Sun Devils on the road to play BYU

The Arizona State Sun Devils play their first true road game of the season tonight as they join the BYU Cougars for a non-conference bout inside the Marriott Center in Provo.

With eight games in the book already, only twice has ASU left home as they played both Duke and LSU in New York as part of the NIT Season Tip-Off. Most recently the team took the floor last Thursday at home and was defeated by the Baylor Bears, 64-61, as part of the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series. The setback snapped a brief two-game win streak by the Sun Devils.

As for the Cougars, they ran off five straight wins to begin 2009-10 before being defeated by Utah State last Wednesday in Logan. On Saturday, the team entertained the San Francisco Dons in Salt Lake City and treated the visitors to a 69-43 setback to move to 6-1 in the season.

These two programs met last season in late December at University of Phoenix Stadium, with the Sun Devils slipping by in a 76-75 decision in which the Cougars ended up having a last-second shot waved off. The defeat was the first of the 2008-09 campaign for BYU, halting what had become a 10-game win streak. In terms of the all-time series, BYU leads by a count of 26-22.

Derek Glasser missed five of his seven field goal attempts and all four of his chances behind the three-point line against Baylor, including his game-tying attempt at the buzzer. Keeping Arizona State in the second half was Rihards Kuksiks who tallied 16 points on 5-of-16 shooting from the floor, while Jerren Shipp chipped in with 12 points in 22 minutes off the bench. Not only was 33.3 percent shooting beyond the arc an issue, so was a mere 18 rebounds in the setback for ASU. Although he failed to score in double figures against the Bears, Eric Boateng is still the player to watch for ASU, having become one of the most improved players in the nation since 2008-09. Averaging 11.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per contest at the moment, Boateng sat on the bench most of last year and scored a total of 57 points. Kuksiks is putting up a team-best 12.3 ppg and Derek Glasser another 11.5 ppg and 42 assists in eight games, against just 14 turnovers. Not only are the Sun Devils outscoring the opposition by more than 17 ppg, they have limited those foes to a mere 56.0 ppg, one of the best marks in college basketball entering the week.

San Francisco sort of hung tough with the Cougars in the first half of their meeting over the weekend at Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, but in the second half the Dons made a mere six field goals to end the possibility of a comeback bid. Jackson Emery led four players in double figures with his 14 points, followed by Jimmer Fredette and Tyler Haws with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Coming off the bench for a change was Jonathan Tavernari who posted 10 points. In the process of converting 2-of-5 beyond the arc, Tavernari became BYU's all-time leader in three-point field goals made with 214. But as great of an accomplishment that might be, Tavernari is still having a hard time getting his offense in gear this season, averaging just 10.9 ppg as a 34.9 percent shooter from the floor. The other aspect of Tavernari's game that has suffered in the first few weeks is his availability at the free-throw line where he has visited a mere six times in seven games. Nevertheless, the Cougars are still one of the top free-throw shooting squads in the nation at 82.7 percent, playing a huge part in the group's 80.6 ppg thus far.

Certainly the Cougars still have something to prove following last season's disappointing ending against ASU, but if Tavernari continues to have trouble shooting the ball it might not make much of a difference. Then again, the Marriott Center is a huge advantage for BYU and should be again tonight.