Points off turnovers key for ASU, Roberts says; Newman OK, no news on De Sousa

Arizona State’s 14 three-point baskets in 28 attempts and overall 50.8 percent shooting proved pivotal in the Sun Devils’ 95-85 victory over Kansas on Sunday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Another stat, which also was fueled by ASU’s guard-oriented squad yet not mentioned much after the contest, may have been equally vital to ASU improving to 9-0 and jumping from No. 16 to No. 5 in this week’s Associted Press poll.

“We had 16 turnovers and seven were unforced,” KU assistant coach Norm Roberts reported Monday night in subbing for KU head coach Bill Self on Self’s weekly Hawk Talk radio show. “They scored 25 points off turnovers to our nine. You will not win many games doing that,” he added.

KU senior guard Svi Mykhailiuk suffered four turnovers — all in the second half — a half in which the Sun Devils outscored KU, 58-45. Mykhailiuk had six assists and no turnovers the first half.

“Martin (Remy) scored points, but he scored baskets on layups after he stole the ball,” Roberts said of the freshman guard, who had 21 points and five steals in 32 minutes. “He will take your ball. You know he will attack you, get underneath you and use his speed. Give him credit. He played terrific,” Roberts added.

Of Mykhailiuk’s ballhandling problems the second half, Roberts said: “We’ve got to get the ball downhill on the dribble, not go side to side. His dribble is way too high, especially playing against a small guy like that. We’ve talked to Svi about that: ‘You’ve got to keep your dribble down,’’’ Roberts said.

Roberts said he spoke to several Jayhawks on Monday about starting to provide “intangibles” to a squad that has lost two straight games and dropped to 7-2 overall and No. 13 in the AP poll.

“Last year our intangible guy was Josh (Jackson),” Roberts said. “He’d block a shot, get a rebound, get it out in transition, make a pass. He’d do things besides scoring that would affect the game. Guys in the past like Travis (Releford), Jamari (Traylor) would do those things. Now we have guys score, score, score (but) no one is doing intangibles. We need them to maybe get out of their comfort zone a bit. We need them doing those things.”

Roberts said he quizzed some KU players about the contributions of ASU forward DeQuon Lake on Sunday.

“He played something like eight minutes (six),” Roberts said. “I asked the guys, ‘Do you think he had an effect on the game?’ Most would say no. Yes he did. He blocked three shots where we had layups (and had three rebounds, but no points). That changes the game. He didn’t score a bucket, but those (blocks) are intangibles. We need to get more of those intangibles.”

Newman OK after getting hit in head

KU sophomore guard Malik Newman, who suffered concussion-like symptoms after taking a knee to the head with 1:40 left in Sunday’s loss, appeared OK on Monday, Roberts said on Hawk Talk.

“I saw him a little bit today. He came by the office. He had a little bit of a headache. He seemed to be a little bit better,” Roberts said. “It takes some time. I think he took a pretty good shot when he hit his head on the guy’s knee. Hopefully he will (be ready for Saturday’s 7 p.m. contest at Nebraska). He has a few days here (before the game).”

De Sousa update

KU signee Silvio De Sousa, a 6-foot-9, 220-pound senior forward at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., wrote on Twitter on Monday, “Imma be there sooner than u thought.”

It made some KU fans wonder if De Sousa meant he’s qualified academically to play basketball at KU second semester.

De Sousa, the No. 25-rated player in the recruiting class of 2018 by Rivals.com, been awaiting results of the standardized test he recently took in Florida. His score will be matched against his performance in high school core courses to determine whether or not he can play for KU this season.

“He doesn’t know yet. Nobody knows. We are still waiting to hear,” Roberts said. “I think he’s thinking positive (thoughts) that it could happen. We want it to happen. It’d be great. I still think we have some time before we know.”

Final exam week begins

The Jayhawks return to practice Tuesday afternoon after taking a day off on Monday — the first day of final exam week.

“They (finals) are looking pretty good. I’m excited for finals,” KU junior guard Lagerald Vick said Sunday after scoring 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting. He also grabbed seven rebounds. “I’ll study tonight, have a final tomorrow, study Tuesday. I have an online final Wednesday.”

Noted senior Devonté Graham: “I’ll go home, study a little bit, knock ‘em (finals) out. I think that’s why they give us this nice week off (with just one game Saturday). We can focus on finals. There’s no games. It helps to be able to study and get our minds right for finals.”

Self said: “Finals week is a hard week to get better because obviously it takes priority over everything else. Usually finals week is maintenance week, although obviously we need to get better. Beginning after finals week is over is when I hope we can hunker down and do some things to really improve.”

Josh Jackson supports KU

Former KU guard Josh Jackson of the Phoenix Suns was asked by Azcentral.com what he thought of Arizona State’s win over KU.

“Good for Arizona State. They got a good win. But it’ll never happen again,” Jackson told reporters.

Jackson guaranteed the Jayhawks would fare better than ASU in the NCAA Tournament.

“I’m putting myself out there,” he said. “I think I’m safe on that one. I don’t know what’s going on with my team right now. One thing I do know is I’d hate to be them right now. I definitely don’t want to be playing for Kansas basketball right now because I know Bill (Self) is not happy.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Points off turnovers key for ASU, Roberts says; Newman OK, no news on De Sousa."