The 2021-22 Sun Devil men's basketball squad (4-6; 1-1) continues its tough gauntlet of early season tilts as it next travels to surging Creighton for a 7 p.m. CT tip on Tuesday (Dec. 14) on FS1 with Kevin Kugler and Bill Raftery on the call.

CLOSE GAMES: Coach Hurley's Sun Devils have done a good job of winning close games, and it got one on Dec. 5 at Oregon with a 69-67 win and followed it up with a 67-62 win over 2021 WAC Champion Grand Canyon on Dec. 9.  ASU's first two losses were by three points total, losing on a 65-footer to UC Riverside (66-65 on Nov. 11) and a tough 65-63 game at San Diego State (Nov. 18) that had 10 lead changes and six ties. ASU is now 14-6 in Pac-12 two-possession games the past three years, and 19-7 overall.

ABOUT THAT SCHEDULE: By playing Baylor, Syracuse and Loyola in the Battle 4 Atlantis, ASU is in a nine-game stretch where it is playing seven 2021 NCAA Tournament teams, with the outliers being Washington State (7-3) and San Francisco (10-0) on Dec. 19. After the Creighton game tips, ASU wIll have played at last year's MWC champion (San Diego State), the defending NCAA champ (Baylor), Syracuse (Sweet 16), Loyola (Sweet 16), the Pac-12 champion (Oregon), the WAC champion (GCU) and Creighton (Sweet 16).
 
A GOOD DJ: DJ Horne hit a career-high six threes in the Nov. 24 Baylor game and is 27-of-64 (..422) from three and .415 (135-of-325) in his three-year career. He averaged 15.1 ppg. last year at Illinois State and is a .840 career free throw shooter (68-of-81). He sent the Dec. 5 Oregon game into overtime with a three-pointer with under four seconds left, a game in which he had season-high 23 points, six rebounds and three assists.
 
ROAD: ASU has changed its attitude about OOC  road games in Bobby Hurley's seven years with some big wins. ASU is 8-3 in OOC road games under Coach Hurley, as it was 8-22 in its previous 30 OOC road tilts.
 
SUN DEVILS IN OOC ROAD GAMES UNDER BOBBY HURLEY (8-3)
San Diego State 65, ASU 63 (Nov. 18, 2021)
ASU, 71, Grand Canyon 70 (Dec. 13, 2020)
ASU 71, San Francisco 67 (Dec. 3, 2019)
ASU 67, Princeton 65 (Nov. 26, 2019)
Vanderbilt 81, ASU 65 (Dec. 17, 2018)
#20 ASU 76, Georgia 74 (Dec. 15, 2018)
#16 ASU 95, #2 Kansas 85 (Dec. 10, 2017)
ASU 74, San Diego State 63 (Dec. 10, 2016)
ASU 66, UNLV 56 (Dec. 16, 2015)
#5 Kentucky 72, ASU 58 (Dec. 5, 2015)
ASU 79, Creighton 77 (Dec. 2, 2015)
 
GOOD AT THE LINE: ASU's backcourt of Marreon Jackson (23-of-24), DJ Horne (11-of-11), Jay Heath (21-of-23), Luther Muhammad (10-of-12) and Jamiya Neal (7-of-10) are a combined 72-of-80 (.900) at the free throw line.

THREE-DOT DATA: Kimani Lawrence has been solid averaging 11.4 points and 8.5 rebounds while shooting .529 (48-of-89) with five double-doubles...Jay Heath and Jalen Graham each missed the first two games -- and many practices -- because of COVID protocols...ASU is holding opponents to .403 shooting...Alonzo Gaffney leads team with 17 blocks...Marreon Jackson's 42 assists is team best and he has played in 137 games and is 369-of-444 (.831) at the free throw line...freshman Enoch Boakye has 38 rebounds in just over 118 minutes (12.9 per game over 40 minutes)...Luther Muhammad has started 65-of-73 career games. He started 54 games in his first two years at Ohio State before sitting last year at ASU with a shoulder injury.
 
RESET: The Sun Devils have many new faces and a trio of returners -- like a lot of college basketball teams. Bobby Hurley is in his seventh year and returns "super" senior Kimani Lawrence for a fifth year, junior Jalen Graham and sophomore Marcus Bagley. Luther Muhammad sat last year to get a shoulder healthy after transferring from Ohio State. The Sun Devils added graduate transfer Marreon Jackson from Toledo (2020-21 MAC Player of the Year in his fifth year of college hoops), along with DI transfers DJ Horne (Illinois State) and Jay Heath (Boston College) and added junior college transfer Alonzo Gaffney, who started his career at Ohio State. Add in freshman Jamiya Neal and Enoch Boakye and ASU started the season with a 10-man rotation.