Ten Sun Devils spending their summer on Cape Cod. None will hook up with Jessica Biel, unfortunately.

http://thecollegebaseballblog.com/2010/03/18/2010-cape-cod-baseball-league-rosters/

Not even the Coyotes expected to be this good…

http://espn.go.com/nhl/blog/_/name/lebrun_pierre/id/5009580/doan-coyotes-improbable-run-playoffs

Some dreamer with a spelling problem wants the Coyotes back in Quebec. Sacre’ bleu!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/365312-in-a-perfect-world-imposter-coyotes-would-win-cup-then-move-to-quebec

Whaddya know? The national press is starting to recognize what the Coyotes are doing.

http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/story/13079464/coyotes-go-beyond-surprise-into-revelation-territory?tag=globalNav.nhl;cover

Dare I say…destiny?

I’ll be honest. I didn’t watch the Phoenix Coyotes’ 4-3 shootout win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night. I was in the final stages of a vacation, and was taking care of some things around the house.

But I did check the score on my phone, and when I saw that Florida led the Coyotes 3-0 heading into the 3rd period, my thought was “oh well, still a good road trip…they were bound to lose one.”

I didn’t check the score again until much later in the evening after doing important things like watching NCAA Tournament basketball and catching up on American Idol from earlier in the week. (Go ahead, take your shots. I deserve it. AI is horrible this season–nearly unwatchable. But I guess I’m basically a junkie at this point. I know it’s bad for me, but I can’t stop.)

Of course, my further research indicated a 4-3 shootout win over the Panthers, extending the Coyotes’ winning streak to 7 games. More importantly, the Coyotes are within three points of first place in the Western Conference. Yes, you read that right.

Then I watched the highlights on NHL.com. Seeing Radim Vrbata’s game-tying goal, which came on a simple dump into the zone with a minute left in the game as goalie Ilya Bryzgalov skated to the bench brought another thought/word into my head. The word is simply “destiny”.

This season was supposed to be a throwaway. The real victory for this franchise was withstanding all of the off-the-ice drama that unfolded over the summer, and fielding a team in October that still called the Valley home. Hell, they played their first six preseason games basically without a real head coach in place.

Nobody, and I mean nobody thought this team would do anything this season, other than draw sparse crowds in Glendale as they extended their own playoff drought to seven seasons.

Not only will this team make the playoffs, but they can make some noise when they get there.

For the first time in years, the Coyotes were buyers at the NHL trading deadline, and Don Maloney did his best King Midas impersonation with the seven deals he made. Lee Stempniak, picked up from Toronto for next to nothing, and has scored at least a point in every game he’s worn a Coyotes’ sweater. Wojtek Wolski was acquired from Colorado, and has 2 goals and 3 assists as a Coyote. Derek Morris, who was re-acquired from Boston, has shored up the depth on the blueline, and has contributed 2 assists in 7 games while playing over 18 minutes per game. Even 40-year old defenseman Mathieu Schneider, picked up from Vancouver, had 2 assists in last night’s win over the Panthers.

More importantly, the Dogs are 7-0 since the deadline.

On Saturday, the Coyotes play host to the Chicago Blackhawks, one of the teams ahead of them in the Western Conference standings. The game is a sellout, and is probably the Coyotes’ biggest home game since moving to the Valley in 1996.

Could be another vital chapter in what is turning into a fairytale-type story.

An NIT loss to Jacksonville? Really?

Nothing like following up your worst performance of the season, you know, the one that kept you out of the NCAA Tournament, by opening up the NIT with a loss on your home floor to a team who hasn’t had a postseason win in 36 years.

That, in a nutshell, was the plot line for the Arizona State Sun Devils as they were stunned 67-66 by Jacksonville on Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Arena. Jacksonville guard Ben Smith hit a long three-pointer after a Sun Devil turnover with just 1.5 seconds left to give the Dolphins (I bet you didn’t know what their mascot was) the win.

