First off, let’s explain what’s going on here. I told you guys I was sticking around for a weekly column on Pitchfork Nation. I keep my promises. If this space on Monday’s resembles Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback in any way, it’s because it does.

Every “Monday Devil Blast” will include a larger column on one topic, a spotlight on the top Arizona State performer of the week, five quick hits on what else is going on in Sun Devil land, a meandering non-Sun Devil thought and then a weekly schedule so you can keep up on what’s going on with ASU.

Without further ado…

Pac-10 Futility Is Perfect Opportunity for ASU

There’s simply no precedent for what we’re currently observing during the 2009-10 Pacific-10 men’s basketball season.

Well, that’s a lie. Last season, we all sat in the same place we are now talking about how bad the SEC was and debating whether or not that league deserved more than just its automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

Once the bracket was released, three teams from the woeful league (Tennessee, Mississippi State and LSU) qualified. The Tigers were the highest seeded team in the dance with an 8 seed in the Midwest Region while Rick Stansbury’s Bulldogs only got in because of their stunning run through the conference tournament.

The pundits have been quick to jump all over The West Coast’s Premier Athletic Conference ™ this season and with due cause. Let’s face it: the 10 teams in this league have combined to lose to or have close shaves with the likes of Lipscomb, Portland, Montana, Idaho State, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Sacramento State, UIC, Seattle, Oral Roberts, James Madison, CS-Fullerton, CS-Bakersfield, Long Beach State, Wright State, Eastern Washington and Nicholls State.

That’s not quite the laundry list of stellar basketball programs. And, judging by that this week’s version of Bracketology from Joe Lunardi has two Pac-10 teams in it for the first time since the preseason, no one respects the Pac-10. And rightfully so.

As cheap as it may sound on the surface, this is the perfect time for our Sun Devils to strike.

Sure, winning the Pac-10 this season and earning the league’s automatic bid to the 2010 NCAA Tournament may be an equal accomplishment to being the skinniest kid at fat camp, but let’s really think about the history of this program over the past two decades for a moment.

2008-09 was the first time ASU even competed legitimately for a conference title in the Pac-10 Tournament era, one that dates back to the late 80’s, when the postseason became an every-year event.

Now, in the midst of a four-game conference winning streak and on a collision course with the possibility of an unprecedented 6^th straight win overall against the Arizona Wildcats this Saturday, the proverbial iron is hot to be struck in Tempe.

To call this season strange would be an understatement. We’ve already seen the projected top two teams in the conference, California and Washington, tumble like dominos and expose serious flaws in their game; for Cal, a startling lack of size and, for Washington, startling inconsistency from the field. As a loyal reader of PFN pointed out to me a few days ago, this is the kind of season which makes looking at the scoreboard on Thursdays and Saturdays more fun than ever because you don’t authoritatively know who is going to win on a night-to-night basis.

Because of this jumble, the Pac-10 standings after three weeks of conference play read out like no one would ever expect in a REGULAR season – ASU on top, trailed by a half game by California and postseason-ineligible USC and a full game by traditional powers Washington and Arizona. Ernie Kent’s job is back on the hot seat in Eugene, Oregon State has taken a major step back from last year’s resurgence, Stanford is…well…as expected and UCLA is…well…not as expected.

This unpredictability is what will make this year’s Pac-10 champion the least respected title holder amongst college basketball’s power conferences.

This shouldn’t bother Herb Sendek’s Sun Devils, whose program already ranks among the least respected in the conference despite going 60-28 since Sendek’s first year in Tempe and back-to-back postseason appearances.

The general consensus from the national media was that despite several advances in recruiting and quality of play since Sendek’s hiring in 2006, this would be a step-back season in Tempe due to the losses of Jeff Pendergraph and James Harden from last year’s 2^nd-round team.

So, let’s put two and two together. In a conference that everyone knew would be down, wouldn’t it be so appropriate for a team everyone expected to be down anyway to rise up and win the whole thing?

