brought to you by the ASU WebDevil and the State Press
By Nick Piecoro
State Press
Whenever anyone brings up size in his presence, there's a saying Rob Evans breaks out, one in which he strongly believes: "Sometimes size can be a very, very overrated thing in college basketball."
It's importance -- or lack of -- will be on display Thursday in the Puerto Rico Shootout, when the Sun Devils take on No. 21 Texas and its 7-foot center Chris Mihm.
Evans thinks back to his days at Mississippi when his Rebels would play above their heights and grossly overwhelm opponents on the boards.
"Our center when I was at Mississippi was 6-7," Evans said. "We won 40-something games in two years."
ASU sophomore Chad Prewitt, who at 6-foot-9 and 235 pounds is the biggest player on the team, will play a large role in the containment of the junior Mihm. Largely considered the best center in the nation, Mihm pounded out a great start to the season, scoring 18 points and grabbing 17 boards to tie a career high Saturday night in Texas' season-opening win against Louisiana-Lafayette.
"I think we just have to get physical," Prewitt said. "It'll be a war."
Prewitt will have help. ASU may throw a number of different looks at Mihm, including zones (diamonds and otherwise) and double teams from multiple places in an attempt to bewilder the big man.
Prewitt will need to stay out of foul trouble since ASU doesn't have a whole lot of big bodies after him. Freshman Tommy Smith is 6-foot-9, but he's doesn't have the strength of Prewitt. Neither does freshman forward Justin Allen, although he's thicker than the lanky Smith.
"We've just got to keep Chad in the ballgame," Evans said. "I wish we had a little bit more. Wish we had another inside player."
ASU assistant coach Russ Pennell said that the Sun Devils could gain an advantage with some aggressive perimeter defense that befuddles the ballhandlers.
"If you've got a good postman and we're playing great perimeter defense and we're putting a lot of pressure on the ball, sometimes it's tough for their players to see the guy open on the post," Pennell said. "Pressure defense takes care of a lot of woes on the inside if you play it well."
Pennell echoes Evans' sentiment about size.
"It's nice if you have size," Pennell said. "But just because you have big people doesn't guarantee you're going to be a great rebounding team or scoring team or anything like that. What you've got to have is a certain amount of size, which we do.
"If you look at our line-up, we've got a couple of 6-9s, some 6-8s and 6-7s, in that range. But what they possess is great athleticism. They pursue the ball very well and probably the greatest asset in rebounding is quickness because if you can beat someone to the ball it doesn't matter how big you are."
Last season, the only player ASU faced who maybe possessed the inside skills of Mihm was the since-departed Todd MacCulloch of Washington. Although he played very well against ASU in both games last year, he wasn't consequential in the outcome of either. Neither game was close with the two teams splitting the decisions.
Prewitt said he can take some things from those games and apply them to his defense of Mihm.
"When (MacCulloch) got the ball he would just turn and shoot it," Prewitt said. "If he got the ball, you were dead because he could just turn and shoot over you."
Prewitt said the best way to defend an inside player is to limit his possessions.
"Just try to keep (Mihm) from getting the ball," he said. "Try to stay between him and the guy with the ball."
Odds and Ends
Now in his senior year, guard Eddie House has played games in Hawaii (Maui Invitational), Alaska (Great Alaska Shootout), New York (Preseason NIT) and now Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Shootout) ... Alton Mason made all three of his 3-point attempts in Saturday's season-opening win against Portland State. Last year, he didn't make a trey until the seventh game, starting 0 for 11 ... ASU outrebounded Portland State 46-26. It was the eighth time in Evans' coaching career that a team of his outrebounded an opponent by 20 or more ... The Texas game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest (not Arizona), which can be picked up on some satellite dish systems.
