ASU-USC: The Story of the Stat Sheet
It doesn’t take a big bite of the box score to digest what happened to the Arizona State men’s basketball team last night. Not after a pair of high-scoring Sun Devils combined to hit exactly zero field goals in a 61-49 loss to USC.
| Name | FG | 3Pt | FT | Pts |
| J. Harden | 0-8 | 0-2 | 4-7 | 4 |
| T. Abbott | 0-3 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 |
One needn’t stare long at the box score from Arizona State’s 61-49 loss to USC last night to see the full picture.
James Harden entered the game averaging 23 points per game. He was held without a field goal by loathsome Trojan Daniel Hackett and tallied a career-low four total points.
Meanwhile, Ty Abbott missed all three of his shots to go scoreless. He was averaging nine points per outing entering the contest.
Not appearing in the box score was USC outscoring ASU 22-9 over the final seven minutes or so of the game.
Perhaps it’s best this game wasn’t on television. The Sun Devils will get a chance at a road split when they face UCLA on national TV Saturday afternoon.
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Frustrating, but guys have bad nights. Even James Harden.
Jay Bilas (ESPN) has Harden on is Midseason All-American Team, first-team.
James Harden, Arizona State: Just a sophomore, Harden is the best all-around player in the country. The lefty swingman leads the Pac-10 in scoring, and is in the top 12 in the Pac-10 in rebounds, assists, steals and assist-turnover ratio. Harden is averaging 23.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.1 steals, while shooting 60 percent from the floor, 42 percent from 3-point range and 76 percent from the line. Harden relishes contact and has lived at the free-throw line.
The stench of this game lingers all the way down in Carlsbad. James, if you can’t score against USC with a guy in your face do you really think you can score in the NBA playing against guys that have triple the ability of the man who was on you last night?
I’ve said it since well before the season began, it doesn’t matter how well Harden plays if his teammates don’t carry some of the load. I stand by my prediction that ASU will struggle to be a .500 team next year. I just don’t see guys stepping up and making plays.
@David, FWIW, Rich Obert gushed about Demetrius Walker on his Republic blog today.
“What ASU is getting next season is a big, athletic, physical guard who will take charge.He is as aggressive and as strong as any high school player in Arizona taking the ball to the basket. He gets above the rim. He gets after it on defense. He is unselfish, is an excellent passer. He didn’t take too many jump shots in the rout of Gilbert, but that is the part of his game that will come, because you can see a great work ethic in him.”
Demetrius Walker is probably not the second coming of Lebron James, but he must be kinda good.
http://www.echofromthebuttes.com/2008/11/21/did-herb-sendek-just-sign-the-next-lebron-james/
[...] 118.3 points per 100 possessions according to kenpom.com. The grinding pace didn’t pay off when Harden went cold against USC, but it worked to perfection as the Sun Devils ground their way back from an 11-point second-half [...]