Key matchup: Gonzaga set to face Arizona State point guard Moe Odum at third school

TEMPE, Ariz. – If you do not consume college basketball news during the spring and summer months, or keep up with hundreds of thousands of transactions that occur every day during the transfer portal cycle, it can be difficult to know who is playing where when the regular season starts back up in November.

Some Gonzaga fans were probably unaware that Moe Odum transferred from Pacific to Pepperdine last summer. It might be news for others that the veteran point guard moved on from the West Coast Conference altogether this spring when he returned to the transfer portal and subsequently committed to Arizona State.

Gonzaga will get reacquainted with Odum – who is averaging 11.5 points, 7.0 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 3.0 steals through two games – on Friday when Mark Few’s Bulldogs face Bobby Hurley’s Sun Devils in a nonconference game at 8 p.m. (ESPN2).

Had NCAA assists leader Ryan Nembhard played somewhere other than Gonzaga last season, Odum would have led the WCC in that category, averaging 7.5 assists for a Pepperdine team that won just four league games but made a surprising run to the semifinals of the conference tournament.

Odum was solid throughout the regular season, but unlocked another gear at the WCC Tournament, where the point guard posted a 31-point, 11-rebound double-double in a first-round win over Portland and averaged 21.5 points and 9.2 points for a Pepperdine team that did not lose until it had to play 19th-ranked Saint Mary’s.

Months earlier, Odum nearly led the Waves to a massive upset win over another team ranked No. 19 in the country at the time. While recruiting his new point guard out of the portal, ASU coach Bobby Hurley pulled up the tape from Odum’s 24-point, eight-rebound effort against Gonzaga in Malibu. The Waves outscored the Zags 50-39 in the second half and trailed by only four points with just over a minute to play. Odum’s 24 points were impressive enough, never mind the fact all 24 came after halftime.

“We wanted to look at some of his best games and played against a team like Gonzaga because that’s the kind of team you’re going to see in the Big 12 and how that would translate,” Hurley said. “We definitely watched those films in the portal and thought he had a really good game at his place in the second half against Gonzaga, particularly. That’s history now and this is a new moment and just like what I’m seeing on the practice floor from Moe this week. He’s going to have to lead our team and do a good job of running our team on Friday night.”

Surrounded by better talent at ASU, Odum will get a third opportunity to knock off the country’s 19th-ranked team Friday evening, not to mention his sixth opportunity to beat Gonzaga.

“I’ve been talking to (teammates) about the Gonzaga game from day one, like that’s their first big test,” Odum said. “You know you’ve got to be on point, you’ve got to be on your P’s and Q’s and just go out there to play with high effort.”

Odum has averaged 9.8 points, 5.6 assists and 2.4 rebounds in five career games against Gonzaga, shooting 41% from the field in those matchups.

The 6-foot-2 guard is deliberate with the ball in his hands and generally avoids turnovers. Odum’s scoring numbers improved drastically last season, from 8.7 ppg to 13.1 ppg and he shot 37.9% from the 3-point line one year after making 29.7% from distance.

Odum might have to work harder to find shots against Gonzaga’s new-look backcourt on Friday. He will likely match up with GU’s point guards, Braeden Smith and Mario Saint-Supery, and could occasionally draw bigger defenders like former ASU guard Adam Miller or Tyon Grant-Foster on switches.

“Watching them on film myself, they’re in gaps a lot,” Odum said. “Their wings are really big, so their guards are really pushing the guard out to try to drive and force into the gaps because they’ve got long arms and stuff. They’re really lengthy on the wings and in the low post, so just them being super lengthy. They never had length, they more was like guard play then two big guys. But now it’s just length overall, damn near two through five. So just getting used to that length.”