Arizona State’s Jayden Quaintance among top freshmen

On By Littum

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The Arizona State men’s basketball team looks to snap a four-game losing streak when it faces West Virginia in its fifth true road game. It’s the first of back-to-backs against Top-25 competition and the fourth overall against a ranked foe for the Sun Devils.

Although it’s been a rough stretch, true freshman Jayden Quaintance continues to establish himself as one of the top freshmen in the country. Quaintance, the youngest player in college basketball, has recorded 54 blocks so far and is now the nation’s leader in blocks per game. game (3.2) after adding five more in Saturday’s loss at Cincinnati. He has 10 in the last two games and has already surpassed Pac-12 career blocks leader Jordan Bachynski on ASU’s freshman single-season blocks list. Quaintance is now just one block away from matching the single-season record by a freshman in program history of 55 set by Mario Bennett (1991-92). Quaintance has only done it in 17 games. He has two or more blocks in 15 of 17 games this year, including eight 4+ block performances.

Not only has Quaintance solidified his status as a leading shot blocker, he has also been a leading rebounder. He is on pace to become the program’s leader in rebounds per game. game by a rookie, a record previously set by Ike Diogu back in 2002-03. Quaintance now has 10 or more rebounds in seven games after grabbing 15 in Saturday’s loss. He leads all freshmen nationally and has the third-most rebounds in the Big 12 of any player.

Quaintance has posted five double-doubles this season.

Arizona State (10-7, 1-5) at West Virginia (13-4, 4-2)

Time/place: Tuesday at 19 MST, West Virginia Coliseum, Morgantown, WV

TV: CBSSN Radio: Arizona Sports 98.7 FM (KMVP)

About matchup: It will be the first meeting between the two programs, and West Virginia will make the fifth program ASU has played for the first time this season. The others were Gonzaga, St. Thomas, UMass and Central Florida. This is also the only meeting of the season between the two teams. West Virginia is 9-1 at home with the lone loss coming to Arizona 75-56 on Jan. 7.

About Sun Devils: ASU has struggled since freshman shooting guard Joson Sanon (12.8 ppg) left the lineup with an ankle injury. He has missed four of the last five games and the Sun Devils have lost three of the four in which he has not played. With him out, coach Bobby Hurley has been down to a seven-player rotation. BJ Freeman (13.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg) is the team’s leading scorer, having reached double figures in seven straight games. He finished with 10+ points in 14 total games this season, the most of any Sun Devil. He went down with a leg injury midway through the second half of the last game. He got back into the game but seemed to be slowed down. With Sanon out, Adam Miller (9.4 ppg) is the team’s best deep threat at 43% per game. match.

About the mountain climbers: Senior guard Javon Small (19.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg) is the team’s leading scorer and boasts a season-best 27 points, which has happened twice, including the team’s last game against No. 2 Iowa State. He is a transfer from Oklahoma State. Among the other newcomers is senior forward Tucker DeVries (14.9 ppg), a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year transfer from Drake. He is also the son of first-year head coach Darian DeVries, who won 20 or more games in each of his six seasons at Drake. Tucker played eight games before being sidelined with what had been called an “upper body” injury. Freshman guard Jonathon Powell (9.2 ppg) will start in his place.