A day after being named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year, Arizona State’s Herb Sendek held his weekly chat with local media in Tempe.
There’s a lot of questions up in the air as the 2nd-seeded Sun Devils prepare for their first round game Thursday night against 7th-seeded Stanford, a team they’ve already beaten twice this season.
Among those questions:
How difficult is it to beat a team three times in one season?
Does he expect the Cardinal to key on Eric Boateng, who burned Stanford for a career high 24 points just two weeks ago?
Will beating Stanford and getting a 23rd win ensure the Sun Devils will make the NCAA Tournament?
Has he ever coached in a conference tournament as wide open as this year’s Pac-10 affair?
Back on January 30, ASU led from start to finish against Stanford in their first meeting in Tempe, and built a 37-point margin at one point of the first half. The Cardinal fought back and got the lead down to 12 points with under four minutes to play, but ASU held on for an 88-70 win. Ty Abbott scored a season-high 29 points (22 in the first half) and made his first six three-point attempts–all in the first 10 minutes of the ball game.
Two weeks ago in Palo Alto, it Stanford’s Drew Shiller was the hot shooter early in the game. Shiller canned three treys and a layup as the Cardinal built an early 9-point bulge. But ASU fought back this time behind senior center Eric Boateng, who made all 11 of his field goal attempts, and finished with 24 points and 6 rebounds in ASU’s 68-60 win.
The Sun Devils and Cardinal take the court at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Thursday night at 7:10 p.m. Arizona time. The winner will take on the winner of the Washington-Oregon State game that follows on Thursday night.
ASU Head Coach Herb Sendek previews the Pac-10 Tournament
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An Honor Most Deserved - Sendek is the Coach of the Year
I can tell you exactly where I was on April1, 2006.
It was, as usual, a bright, sunny day in Tempe. I was at my old rental house on Balboa Drive with two of my roommates enjoying a lazy Saturday. It was halftime between the Florida Gators and George Mason Patriots at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, where the eventual national champions led the spunky 11-seed from Virginia 31-26.
In the larger picture, the Arizona State Sun Devils were about three weeks removed from the firing of head coach Rob Evans after yet another unremarkable season. Lisa Love was just under a year into her tenure at ASU and had yet to make a move such as this, so we were all a little curious as to what direction she’d take in the hiring of the new bench boss at Wells Fargo Arena.
The rumors during those 20 days got a little bit out of control. At one point, Jamie Dixon was supposedly on a plane from Pittsburgh to Phoenix to accept the job. Then there was the outrageously overhyped non-interest the Sun Devils had with Bobby Knight. Some of the stuff being tossed about was unbelievable, if not downright ridiculous.
Back to that April Fool’s Day. I had just walked into my kitchen to make lunch when the studio crew mentioned that Seth Davis had breaking news to share. My ears perked up, like any good student journalist’s or those of any college basketball fan should at the time. I reached up into the cabinet to grab a plate to put my food on, which I assume at the time, considering my eating habits as a college junior, was a Hot Pocket.
“Sources are now confirming to me right now that N.C. State head coach Herb Sendek will be leaving Raleigh to take the vacant position at Arizona State,” Davis said.
R.I.P., Plate, 2004-2006. We hardly got to know each other before the thing shattered on the tile floor.
The floodgates were open. Arizona State, if the Davis report was true, had just scored one of the biggest coups in college basketball, stealing a coach from the ACC who had worn out his welcome in North Carolina, fairly or unfairly as it had been.
Oh, how little we knew about what Sendek would do to this program in four short years, which culminated (again) yesterday when Unkie Herb was named the 2010 Pac-10 Coach of the Year.
There are two moments that stick in my craw as the one where I knew Sendek, despite the cries from critics at N.C. State that he’d never lead us to anything significant, would be the guy to take the program from stagnation to prominence.
The first happened seven months after the plate-shattering incident in the media room underneath WFA. That week represented the end and the beginning of two ASU coaching careers - at the time, my longtime friend and colleague Sam Eshelman and I were hosting the Sun Devil Power Hour on The Fan AM 1060. That week, we had one-on-one interviews established with both Sendek and Dirk Koetter.
Koetter’s interview came first. It came just after that horrid 24-12 home loss to UCLA. We were talking to who we all assumed was a defeated man who wouldn’t be back for 2007. Koetter was combative yet sullen throughout the entire interview.
The next day, we sat down with Sendek after one of his last practices before the Sun Devils’ season opener with Northern Arizona. What we didn’t get from Dirk was exactly what we got from Herb - optimism, enthusiasm and drive.
Within two minutes of talking to him, I got the feeling that even if 2006-07 was a down year for ASU (and, at 8-22, it certainly was), Herb already had the mindset to put this team on the map. He frequently talked about doing things the right way: building through recruiting, coaching up the players who were still in the system and, most importantly, turning Wells Fargo Arena into a real home court advantage.
I fell in man love immediately. I won’t even lie. I walked away from that interview and told Sam, “This is the guy. People are going to LOVE Herb Sendek.”
I like when I’m right.
