Will KU continue to use full-court press after dominant 2nd-half showing vs. ASU?

Arizona State men’s basketball coach Bobby Hurley knew his Sun Devils faced a tough challenge against No. 11-ranked Kansas on Wednesday night based on the Jayhawks’ previous game, a 51-point victory at UCF.

In fact, he called the Jayhawks “a team that had one of the best games I’ve watched this year against an opponent when they played UCF.”

“We knew it would be a brutally tough game,” Hurley said after the Sun Devils’ 74-55 loss at Allen Fieldhouse.

It turned out his ASU team (10-4, 1-2) was well-prepared to give KU a game.

The Sun Devils led 42-36 at halftime and looked like a high-scoring team that might hand the Jayhawks (11-3, 2-1) their second home loss in a row. Back-to-back home losses last occurred at KU during the 1988-89 season.

Instead of an upset victory, ASU was ambushed, 38-13, the final 20 minutes by a KU full-court press that forced 12 turnovers.

The press, which was highlighted by back-to-back steals by senior guard Shakeel Moore that resulted in dunks, definitely made possible KU’s comeback victory.

“We didn’t handle their pressure at all. We did not do a good job of taking care of the ball on their press and turned it over,” Hurley said. “We were very ineffective and started digging a hole for ourselves we couldn’t get out of.

“They played with more energy than we did the second half. Their press certainly bothered us. We didn’t take care of that,” Hurley added.

He indicated the Sun Devils were “shorthanded” in playing without injured starting guard Joson Sanon.

“They really turned up their pressure on defense with the press,” Hurley said. ASU hit 5 of 23 shots the second half and went 1 for 11 from 3.

“We weren’t able to stop the bleeding at any point. Points were obviously hard for us to find the second half. It is encouraging we were able to play the way we did the first half based on how they looked the other day (against UCF). “Being on their home floor we can say for 20 minutes we can compete against an opponent like that. I think we ran out of gas to a certain degree as the game wore on,” Hurley commented.

That KU press certainly helped wear out ASU.

“I mean Coach (Bill Self) put that in a couple days ago, try something new to up the tempo,” said Kansas senior guard Dajuan Harris, who had nine points, seven assists, three steals and zero turnovers in 32 minutes.

“That press got our energy going. The crowd got us going. We feed off their energy too,” Harris added.

Of going to the press the second half, junior guard Rylan Griffen said: “We wanted to take out No. 1.”

He was referring to Blue Valley Northwest graduate Alston Mason, who scored 15 points the first half and four the second. Mason had four of his six turnovers the final half. “He had 15 points at half. We had to take him out of the game to have a chance to win. That’s what we tried to do after we went to that (press),” Griffen said.

Noted guard Zeke Mayo, who had one of KU’s 13 steals: “The second half, Coach emphasized get after them, pick ‘em up full-court. It messed with their offense a bit.”

KU coach Self indicated full-court pressure could be used again.

“That’s about as good I can remember us defensively in a long time. It is something you might see more of in the future,” Self stated. “Individually, team defense, rebounding and scrapping, it looked like a hungry team out there,” Self added.

KU plays Cincinnati on Saturday at 1 p.m. Central Time in Ohio.