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This was today from Bobby Hurley on ASU's injuries:
“Virtually, we’re in a very similar space as we were going into Oregon State. Things are very much up in the air for both Marcus and Josh for Wednesday, they didn’t practice today. But they’re going on the trip and they are making good progress and we’re going to have an opportunity to shoot tonight at USC and maybe those guys will do a little something there. And then we’ll go through shootaround and re-evaluate both of those guys. As far as (ASU freshman forward) Pavlo (Dziuba), is still out. (ASU junior forward) Taeshon (Cherry) is still out, obviously. (ASU sophomore guard) Caleb (Christopher) will be back for this game, so I think that’ll get us to eight scholarship players, again, depending on what Josh and Marcus are going to do. But I anticipate one or both those guys playing at some point this week."
Bottom line is ASU has THREE potential 1st rounders on their roster in Remy, Josh & Bagley. And they have a crazy streak-shooter in Alonzo Verge Jr. (didnt he torch us in Tempe last year?). You just hope they dont put it all together for one game. And they've showed flashes of rebounding of late too. Shocking, I know. They actually outrebounded the bruising Ducks, 43-42. Although, they did have a TON of opportunities for boards, shooting 33% on SIXTY-SIX shots in a frenetic, ugly game. As for recent rebounding leaders, 6'9" / 220 soph forward Jalen Graham had 11 boards in their last game, a narrow win over OSU & Kimani Lawrence (6'8" 210) had 12 against Oregon.
As for Arizona, there are no significant injuries from what I can see. Benedict Mathurin's ankle is fine although he struggled against Oregon. And they have Kerr Kriisa eligible now. CabJag told me about this kid a while back and I saw a super wily, veteran-like PG even though his face looks like Kevin McAllister's and he looked to weigh about the same. They are super high on the Estonian freshman guard. He's coming off of his best game of the year against the Ducks, albeit in only his 4th game. He finished with 12 points, 5 assists and only 2 TOs in 23 minutes. He's the facilitator the Cats need desperately unlike the shoot-first Akinjo. This is a team to watch out for in the future. Hopefully we are getting them at the right time with respect to some of their players development. Kriisa is a savvy, pass-first guard who can also shoot the 3. As referenced, he looks like he's about 15. And he's slight, wiry still but I read he's added 15 pounds. Stupid McDonalds.
The Ducks are starting to roll and I figured they'd beat Arizona by 15 like we did in Tucson. But they didnt. And Akinjo & Mathurin struggled from the field. This is a very dangerous game imo. Kriisa is a player to watch and having EA back to keep pace & body this kid should be a big factor.
While both games are dangerous, the Cats are going to start rolling like the Ducks are, imo. I could see us going 2-0 at home sans crowd, 1-1 or even 0-2 if Remy & Alonzo are on fire.
FO!
“Virtually, we’re in a very similar space as we were going into Oregon State. Things are very much up in the air for both Marcus and Josh for Wednesday, they didn’t practice today. But they’re going on the trip and they are making good progress and we’re going to have an opportunity to shoot tonight at USC and maybe those guys will do a little something there. And then we’ll go through shootaround and re-evaluate both of those guys. As far as (ASU freshman forward) Pavlo (Dziuba), is still out. (ASU junior forward) Taeshon (Cherry) is still out, obviously. (ASU sophomore guard) Caleb (Christopher) will be back for this game, so I think that’ll get us to eight scholarship players, again, depending on what Josh and Marcus are going to do. But I anticipate one or both those guys playing at some point this week."
Bottom line is ASU has THREE potential 1st rounders on their roster in Remy, Josh & Bagley. And they have a crazy streak-shooter in Alonzo Verge Jr. (didnt he torch us in Tempe last year?). You just hope they dont put it all together for one game. And they've showed flashes of rebounding of late too. Shocking, I know. They actually outrebounded the bruising Ducks, 43-42. Although, they did have a TON of opportunities for boards, shooting 33% on SIXTY-SIX shots in a frenetic, ugly game. As for recent rebounding leaders, 6'9" / 220 soph forward Jalen Graham had 11 boards in their last game, a narrow win over OSU & Kimani Lawrence (6'8" 210) had 12 against Oregon.
As for Arizona, there are no significant injuries from what I can see. Benedict Mathurin's ankle is fine although he struggled against Oregon. And they have Kerr Kriisa eligible now. CabJag told me about this kid a while back and I saw a super wily, veteran-like PG even though his face looks like Kevin McAllister's and he looked to weigh about the same. They are super high on the Estonian freshman guard. He's coming off of his best game of the year against the Ducks, albeit in only his 4th game. He finished with 12 points, 5 assists and only 2 TOs in 23 minutes. He's the facilitator the Cats need desperately unlike the shoot-first Akinjo. This is a team to watch out for in the future. Hopefully we are getting them at the right time with respect to some of their players development. Kriisa is a savvy, pass-first guard who can also shoot the 3. As referenced, he looks like he's about 15. And he's slight, wiry still but I read he's added 15 pounds. Stupid McDonalds.
The Ducks are starting to roll and I figured they'd beat Arizona by 15 like we did in Tucson. But they didnt. And Akinjo & Mathurin struggled from the field. This is a very dangerous game imo. Kriisa is a player to watch and having EA back to keep pace & body this kid should be a big factor.
While both games are dangerous, the Cats are going to start rolling like the Ducks are, imo. I could see us going 2-0 at home sans crowd, 1-1 or even 0-2 if Remy & Alonzo are on fire.
FO!
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