Limited options plague ASU in loss to No. 25 BYU

As battered and bruised as it was, Arizona State fought the full 40 minutes but couldn’t pull off the upset against No. 25 BYU, losing its eighth straight home game.

Between freshman forward Jayden Quaintance out after suffering a leg injury against Kansas State, senior guard Alston Mason a late scratch from ASU’s lineup because of an illness, and the dismissal of BJ Freeman, there weren’t a lot of options for head coach Bobby Hurley on the bench in Wednesday nights 91-81 loss. 

“I thought we did the best we could, and the score, you know, I think they were better,” Hurley said.” I mean, they got more options. We had guys playing that haven't really played much, or aren't in these roles, or haven't been in all year, and, you know, that's just the circumstances we're in.”

Hurley put the only five guys left in ASU’s core rotation on the floor to start the game. However, the starters played only three and a half minutes together before senior guard Adam Miller went down with an injury.

Miller returned to the floor a few minutes later but went down again and after colliding with a BYU player. Miller was assisted of the floor to the locker by two ASU staff members and did not return for the remainder of the first.

Though he returned to the court to start the second half, Hurley said he sidelined Miller shortly after because he was still visibly not playing with the same energy.

Miller was not thrilled to be in pain.

“I didn't want to leave my teammates out there like that, knowing we’re so short-handed, and I didn't want to leave coach out there like that,” Miller said. “You know, I'm saying because at the end of the day, the person who's going to take all the hits is coach. So it wasn't sitting well with me. I almost broke down a little bit because I didn't want to leave my team and coach out there like that.”

The amount of adversity ASU has faced this season has reached the point where now Hurley said he doesn’t even feel like it’s real, especially when Miller went down.

“When I walked in the building, I had him [playing] for like, 38 to 40 minutes, if he's not in foul trouble,” Hurley said. “Knowing who's going to be out and not available, and all the stuff, like, and then he goes down really early. So, I'm scared to wake up. I hope I wake up tomorrow. I think, I hope I will, but I'm scared to see what tomorrow brings.”

While Miller’s absence was missed, others stepped up, including one player who had his best night in a Sun Devil uniform: freshman guard Trevor Best.

A midseason addition to ASU’s roster, Best finally got to show the world what he could do, shooting well throughout the game and finishing with a career-high 18 points.

“He was a bright spot,” Hurley said. “I usually don’t talk real positively after a game with singling somebody out, but it was easy to say that kid is in high school in December, got to us, and hasn't had a lot of time to really to adjust to being here and play at this level so that was certainly a bright spot.”

The score does not reflect how well the Cougars shot the ball from deep against ASU.

Entering Wednesday night's game, BYU was the No. 47 3-point shooting team in the country, shooting near 40 percent a game. Against ASU, the Cougars shot an impressive 50% from beyond the arc off of 17 made threes.

“They're a very good team,” Hurley said. “They're older. They had a bunch of guys come back and they know each other very well. They trust each other, and they are a very good team.”

ASU will play two of its three final conference games on the road against Utah in Salt Lake City on Saturday and in Tucson against Arizona next Tuesday.

Miller said everyone will need to contribute more to the Sun Devils’ final home stretch of the season.

“I think we're at a spot where everybody could do something better, Miller said. “I mean everybody, and definitely myself included, there's a lot I could do better, and, it's the time of the year, what? Three games, three games left now. You know, we should have been saying this a little earlier, you know, saying everybody could do something better. But it's never over till it's over.”