Abbott To Return Tomorrow

After a few weeks of nervousness over just how much time Ty Abbott would miss to start the 2009-10 season, we have our answer.

One game.

Abbott, who had surgery 3 1/2 weeks ago to clean up some knee issues, told Doug Haller today that he’ll play in tomorrow night’s Preseason NIT game against Texas State.

The Sun Devils won their only game without Abbott last Friday over Western Illinois 87-35.

Abbott won’t start but he’ll get playing time, according to Abbott via Haller. Jerren Shipp got the start last week against the Leathernecks and I imagine he’ll do so again tomorrow with Abbott coming off the bench.

The biggest impact Abbott’s return will have will be on the defensive end. Despite his inconsistent streaky ridiculously all-over-the-map shooting, Ty settled into a role of being Herb Sendek’s go-to perimeter defender down the stretch last season.

They’ll need that with a potential Tuesday night game with pesky TCU or strong-shooting CS-Northridge and the chance for a trip to Madison Square Garden on the horizon if the Sun Devils can win tomorrow and Tuesday night.

On an aside, you might be wondering why we didn’t have a game recap on the aforementioned ASU/Western Illinois blowout. Two reasons:

1) It would be a waste of your time and mine to do up a response to a 52-point victory over a team that will most likely be one of the 25 worst in America. While I did like Demetrius Walker’s stat line off the bench and Jamelle McMillan nailing four straight three-pointers, we all know you can’t glean too much off a what was nothing more than an exhibition which counted in the standings.

2) I didn’t actually watch it. I value the trust you loyal readers put in me to bring you solid, accurate analysis and I can’t nor won’t do it when I didn’t see or listen to the game. ASU/Texas State and the potential Tuesday NIT quarterfinal are afoot, though, and we’ll be sure to look at both of those.

We’ll take a look at each team in the Arizona State bracket in this year’s Preseason NIT (Texas State, TCU and CS-Northridge) tomorrow in a special “Let’s Learn About” edition.

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