Jacksonville moves on to the second round of the NIT to take on Texas Tech. ASU’s season is over.

Smith, Jacksonville’s leading scorer, was not a factor in the first half, scoring just 3 points on 1 of 8 shooting. But he took over in the second half, scoring 23 points, including 7 in the last 1:12 of the game, in which he also added 2 steals and an assist.

The Sun Devils led by 11 points with just under four minutes to play after Jamelle McMillan hit a layup. From that point, ASU scored only 6 points, all on free throws, but two misses at the charity stripe killed them. McMillan missed the second of two tosses with :20 left that could have put the Devils up by six. Instead, Jacksonville got a layup by Ayron Hardy to cut the lead to 3 with :16 left. McMillan then turned the ball over against full court pressure from Jacksonville, and committed a foul on a layup attempt by Chris Edwards (fouling on a layup up by 3 with under :20 to go?). Edwards hit both free throws to cut the ASU lead to 1 at 65-64.

Edwards then fouled Derek Glasser, the school’s all-time leading free throw shooter, with :08 to go. Glasser could have put the Sun Devils up by 3 with just seconds left, ensuring that overtime would be the worst-case scenario for ASU, but he missed his 2nd free throw attempt. Hardy rebounded, got the ball to Smith who banked in a long three with 1.5 left. Stunned, the Sun Devils turned the ball over on the inbounds pass, ending the game and their season.

“It was a difficult way to lose at the end, and end the season,” ASU head coach Herb Sendek said after the game. “It doesn’t take away from the season our guys had, but you’ve gotta give Jacksonville great credit for making the play at the end.”

Sendek also opined on what did his team in. “We didn’t put it away the right way, there’s no question about it. If we make our free throws, if we convert, if we have a couple better press offensive situations, then we’re not having this conversation.”

McMillan, who finished with 10 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists spoke for the team after the loss. “The last two games have been two of the toughest of my career here. We didn’t take care of business, and as a consequence, we have to deal with this,” he said. “But you have to give a lot of credit to both the Stanford team and Jacksonville for doing what the ultimately came to do.”

The roller coaster of feelings those who follow this team have experienced in the last five days has been amazing. Last Thursday, there was optimism and hope that a win over Stanford in the Pac-10 Tournament would give the Sun Devils’ resume’ the improvement it needed to qualify for the “Big Dance”. After the loss to Stanford, there was embarrassment. After not being selected to the NCAA Tournament there was somewhat of an angry “we’ll show you” type of attitude. And Tuesday night there’s just disbelief that the Sun Devils blew a double-digit lead late in the game against a team they should have disposed of when they had the chance.

STBNL 3/12/10 - ASU’s depressing performance

There’s no other way to put it…ASU soiled the bed in their first round Pac-10 Tournament loss to Stanford. Not only did co-host Travis Johnson take the loss hard, it made him physically sick. Travis joins Luke Lapinski and myself for the Friday edition of The Show To Be Named Later on Fanster.com.

Segment 1 (0:00) - ASU may have strangled its own chances for an NCAA Tournament bid with their worst performance of the season, a 70-61 loss to Stanford on Thursday. We break down the loss, ASU’s nearly invisible chances to make the big dance and then we take solace in the fact that U of A won’t be in the tournament for the first time in a quarter century.

Segment 2 (27:23) - The well-rested Phoenix Suns are back on the court tonight to host Kobe Bryant and the Western Conference-leading Los Angeles Lakers. We talk about the team, and then get into why it’s so hard to be a Suns fan these days.

Segment 3 (52:41) - LEFTOVERS! Here we discuss the Phoenix Coyotes, annoying Canucks’ fans, the potentially crippling news about Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals visiting with free agents, problems at Oregon with the football team, and who was the better Steve Prefontaine on the silver screen, Billy Crudup or Jared Leto? Seriously.

STBNL 3/12/10 - ASU’s depressing performance

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How does Jobing.com Arena stack up?