I think that would garner this program, the seniors like Derek Glasser and Eric Boateng, role players like Ty Abbott and Rihards Kuksiks and the young contributors like Trent Lockett, even more respect in some circles than one would think.

No one outside the Pac-10 truly knows how much those guys contributed to last year’s run to the Pac-10 title game and 2^nd round of the NCAA Tournament. They saw the stories of James Harden’s lottery potential and what Jeff Pendergraph did to help resurrect this program from dormancy.

Now, if this team could rise to the top of a weak class and seize even more momentum, the building truly can continue. Despite the overall weakness of the league, you don’t have to put an asterisk on a Pac-10 Championship banner. A maroon-and-gold flag will not read 2009-10 Pac-10 Men’s Basketball Champions*.

Now is the time to step forward and seize this opportunity. “Carpe the rock”, if you will.

The fact is that Sean Miller won’t let Arizona stay down for much longer, Washington will restock, Cal will remain consistent and USC may continue to improve. It’s Arizona State’s time to keep pace. The point-shaving scandal ended any hope of that after the 1995 team went to the Sweet 16 and the 2003 Sun Devils never capitalized on the talents of Ike Diogu.

Winning the Pac-10, even in a down season, would go a long way in continuing to build this program.

Sun Devil of the Week

Everyone has been well focused on Ty Abbott and his surprising exploits during this four-game winning streak, but someone has to speak up for the run that women’s basketball senior Danielle Orsillo has been on over the past three games for Arizona State.

After losing their first three in Pac-10 play, Orsillo has seized the reins of Charli Turner Thorne’s team and has steered them back onto the tracks.

In a weekend sweep of the Oregon schools, Orsillo scored 17 and 20 respectively against the Ducks and Beavers, while her defense against Oregon last Thursday helped limit Oregon’s powerful offense to their 2^nd lowest point total of the season.

Against the Beavers, while the Devils sputtered against the league’s worst team, the senior scored 13 of her 20 in the first half, including hitting three of the Devils final four buckets while they held off the scrappy but outmatched Beavers.

Much can be said about Orsillo’s tenacity and toughness over her years in Tempe and her leadership is definitely going to be a key as the Devils try to overcome an uncharacteristic 3-3 conference start.

Five Things To Stew About

1) Forgive me if I’m not running around with a lamp shade on my head celebrating QB Taylor Kelly’s commitment to Arizona State over the weekend. This isn’t based on the fact that he’s only a 2-star recruit, based on Rivals, since most of you know I only trust recruiting services as far as I can throw them. However, with the logjam Dennis Erickson and new offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone each face in 2010 under center, Kelly will not even be a factor until at least 2011, once Samson Szakacsy and Steven Threet are seniors. Hopefully by then, the Sun Devils will have turned to one of them or Brock Osweiler as a full-time starter. I also thoroughly hope that Kelly, a 17-year-old from Idaho, doesn’t hope to pursue Jake Plummer’s footsteps after he leaves Arizona State because…we all know how that turned out.

2) Some people have called Arizona State’s performance against the USC Trojans a few weeks ago the lowest point of Herb Sendek’s tenure in Tempe. However, the more that I’ve watched the Sun Devils as they’ve rebounded from that loss at the Galen Center, the more I think it’s an aberration rather than an indication of what this team really is. Mind you, it was an absolutely pathetic shooting night, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that that game was a match-up of the nation’s two best scoring defenses. I’m not making excuses for the Devils; shooting 24.4% for a game and scoring 37 points is unacceptable even against the best teams in the Pac-10; but after the last four games in which the Sun Devils have only given up an average of 51.6 points in their past five games (including the USC game), I think it goes to show that even when the Devils play their usual defense and have a mediocre shooting night, they’re going to win a bunch of basketball games.

