Matt Pruitt was playing in his back yard. Nutt said, referring to the Indians' frigid, first-half shooting performance. But before 4,431 fans at the Convocation Center, Pruitt, a sophomore guard, provided a spark. A defensive rebound by Pruitt led to a jumper from the high post by Jason Jennings that tied it at 48. All of our guys are playing hard, they're just not playing hard enough.
Matt plays hard.
Pruitt's contribution was part of a group effort that closed out the game and gave Nutt hope for better things as ASU travels to Louisiana Tech for its second conference game tonight. Tonight, ASU faces last year's Sun Belt Player of the Year in Bulldogs' guard Gerrod Henderson and Freshman of the Year Antonio Meeking at forward. Nutt has never beaten Louisiana Tech Coach Keith Richard in five tries. We've got to get more people to the glass. But a lot of that sometimes, we're playing a lot of small people on the perimeter and those are the guys that are deserving those minutes.