ASU in good spirits ahead of Oregon game; Cherry working way back

Despite not having played a game since Feb. 2, the Arizona State Sun Devils enter Thursday’s matchup with the Oregon Ducks more than ready to get after it.

ASU head coach Bobby Hurley has been thoroughly impressed with his team this week at practice. Instead of taking a step back due to the layoff, the head coach feels his squad will make yet another move in the right direction when the Oregon schools come to town.

“I think they responded very well this whole week. … I can’t remember a better 40 minutes of practice that we had today in stretches,” Hurley said via Zoom on Wednesday. “I feel good about the confidence the team has shown and they are being more more resilient. They’ve shown that the past couple of games and they carried it over to the practice court.”

It’s a positive sign for a team that has had one roller coaster of a season.

After getting seven games in to start the year, ASU had a cancellation and three postponements due to COVID-19 concerns halt their season for nearly a month. Two games into the resumed schedule, the Sun Devils were hit with yet another postponement, coming from their upcoming opponent.

ASU would get five games in, including back-to-back wins over Stanford and California, before three more postponements would rear their ugly heads.

“It’s just tough to get into a rhythm, get your timing right and just everything you figure out in practice and you get through game experience,” Hurley said. “You get into the routines you’re used to. … It’s been very difficult to develop any consistency to what we’re doing and get more games under our belt.

“But we’re not alone, we have company this week. Oregon has had a very similar season as we’ve had in terms of disruptions and guys being injured and things of that nature.”

ASU and Oregon head into Thursday’s matchup having played the fewest games in the Pac-12 conference. The duo has only seen eight total conference games each this season, compared to the rest of the Pac-12 playing at least 11 games each as of Wednesday.

Oregon currently sits in fourth place in the Pac-12 (5-3; 10-4 overall), while ASU is ninth (3-5; 6-8 overall).

Catch all the action live Thursday night at 7 p.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.

Taeshon Cherry working his way back

The Sun Devils appear to be adding another body back to the mix.

Hurley said Wednesday that junior Taeshon Cherry is slowly on his way back to rejoining the team at some point this season.

Cherry had played seven games (three starts) before stepping away from the program due to personal reasons.

“Tae and I had a good conversation and he’s getting back into COVID protocol testing, getting back in the routine of doing that,” Hurley said. “Then he’s going to transition to doing some more individual workouts.

“He’s missed a lot of time and we’re going to move along slow to make sure he reacclimates with everything and then we’ll see what he looks like and progress him as we see fit.”

The junior is averaging 3.9 points and 2.3 assists in 16 minutes per game this season.

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