By the numbers: Arizona State Sun Devils’ 2021-22 season
Mar 13, 2022, 12:00 PM
Arizona State will miss the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year as the Sun Devils finished the 2021-22 season 14-17.
The team finished eighth in the Pac-12 with a 10-10 record in conference, improving on last season’s 7-10 record.
Before ASU turns the page to next year, let’s take a look at some of the important metrics from this season, by the numbers.
Bobby Hurley
Head coach Bobby Hurley completed his seventh season in Tempe, failing to go over a .500 win percentage for the fourth time.
Hurley’s 14 wins are the second fewest in his nine-year collegiate coaching career, only to last season’s 11-win mark that was partially due to a COVID-shortened season.
The Sun Devils currently have the sixth-best recruiting class in the Pac-12 and the 53rd in the country for 2022.
136
ASU returned only three contributors from last season in Kimani Lawrence, Jalen Graham and Marcus Bagley. Lawrence was the last remaining player from the Sun Devils’ last NCAA Tournament run.
In his five seasons with ASU, Lawrence passed Jonathan Gilling, breaking the all-time record for games played with 136 in the maroon and gold.
Streaky Sun Devils
The Sun Devils have not been in the NCAA tournament since the 2018-19 season. This was not projected to be a tournament team as expectations were lower for this season with the influx of players transferring in and out of the program.
ASU started the season 2-6 that included a five-game losing streak, three losses to non-Power Five conference teams and a 21-point loss to Washington State where the team scored 29 points.
After winning three consecutive games, the Sun Devils lost nine of their next 11 games pushing their record to 7-15. One of the two wins was over then-No.3 UCLA, a game where Hurley’s team flipped a switch.
The winning streak started two games after the UCLA game with much-improved basketball, getting a revenge win over Washington State on the road.
Arizona State rode the momentum, winning seven-of-eight before falling in the first round of the PAC-12 Tournament to Stanford.
310th
ASU’s win streak was largely because Hurley’s team was consistently holding opponents to under 70 points per game.
The biggest issue facing this year’s team was the 310 ranked offense with 65.4 points per game.
According to ESPN, Pittsburgh, Virginia, California, and Penn State were the only Power 5 teams ranked lower than ASU in the 358 ranked Division 1 teams.