Arizona State errs by hyping incoming freshman

Arizona State’s basketball program last week produced a marketing poster that packaged incoming freshman forward Sam Cunliffe with three of the top Sun Devil basketball players of the last 20 years — James Harden, Ike Diogu and Jahii Carson. Arizona would never do that, in part because it doesn’t need the attention or publicity leading up to the season, and it puts a ton of unnecessary pressure on young Mr. Cunliffe. Bobby Hurley has unquestionably recruited well in his first year and a half in Tempe, but Cunliffe probably isn’t one of the five or 10 leading recruits entering the Pac-12. My top three: Washington point guard Markelle Fultz, UCLA’s Lonzo Ball and Arizona’s Lauri Markkanen. In seven games in the FIBA U20 European Championships, Markkanen averaged 24.9 points, 8.6 rebounds while shooting 50 percent overall and 83 percent from the foul line. Unfortunately, his Finnish teammates were awful; the club finished 15th of 16 teams in the tournament.