3) Lane Kiffin’s ridiculous (really…I can’t think of a better word to describe it) hiring at USC, coupled with Pete Carroll’s less-than-surprising departure, certainly signals a shift not just in coaching power in the Pac-10 for 2010. The debacle over Carroll’s departure after nine seasons led to an exodus of a tremendous amount of talent from Troy. Also, don’t think that Norm Chow’s decision to decline a position in Kiffin’s new coaching staff isn’t a signal that there’s a definite and giant chink in the armor at Southern California. Even after losing four games, the knee-jerk reaction after the Rose Bowl was to automatically think that the Trojans would rise again and challenge for a BCS big even after an 8-4 season and an unprecedented two losses at home. However, beyond Oregon still being the clear class of the conference and Oregon State being a definite #2, the 2^nd-tier bowls and 3^rd place in the conference is clearly up for grabs between USC, Arizona State, Stanford and possibly California.

4) Near the end of Rob Evans’ tenure in Tempe, which came to a merciful close in 2006, I don’t think a single person surrounding that program would think the Sun Devils would ever sweep a season series from rival Arizona, let alone do it in back-to-back years AND snatch a game from them at the Pac-10 Tournament. Yet, here we sit with five straight wins over the Wildcats and a more than good chance at a 6^th coming up on Saturday in Tempe. This statement isn’t any more insightful as it seems…it’s just an opportunity to ask you where you were on February 25, 2007, which was the last time Arizona beat Arizona State. It still blows your mind.

5) It has been all quiet on the Western Front over the past month or so when it comes to ASU baseball and the Pat Murphy fiasco, so here’s something to break the monotony: Tim Esmay’s hiring of former Sun Devil and MLB shortstop Mike Benjamin as a volunteer assistant coach should make longtime program supporters happy. Still, as the season opener with Northern Illinois approaches exactly one month from now, I still feel like there’s unfinished business when it comes to Sun Devil baseball and it’s casting a slight pall on what usually is my favorite time of the year.

Meandering non-Sun Devil Thought of the Week

Since newspapers began migrating toward the internet in the mid-90’s, publishers have been trying to find a way to monetize their interactive product.

A decade and a half later, they’ve yet to cross that precipice and they aren’t going to do so anytime soon.

In Phoenix, monetary woes have forced the East Valley Tribune to bankruptcy and the brink of closure and the shuttering of the Tucson Citizen while the shadow of layoffs and downsizing has continued to hover over the Arizona Republic.

Meanwhile, you’ve clicked around on AZCentral.com pretty much every day to get great Sun Devil and Valley sports coverage from the likes of Jeff Metcalfe, Doug Haller and the rest of that crew for the same price you pay to come to Pitchfork Nation.

Newspapers across the country have tried to make money off of their internet product for years and each time they have failed. Now, though, the undisputed heavyweight champion of newspapering is going to try its hand at establishing a paywall.

The New York Times, in a few weeks, will announce that they will start charging users for accessing their content on NYTimes.com. The Times tried to do this on a smaller scale a few years ago with some premium content from their columnists and it failed miserably.

This is a watershed moment for the newspaper business as it continues to adapt to the emerging world of digital content; a world in which almost everything can be found at no cost. If the New York Times figures out a way to retain a solid online subscriber base to obtain their content, it will be the start of the business model across the industry that may actually work.

If an operation as large and prestigious as the Times can’t make this work, though, I severely doubt monetizing online content will ever happen.

This Week in Tempe

January 22
Women’s Tennis vs. UC Santa Barbara, 1:30 PM at Whiteman Tennis Center
Wrestling vs. Nebraska, 8:00 PM at Wells Fargo Arena
Swimming & Diving at California
Track & Field at the Friday Night Challenge in Flagstaff

January 23
Women’s Tennis vs. UC Davis, Noon at Whiteman Tennis Center
Men’s Basketball vs. Arizona, 7:30 PM at Wells Fargo Arena
Swimming & Diving at Stanford

January 24
Women’s Gymnastics vs. Arizona, 2:00 PM at Wells Fargo Arena
Wrestling at Embry-Riddle, 3:00 PM in Prescott, AZ
Women’s Basketball at Arizona, 4:00 PM at McKale Center