‘We just kind of let him go.’ Gonzaga’s decision to stick with Braden Huff pays off in big way during ASU win

Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley took a moment to pass along a quick message to Gonzaga counterpart Mark Few at the conclusion of Sunday’s nonconference matchup at McCarthey Athletic Center.

By the time the two coaches met in the postgame handshake line, Braden Huff had already been announced over the PA system as Gonzaga’s “Player of the Game” following a tightly-contested victory over Arizona State.

Hurley, who saw a bit of the redshirt sophomore while scouting the sixth-ranked Zags last week, came away with even greater admiration of Huff and his game after watching the forward score 21 points off the bench, helping GU hold off ASU for an 88-80 win.

“I talked to coach Few right after the game and mentioned how much I liked Huff,” Hurley said. “He jumped out on the film versus Baylor, just with his length and his touch around the basket.”

After making impact plays on both ends of the floor during an opening-night romp of Baylor, Huff was a major contributor again on Sunday as the Bulldogs beat a second straight Big 12 opponent to improve to 2-0 on the season.

The skilled forward was Gonzaga’s first sub against ASU, entering the game approximately four minutes into the first quarter. Within seconds of checking in, Huff was backing down five-star ASU freshman Jayden Quaintance and flipping in a pretty left-handed hook over the NCAA’s blocked shots leader.

A few minutes later, Huff cut to the basket for a layup before going back to the lefty hook, this time scoring over 6-9 Basheer Jihad. Huff scored his seventh and eighth points – all of them coming within a 4-minute, 47-second stretch – while rolling to the basket, receiving an interior pass from Ryan Nembhard and cleanly laying the ball off the glass.

“A lot of those points were off his assists,” Huff said of Nembhard. “He makes it really easy, all the guards do. Put me in positions to score and I just put it up there and hope it goes on. But yeah, that’s kind of my role. To be aggressive and that’s what I try to do.”

Gonzaga funneled much of its offense through the 6-10 forward during his initial shift – Huff and Nembhard connected on a variety of pick-and-rolls – and he led the Bulldogs in first-half scoring, scoring 10 points on 5 of 7 shooting in 13 minutes.

The second half arrived with more quintessential Huff.

When starting forward Graham Ike picked up his third foul on the offensive end of the floor early in the second half, Gonzaga didn’t hesitate to go back to Huff, who put together a strong closing stretch that mirrored his first-half stint and didn’t check out of the game for the final 13 minutes, 47 seconds.

“He was good. He was good his first run and then we hung with him,” Few said. “Then we went back to him end of the first half. He was really good, he was attacking their posts inside and he was finding the ball. For the most part, he wasn’t hurting us too bad defensively. So that’s why we just kind of let him go.”

Huff continued to score in point-per-minute fashion, connecting on three short jumpers within the final seven minutes while getting to the free throw line four times. He delivered the final dagger with 39 seconds remaining, finishing an alley-oop pass from Nembhard that extended Gonzaga’s lead to 82-76.

The Glen Ellyn, Illinois, native also made a key hustle play in the second half, diving on the floor to challenge multiple Sun Devils for a loose ball. Huff collected the ball and dished to Nembhard, whose lob to Khalif Battle set up the night’s top highlight: an acrobatic alley-oop dunk that checked in at No. 5 on ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10.

“At points in that game we struggled to get stops, but at the end when we needed them we really locked in and got them,” Huff said. “Last year’s team it was a bunch of new guys, so it took us awhile to kind of get acclimated and get used to each other in our roles, but I think this year we’ve got a lot of returners and guys like KB (Battle) and Mike (Ajayi), the new guys have fit it in kind of seamlessly. So I think that transition’s been pretty easy so far early in the season.”

Huff’s 21 points came in 26 minutes and the forward finished 9 of 13 from the field, 0 of 2 from the 3-point line and 3 of 4 from the free throw line. Through two games, he’s leading Gonzaga in scoring average (17.5 points per game) despite ranking fifth on the team in minutes per game (21.0).

All impressive stuff, certainly in the eyes of the opposing coach on Sunday.

“If he gets to that right shoulder with his right hand, he’s very, very efficient at scoring the ball and he’s a very nice player,” Hurley said. “I think he’s got a chance to be pretty good.”