By not seeing enough, Zeke Jones had seen enough.

The Arizona State coach, frustrated by an 18-15 loss to an upstart Little Rock (11-5) team on Jan. 19 but encouraged by a 21-20 win over Pitt two days later, got back to ASU and changed the team’s training cycle to three practice sessions daily.

He’s cognizant of the fact that the added work could affect his wrestlers’ energy level in the short term but is confident that it will pay off for the Sun Devils when it counts most in March.

“Friday (at Little Rock) was a difficult loss because regardless of how many guys we have out, it doesn't matter. We still come to compete and ultimately get our hand raised and we were lackluster,” Jones explained.

“(Kyle) Parco and (Jacori) Teemer don’t bonus in a dual meet where they should be bonusing. It just shows that when we're several men down in a dual meet that the others have to pick up the slack. We had a long hard talk about it and on Sunday that changed.”

Jones said that his crew at Pitt wasn’t wrestling for themselves but for each other. 

“The guys really had a sense of urgency on Sunday,” Jones said. “We felt good about Sunday because we turned that corner, finally. But we still trained like we were a Friday team. So we went to three-a-days and we made a decision that no one in the country was going to outwork us.

“This group realized that if they're going to have the NCAA Tournament they want to have, that they're going to have to do that kind of work. So that's what we did.”

In between now and then for the Sun Devils (3-4) sits #4 Oklahoma State and #20 Oregon State this weekend, and then Cal Poly, #18 Stanford, #15 Lehigh and #3 Nebraska. And already Jones can see a new wave of enthusiasm.

“I’m telling you, I know it sounds crazy, but we line up really good with Oklahoma State, better than Oregon State, put it that way,” he said. “We're going into a hostile environment; it's hard to wrestle at Oklahoma State. It’s a great place to wrestle. Lots of energy, lots of history and tradition. I think our kids need to keep a level head and really stay steady and focused.

“But I feel really good … 125, 149, 157 and heavyweight, there's four right there. Now, we have to get ‘em, they're not gimmes, but we're certainly favored in three of them. 125’s a toss-up, but not in my book. And then where do we get two more?” Jones added, citing 174 and 197 as key bouts.

Jones is most interested in the 165-pound bout between Oklahoma State’s third-ranked Izzak Olejnik and unranked Oklahoma State transfer Chance McClane, who beat #19 Holden Heller during the Pitt match. 

“I think Chance has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder; I think Oklahoma State didn't feel that Chance was at the level they wanted or needed,” Jones said. “I tell you, his eyeballs are real squinted right now. Scared? Nervous? He's neither of those. He is fired up.

“Generally, if we can get wins between ‘65 and ‘97, we're in any dual meet. Those are the weights that if we can't win, there's four we can lose, right? I feel really confident we could steal one or two of those. There's always upsets on both sides, so let's pick up an upset, but we just line up really good with Oklahoma State.”

The Sun Devils and Cowboys haven’t wrestled in 10 years but will face each other regularly once ASU enters into the Big 12 Conference next season.

Told that Oklahoma State leads the series 39-4 and has not lost to ASU at home in 20 tries, Jones said, “that’s terrible; that’s an ass-kickin’. I’m gonna let our kids know that number; that's really good to know.”

The Sun Devils return home Sunday to host Oregon State.

“Their strength is between ‘65 and ‘97 and ours is in our lighter weights,” Jones said. “The more kids we get in the lineup, the easier it gets for us, but right now we're still trying to fight with one arm behind our back. Probably one more week and we should start to get the dogs back in, and I think we start to get full strength in February. That sounds crazy but that’s just how our season has gone.” 

ASU Injury Report

What’s a Sun Devil Insider story without an injury report? Jones said #23 Julian Chlebove, who did not wrestle against Pitt, is probable at 133. Jesse Vasquez is doubtful, but possible, at 141. “He’s really, really close,” Jones said. 

And Tony Negron is questionable at 184.

“We're going to make sure that our kids are healthy when they need to be at the end. And that means we might have to suffer in the dual meets a little bit,” Jones added. “That's what we've been doing and it’s OK. If it was a dual-meet NCAA tournament, we’d look at our lineup differently, but it's not and you gotta be careful with the kids until we can get them out there.”

Here Comes Richie Figs

Highly touted 125-pound sophomore Richie Figueroa has a healthy ankle and a healthy outlook. Ranked #14, he won a major decision at Little Rock and downed #23 Colton Camacho at Pitt. “The confidence was there; that was great to see,” Jones said.

“He had to turn that kid at Pitt to win and I told Richie that that's a sign of a great college wrestler, that you can win different ways. He believes he's better than where (he’s ranked). So that's good; that's working in our favor.”

Century Mark For Parco

All-America Kyle Parco could and most likely will earn his 100th career victory this weekend. He would become the 24th Sun Devil to achieve that feat. 

“Kyle's been an epitome of what this program is about … a super hard worker, loves the sport of wrestling,” Jones said. “Technically, he's getting better every day and is growing in the sport. He’s just really keeping his eye on the prize and understanding he's got to go through the process. He understands that firmly and now it's just execution … he's got to execute.”