The other moment that I knew Herb Sendek was taking this program in the right direction was with 13:16 left in what ended up being a 66-61 loss to Washington on February 1, 2007, dropping the Devils to 0-10 in conference play. At that point in the game, Antwi Atuahene took a loose ball foul, a horrid call on all accounts. It was a hustle play that led to incidental contact.
Sendek flipped out. Referee Michael Reed gave Sendek a technical foul. The crowd, 7,164 strong, went absolutely wild. Instead of retreating to the sideline, Herb incited them. He waved his arms around wildly, getting an already incensed crowd whipped into an all-out frenzy.
Reed gave him a second technical foul and ejected Herb from the game. The partisan Sun Devil crowd was now at full throat. The referee said after the game that he had kicked Sendek out for “violating rule 1096: inciting an undesirable response from the crowd after he had been asked not to do that.”
Too bad Sendek didn’t stop. Herb slowly made his way down the short walk from the Sun Devil bench to the tunnel, spinning around in his wing tips, slinging his arms in the air, like the kids say, as if he just didn’t care.
The clip became a YouTube phenomenon and was even played on the Jumbotron at WFA to pump the crowd up through the rest of the year. That was game, set and match. Sendek was here to stay and things in Tempe weren’t going to be the same.
Flash forward through the next three seasons of multiple wins against Arizona in Tempe AND Tucson, a run to the NIT Quarterfinals in just his second year, the program’s first appearance in the Pac-10 championship and a second round appearance in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years.
This year, though, the expectations were down. The Sporting News even ranked the Sun Devils 9th in their preseason magazine. And who could blame them? All ASU did was lose James Harden, their superstar, and Jeff Pendergraph, their vocal and emotional leader for four years, to the NBA Draft.
Too bad for the rest of the Pacific-10 Conference that it’s not Sendek’s M.O. to roll over when the odds are against him. If that were the case, he would have never taken the job at Arizona State in the first place.
Instead, Sendek seized a down year in the conference to coach up players like Ty Abbott, Eric Boateng, Rihards Kuksiks, integrate freshmen like Trent Lockett and lean on the guy who has been with him since the start, Derek Glasser, to 22 wins and the highest finish for ASU in the Pac-10 since 1981.
Think about that for a second. The year after the best season for Arizona State in decades, Sendek one-upped himself.
I’m not thinking about this honor as just a coach of the year recognition. For those of us in Tempe, Herb Sendek taking home this award in 2010 is more of a career achievement award than anything else.
The best part is that it’s nowhere close to over.
Five Things to Stew About
1 - Amidst the excitement of Herb Sendek being named Coach of the Year is the fact that Ty Abbott was selected to the Pac-10’s 1st team and Trent Lockett is a member of the conference All-Freshman team. For Abbott the honor is a culmination of a season which saw Ty transition from one of the most maddeningly inconsistent players in years at Arizona State into one of the most dynamic and indispensible players in this rotation. As for Lockett, he had to come into Tempe for his freshman season in the shadow of the potential star of local standout Demetrius Walker and did so with flying colors. His play early in the non-conference season helped ASU keep their heads above water against stiff competition and earned his way into the starting lineup once conference play rolled around.
2 - If you aren’t already, you should be glued to the remaining mid-major conference tournaments going on throughout college basketball this week. As you all know, the Sun Devils sit squarely on the bubble and precariously on the edge of most analyst’s “Last Four In/First Four Out” lists. Luckily for ASU and other bubble teams, though, most of those conference tourneys have gone the way of the favorites and keeping at-large berths open for power conference teams who are trying to sneak in. Just over the weekend, teams like Wichita State, Virginia Commonwealth, Fairfield and William & Mary all did their due and lost conference title games to mid-major teams that would most likely garner an at-large bid to the Big Dance even if they lost their conference title game. Now, as most of you know, I’m as big an advocate for small-conference basketball as anyone, but with a potential at-large berth for the Devils on the line with each of those games, I say GO FAVORITES! Some of you might be worried that Saint Mary’s win over Gonzaga last night in the WCC final might affect the bubble. It won’t; both teams were in regardless of the outcome last night. Another one is taking place tonight as Butler takes on Wright State the Horizon League final. Butler is in with or without a win tonight, but Wright State isn’t. We’ll be also interested to keep a keen eye on the Atlantic 10 tournament as well. I’ll be Tweeting pertinent information about games across the nation with impact on Arizona State and other bubble teams throughout the week. Look for the #bubblewatch hashtag.
3 - If former Florida Gators superstar quarterback Tim Tebow finds any success in the NFL as a signal caller, he might have Arizona State to thank in part. As the two-time national champion gets ready for his Pro Day and the NFL Draft in April, Tebow has been working with several coaches on his mechanics and skill set to try and transform himself into a more prototypical NFL-style quarterback. One of the coaches he has been working with, according to ESPN, is Sun Devils offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone. Mazzone’s pedigree for coaching up college talent to succeed at the next level includes former NC State Wolfpack star and current San Diego Chargers starter Philip Rivers. Rivers, if you remember, also had to go through some minor mechanical changes to his game before entering the 2004 draft. So, if Tebow defies the odds and becomes a solid NFL passer, would it be so much to ask to mix a little pitchfork in with his gator chomps?
