Joson Sanon expects to play for ASU vs. No. 3 Iowa State

Arizona State freshman Joson Sanon, who is dealing with an ankle injury, practiced Friday and is expected to play Saturday as the men’s basketball team hosts the No. 3 Iowa State Cyclones.

“Joson looked fantastic today. It’s as good as he’s looked since prior to the injury,” ASU head coach Bobby Hurley told reporters. “He’s going to be green-lighted tomorrow assuming he responded well from what he did today in practice, which there’s nothing that I would think would be holding him back.”

Sanon has played just one game this month, an 18-minute performance in an overtime game against Baylor on Jan. 11.

He’s still the team’s second-leading scorer (12.8 points per game) behind wing BJ Freeman (13.2 points per game).

Sanon is Arizona State’s most efficient perimeter scorer, who has hit 47% of his overall shots and 48% of his threes on 4.7 attempts per game.

ASU (11-7) is coming off a road win against then- No. 23 West Virginia that ended a four-game skid.

Iowa State (16-2) fell to that same WVU team on Jan. 18 but recovered in its last outing, a 108-83 win over UCF on Tuesday.

Hurley hopes that acts as a confidence booster that combined with Sanon’s return can give the Sun Devils a chance against an ISU team that ranks in the top-10 in both offensive and defensive KenPom ratings.

“That’s been a struggle, at times, just always being able to generate offense, always being able to keep fresh bodies on the floor,” Hurley said of Arizona State’s struggles this year. “When you add someone like (Sanon) back into the mix, it should hopefully give us a boost.”

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