The Arizona State Sun Devil men's hoops team (15-17) meets No. 5 Oregon Ducks in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas at noon PT/1 p.m. MT on Thursday, March 9, on the Pac-12 Network. Roxy Bernstein and Don MacLean have the call, while Tim Healey and Kyle Dodd have the radio call on the Sun Devil Sports Radio Network, presented by MidFirst (620 AM). ASU completed a tough three-game sweep of Stanford on Wednesday with a 98-88 overtime win. Junior Kodi Justice is averaging 18.3 points in the past four games while shooting 16-of-27 (.593) from the three-point stripe, while Torian Graham was the league's top scorer in conference games at 18.6 per game.
PAC-12 MOST THREE-POINTERS
350, Oregon, 2006-07
319, Arizona State, 2016-17
314, UCLA, 2016-17
ELIAS STATS SAYS: ASU is the first Pac-12 school to have five players average 30 minutes since Arizona in 2003-04 and the first to have three players average 15 points since Arizona in 2008-09.
LAST ASU-DUCK GAME WAS DARN CLOSE: ASU had just six turnovers in a 71-70 loss at Pac-12 No. 1 seed Oregon on Feb. 2 in a game that had nine ties and 15 lead changes...Shannon Evans matched his ASU high with 28 points and Tra Holder added 17...ASU led 60-59 with 3:37 left but Dillon Brooks scored the final 12 points for the win...game was tied at 66 with 1:45...ASU was the first team to not have double-digit turnovers vs. the Ducks this season, as its six was fewest in ASU's past 123 games (five vs. College of Charleston in Anaheim on Nov. 29, 2013).
THREE-GAME SWEEPS: With the win over Stanford ASU has three three-game sweeps since joining the Pac-10 in 1978 (Arizona 2008-09 and Washington State 1986-87)...Obi Oleka had a career-high 27 points and 13 rebounds, his 16th double-double of the season, most by a Sun Devil since ASU joined the Pac-12...ASU shot .559 from the field (33-of-59) and was 22-of-25 (.880) from the free throw line.
TAKING CARE OF THE BALL: ASU has done a great job of taking care of the ball, as it has averaged just 9.6 turnovers in its past 10 games entered tournament tied for 13th in the nation with just 10.5 turnovers per tilt. Torian Graham's 101 three-pointers is second on the ASU single-season list and eighth on Pac-12 single season list. Also random stat from Coach Hurley's two-year tenure at ASU: ASU is 22-0 when shoots better from the field than the opponent (13-0 this year).
PAC-12 MOST 3-POINT FIELD GOALS IN A SEASON
120, Salim Stoudamire, ARIZ, 2005
114, Steve Kerr, ARIZ, 1988
113, Stevin Smith, ASU, 1993
112, Damon Stoudamire, ARIZ, 1995
110, Tajuan Porter, ORE, 2007
106, Jason Gardner, ARIZ, 2002
104, Bryce Alford, UCLA, 2017
101, Torian Graham, ASU, 2017
SEASON RESET: ASU zig-zagged across North America three times (Orlando, Bahamas and New York City) and got road wins at San Diego State, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington...only Tra Holder, Obi Oleka and Kodi Justice returned from last year's team that posted eight wins against top-100 RPI teams in Bobby Hurley's first season...five players average at least 9.3 ppg. overall and 33.4 minutes in Pac-12 play.
MINUTE(S)MEN: Tra Holder led the Pac-12 in minutes per game in conference games at 37.9, but not far behind him are two other Sun Devils: Shannon Evans II (36.7/second) and Torian Graham (36.6/third). It doesn't drop off much from there, with Kodi Justice averaging 33.8 and Obi Oleka 33.4. In the past 18 seasons, all three of them rank in the Sun Devil top-10 for minutes per game in Pac-12 tilts.
SUN DEVIL MINUTES PER GAME (PAC-10/12 GAMES) 1999-2000 TO PRESENT/PAST 18 SEASONS
39.3, Eddie House, 1999-2000
39.2, Kevin Kruger, 2005-06
38.3, Jahii Carson, 2012-13
37.9, Tra Holder, 2016-17
37.8, Ike DIogu, 2004-05
37.7, Carrick Felix, 2012-13
37.5, James Harden, 2008-09
37.2, Ike Diogu, 2003-04
36.7, Shannon Evans II, 2016-17
36.6, Torian Graham, 2016-17
QUICK HITTERS: ASU's 79.2 points per game is its best since the 1997-98 squad averaged 84.5, as ASU entered week third in the Pac-12 in free throw shooting (.742 now .747). ASU is averaging just 10.5 turnovers (first in the league) and 10 three-pointers made, second in the Pac-12. Tra Holder leads the league in free throws made and attempted (149-of-191/.772).
2,453 POINTS: Junior Tra Holder moved past the 1,000-point mark at UCLA on Jan. 19 as he is the 36th member of the Sun Devil 1,000-point club. ASU has a backcourt with two 1,000-point scorers, as Shannon Evans has 1,241 career points, 754 of them coming in 62 games at Buffalo.
FREE THROW DATA: The Sun Devils are making free throws at a rate that is third-best in school history (479-of-641/.747). ASU shot .756 in 1977-78 and .754 in 1954-55 for its best seasons...ASU went 12-of-12 in the second half of tight win at San Diego State on Dec. 10 and was 16-of-18 for the game...Tra Holder is 371-of-502 (.739) from the charity stripe in his 95 games...Shannon Evans II made his first 20 free throws to start the season and is 282-of-349 (.808) in his career.
OBI ONE TO KEEP AN EYE ON: It was the Jan. 14 WSU game where forward Obinna Oleka (Oh-BEE-nah Oh-LEH-ka) began to emerge last season. Obi was in double figures in 13 of the final 16 games and averaged 11.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and was 41-of-49 (.837) from the free throw line in that time. He also had three of his four double-doubles in that span. Oleka had no points and one rebound in the first two games, but because he only played five games for State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota the previous two seasons and didn't play in 2014-15, a slow start was expected. Consider this: Before he took the court in the opener Nov. 13, his previous official game was Dec. 7, 2013...a 705-day break between games.