ASU’s Moe Odum uses unique message to motivate teammates at halftime

ASU guard Moe Odum took an unconventional approach to motivate his teammates during halftime of the Sun Devils’ game against Georgia State on Monday.

As 18.5-point favorites ASU trailed Georgia State 39-34 at the break, Odum took inspiration from a Jon Rothstein running gag.

When schools lose “buy games,” which are non-conference matchups where one school, typically a larger and wealthier one, pays a usually smaller and less wealthy school, to play against them, Rothstein will tweet out “the epitome to brutality.”

TCU loses a buy game to New Orleans.

The epitome of brutality.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) November 4, 2025

So when the Sun Devils fell behind at the half, Odum warned his teammates about being embarrassed by the team sitting at No. 312 in KenPom’s rankings.

“Truth be told, I just told them, ‘If you don’t want to end up on Jon Rothstein’s epitome of brutality, Arizona State loses a buy game to Georgia State, we’ve got to pick it up,'” Odum told the ESPN+ broadcast after the game. “I don’t like to be embarrassed. I feel like we’re a high-major team, we shouldn’t have dogfights … So I just told them, ‘If you want to be the laughingstock of social media tonight, just go to Jon Rothstein after we lose.’ But they got the message.”

It Spreads. pic.twitter.com/O8fZOYRw3a

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) November 18, 2025

The message worked as the Sun Devils outscored the Panthers 41-23 in the second half for a 75-62 victory.

“The first half our energy was low. It was sluggish,” Odum told reporters after the win. “I said some things to them in the locker room, and they responded really well.

“Just being able to get on my teammates and them respond well to me, that was what clicked for us. Me being able to just criticize them and they respond well.”

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