Do you ever wonder how the arenas in your home city stack up against the sporting venues in other cities around the country (and continent)?

Wonder no more.

A cool website called StadiumJourney.com that rates all sporting venues on different aspects of the fan experience: food & beverage, atmosphere, neighborhood, fans, access, and return on investment (for fans).

Recently, Jeff Summers, a correspondent for StadiumJourney.com was in Glendale for a Coyotes game and soaked in all “The Job” had to offer.

Read his review on StadiumJourney.com here.

Has the bubble burst?

Remember all the talk about how hard it is to beat a team three times in one season?

Turns out it’s true.

Arizona State’s stay at this year’s Pacific Life Pac-10 Tournament in Los Angeles was a brief one. The Sun Devils slogged their way to a 70-61 loss to 7th-seeded Stanford on Thursday night, eliminating them from the tournament, and possibly (probably) costing them an NCAA Tournament bid.

Honestly, this didn’t look like the same Sun Devils’ team we’ve seen for most of the 2009-10 season. They were listless and sloppy, committing 17 turnovers in the game. Their defense was pedestrian, as they allowed Stanford to shoot 54.8% for the game, and a blistering 61% in the second half.

Their top shooters, Ty Abbott, Rihards Kuksiks and Derek Glasser combined to go 14 for 40 (35%) from the floor. They talked about working the ball into senior post Eric Boateng, but he only got 4 shot attempts on the evening, even with Stanford’s bigs, Jack Trotter and Andrew Zimmermann, in foul trouble.

Their bench, outside of Jerren Shipp, did nothing. Freshman Trent Lockett had 5 fouls and 3 turnovers in 8 minutes.

In short, ASU played their worst game of the season on it’s most important night. Many, including some ASU players, thought the Sun Devils needed just one win over Stanford to push them into the field of 64 (65). Glasser was one of them. “I know if we lose on Thursday, we’re not in,” Glasser said on Tuesday.

Now, the Sun Devils are reduced to gathering around their television sets and crossing their fingers that some strange things happen this weekend that afford them an opportunity at the “Big Dance”. It’s more likely they’ll be headed to the red-headed stepchild of college basketball’s postseason, the NIT, for the 2nd time in three seasons.

This morning’s edition of ESPN’s Bubble Watch has Arizona State on the outside looking in after Thursday’s loss, but does point out that the Sun Devils still have a chance because they weren’t the only “bubble team” to lose on Thursday. Memphis, Cincinnati and UAB all suffered losses in their respective conference tourneys, keeping ASU’s door opened just a crack.

Joe Lunardi, Bristol’s top bracketologist now has the Sun Devils listed as the first team out, after being one of the few prognosticators to include the Sun Devils in his bracket for much of the week.

Pac-10 Tournament hasn’t been kind to ASU

The Arizona State Sun Devils enter the 13th annual Pac-10 Tournament in Los Angeles knowing they need at least one win to bolster their resume in an attempt to catch the eye of committee members who will announce the NCAA Tournament field on Sunday.

But the Sun Devils haven’t had the best track record at the Pac-10 Tournament, which started in 1987 and took place for the next four years, before going on hiatus until 2002.

In fact, before last year’s run to the championship game, ASU was just 3-10 all-time in the Pac-10 Tournament, and two of those wins came in 1990, when the tourney was held on their home floor in Tempe. In the second incarnation of the tournament, the Sun Devils were 0-6 before last season.

This year, the Devils are the #2 seed, their highest ever in the Pac-10 Tournament. Their prior high seed was a #4, which happened twice–in 2003 when ASU was knocked off in their first game by Oregon, who went on to win the crown, and last year, when the Devils squandered a 15-point halftime lead in the championship game in a loss to USC.

The number two seed has done very well historically in the tournament, notching a 19-9 record overall, and three times has won the championship (Arizona in 1990 and 2002, and Washington in 2005).