Cats pound ASU in Pac-12 hoops opener

TUCSON-Arizona Wildcats ran over, through, and around Arizona State on the basketball court in Tucson Sunday night, winning with ease 73-49.

Arizona shot 58%(17-29) in the first half and built a twenty point lead in cruising to the victory.
Arizona State forward Savon Goodman picked up two fouls in the first five minuets of the contest and was never a factor. Goodman finished 0-3 from the floor. 

The plain truth about this game was the Sun Devils looked like they needed “Hello, my name is” tags. They didn’t have much in the way of chemistry. Some of that was due to the Arizona defense, which was suffocating at times.  T.J. McConnell helped the Cats to turn the Sun Devils over 22 times. 
I was impressed with the play of Arizona freshman Stanley Johnson. He made some plays in the open court that were simply stunning for a player of his size and experience. He played like an upperclassman rather than a true freshman, finishing with 13 points. 

Arizona State head coach Herb Sendek has two months to get the chemistry of this team together. I DO see some solid pieces that could work well together by the time these two teams meet again in Tempe on February 7th. Ro Scott, Goodman, and Gerry Blakes are all talented. Blowouts in Tucson are not surprising, let’s see how these two teams matchup next month.