she can be a double-double threat every time she steps on the floor, especially if she can stay out of foul trouble and increase her minutes.
Against Texas, Dosty had 12 points and nine rebounds in 22 minutes, and against Xavier she posted 11 points, six rebounds and three blocks.
The Sun Devils count on Dosty, averaging 9.7 points and 7.6 rebounds in just under 20 minutes per game, to provide a scoring option inside to take pressure off scoring guards Briann January and Simon and to provide a steady defensive presence in the middle.
What’s Next: The Sun Devils travel to Nebraska on Sunday for their only game of the coming week. Obviously the main concern will be the status of Simon, who injured her foot during practice on Dec. 20.
Right now it’s not certain if the junior, who is second on the team in scoring at 12.9 points per game, will be able to play against the Cornhuskers. However, Turner Thorne admitted to a “huge sigh of relief” upon learning that Simon’s foot isn’t broken.
Against the Musketeers, Kate Engelbrecht started in place of Simon, but the do-everything January, the team’s leader in assists, ran most of the team’s offense. Nebraska is 8-3 after falling to UTEP 63-53 on Dec. 20.
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The ASU women’s team hasn’t beaten a good team in at least two years. CTT’s system will never tolerate a star player and without a star they will never get to the next level.
CTT has this team setup to regularly finish in the top-4 in the conference, yet not win the conference, and to regularly make the NCAA tournament, but rarely get to the sweet 16.
A lot of programs would kill for that level of success – is it enough?
CTT is a tremendous coach, and I think her system works with what she has. Our best players may not play the whole game but when you have our depth I think she has to run it hte way she does. Bri and Simon are stars, but I dont know if giving them more playing time would correlate in being an elite team. The drop off when they go out is not out of this world. This year I think it would. yes I wish bri and dosty and orsillo played more as I think we are stronger when they are in, but to blame not beating elite teams lately on that fact alone give our reserves an injustice, who continue to play very well also.
CTT is so young for a coach, I hope she never leaves, she will contiue to produce exciting teams that challenge. If you remember back a few years we were an elite team who beat many top 25 teams. our depth is a little less this year, and we dont have a candace parker type player but who does? CTT deserves our support and I hope never gets pressured from demanding fans.
Bri and Simon are not stars …
I don’t follow the women’s hoops program as closely as I’d like, so I have a question for you guys. Is this sort of a pre-2005 Pat Murphy situation? Good enough to finish in the upper half of the conference every year but not good enough to go to Omaha? Penny for your thoughts …