SFCityBear said:

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As good as the Bears looked against ASU, after the win, I tried not to get overconfident about the season, because I had heard that ASU had a poor pre-conference record and was also missing one of their starters.

I decided to look into it a little further, and I found that ASU had a better record than I supposed. Here are some highlights:

ASU lost to San Diego State by 2 points in San Diego.

They lost to #6 Baylor by 12 on a neutral floor, Atlantis Resort
They lost to Syracuse by 8 on that floor
They lost to Loyola (Illinois) by 18 on that floor

ASU beat Oregon in overtime at Eugene

ASU beat Creighton (now 10-3) by one point at Creighton. Creighton looks to be a good opponent, losing to #19 Iowa St by 6, beating #24 BYU by 12 on a neutral floor, beating Villanova (#9) at home, and beating Marquette (and Shaka Smart)

ASU lost to 13-1 USF by one point. USF had beaten Nevada and also beat UNLV by 21 at home.

As to missing a starter when they played Cal, that player was Marcus Bagley, who has played in only the first 3 games of the season for ASU and been out ever since, not playing in any of the above games.

I think ASU was better than advertised when they played Cal, and Cal looked to be the better team in a solid win for the Bears.

I went to the game, and Bobby Hurley seemed to be more obsessed with chewing out the refs instead of coaching his team. It was not pretty, and made no difference in the game that I could see. I think Cal will have a good chance to pick up a road win in Tempe, if Hurley and ASU can't get their act together.

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Yeah, it was a solid win, made more impressive by a big margin of victory. However, as you say the real test will be beating them in Tempe. You have to like our chances, though it turns out much of the ASU team was coming down with COVID, so we don't know how it may have affected their play. Still, we beat them so badly that you have to like our chances.

Agree that Hurley is terrible, ASU fans are not happy.

During the broadcast, I recall the missing big man was their center Alonzo Gaffney, not Bagley. Don UCLA mentioned he wasn't a world beater, but they relied on his presence.

But yeah, Hurley looked grumpy and ASU was disorganized.

BeachedBear said:

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During the broadcast, I recall the missing big man was their center Alonzo Gaffney, not Bagley. Don UCLA mentioned he wasn't a world beater, but they relied on his presence.

But yeah, Hurley looked grumpy and ASU was disorganized.

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You are right, that Gaffney was the player McLean referred to in the broadcast, who was missing from the ASU lineup. I attended the game and missed the broadcast. And if McLean said Gaffney was a player who the team felt comfortable with on the floor, then I'd have to defer to him, as he has more inside information. Gaffney did not travel to Berkeley with the team for an undisclosed reason.

On the surface, Gaffney has yet to reach his potential, it seems. He was a highly-ranked recruit, #47 on the RSCI Composite top 100 rankings. He spent his freshman year at Ohio State, and only played 7 minutes a game, averaging 2 points and a rebound. He spent his second year playing at a Junior College. This year he has played in 12 of ASU's games, averaging 5 points and 3.5 rebounds in 22 minutes. ASU had one win in Gaffney's 6 starts, and when he does not start, but comes in off the bench, ASU has 4 wins in 6 games. His shooting percentages are all very weak.

Gaffney did not start the 4 games previous to ASU's game with USF, although he played in each, averaging 24 minutes, and then Hurley started him in the loss to USF.

Looking at the ASU roster, there are 5 players who were ranked in the RSCI Composite Top 100, including Marcus Bagley(#31), Gaffney(#47), Kimani Lawrence(#55), Enoch Boakye(#58), and Luther Muhammad(#68). Bagley may be ASU's best offensive player, and he has not played since the 3rd game of the season, so his loss clearly hurt ASU. So ASU had three of their top rated recruits in the lineup against Cal, and if recruit rankings were all that is necessary to be favored, they still should have been heavily favored to beat Cal.