4 - It’s a little bit of an odd feeling, going into the start of this week’s Pac-10 Women’s Tournament, knowing that Arizona State probably will need to win the entire thing to ensure a berth in the NCAA Tournament. But, when the Devils tip off with California in the 4/5 game at noon on Friday at the Galen Center, that will be the case. Regardless, we should be paying special attention to this team for one reason other than winning and losing - the careers of Danielle Orsillo, Dymond Simon, Gabby Fage and Kayli Murphy will be coming to an end soon enough. It wasn’t the most overwhelming of recruiting classes over the course of Charli Turner-Thorne’s career, but I don’t think there’s been a class of better people or hungrier athletes than this one. In this case, focusing specifically on Orsillo, she’ll be a player that will be irreplaceable. Between her being tough as nails attitude and overwhelming enthusiasm on and off the court, Orsillo will be someone who’s truly missed around these parts. To continue this column’s trail of reminiscing, the night Arizona State got bounced from the 2007 NCAA Tournament in the Elite Eight, the team flew home and arrived in Tempe around 2:00 AM. A gang of about five of us rabid Sun Devil fans descended on a remote corner of Sky Harbor International Airport to give the ladies a rousing welcome home. The day after, both Orsillo and Reagan Pariseau passed along notes about how much they appreciated being welcomed home like that. Neither had to go out of their way to say thank you, but I think it speaks volumes about their characters to do so.
5 - Don’t look now, but ASU women’s water polo is making a move. The Devils won their sixth straight game on Sunday in a 17-6 drubbing of top-ranked Pomona-Pitzer in a game in which eleven different players on the team notched a tally. Arizona State sits at #6 in the nation heading into their conference opener with UCLA on March 13.
Sun Devil of the Week
Paging Eric Boateng to the floor. I want to know if Boat has been holding out on us for his entire career, because his epic 16 point/14 rebound/4 block Senior Day performance against UCLA was one of the finest days of basketball I’ve ever seen.
I constantly had to make sure I wasn’t watching old tape of Ike Diogu or Jeff Pendergraph. Once I finally accepted that it was Eric, I couldn’t get my jaw off the ground. I implore Boateng not to stop - we need that kind of intensity come Thursday in Los Angeles.
That’s certainly the case when it comes to Arizona State Baseball. Tim Esmay’s Sun Devils are 11 games into the 2010 season and they’ve yet to taste defeat. Even after a weekend of playing top notch competition in the 8th Annual Coca-Cola College Baseball Classic in Surprise.
Over the weekend, the Sun Devils outslugged a game Cal Poly squad 12-9, rallied to beat national powerhouse Oregon State 6-4, obliterated UC Riverside 16-2 and fought off the rain and Florida International 4-1 in 7 innings.
Of the five major Top 25 polls for college baseball, four of them are pretty much in line with ASU’s talent level, their results and the level of their competition so far this season.
Rivals.com has the Sun Devils ranked #6 in their latest poll released earlier on Monday. The Sun Devils are ranked 3rd in the latest USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll and the National College Baseball Writers of America Poll, while coming in at #2 in Collegiate Baseball’s Top 25.
And then there’s Baseball America. That fine publication has the Sun Devils ranked 11th in the nation. Huh?
I know, I know. It’s early in the season, and there’s a lot of baseball to be played before the College World Series in Omaha, but you have to wonder what is going through their heads?
College Baseball Top 25 Polls (as of March 8, 2010)
The Arizona State Sun Devils closed out the 2009-2010 regular season in style on Saturday, jumping out to a 13-0 lead and never trailing in a 56-46 win over the UCLA Bruins on Senior Day at Wells Fargo Arena.
The win was the 22nd of the season for Herb Sendek’s Sun Devils, and their 12th conference win, giving them sole possession of 2nd place in the Pac-10. Normally speaking 22 wins would get any Pac-10 team in the field of 65 of the NCAA Tournament. Not this year.
People all over Pitchfork Nation are asking the question, “have the Sun Devils done enough to earn their 2nd straight tournament bid?”
History says yes. Bracketologists say no.
Let’s start with the historical side of things. Since the Pac-10 expanded in 1978, adding Arizona State and that other institution located 90 minutes southeast of Tempe into the mix, a team has won at least 12 conference games 88 times. In 83 of those occasions (or 94.3% of the time), those teams received a bid to the Big Dance. Never has a team with at least 12 wins in the Pac-10 and 22 regular season wins been denied a chance to play for a national championship. Let me repeat…never.
Now let’s hear what the “bracketologists” have to say on the matter. Mark Schlabach of ESPN says the Sun Devils need to win at least 2 games at this week’s Pac-10 Tournament in Los Angeles to even have a chance to hear their name called on selection Sunday. Huh? So winning 67% of your games in a conference over a two-and-a-half month period isn’t enough because the conference is in a “down year”, but beating two of those same teams on a neutral court in a tournament designed primarily for money making purposes somehow bolsters the resume’?
Up until this morning, Joe Lunardi of ESPN didn’t have ASU in the field of 65, but apparently he got hit by a bolt of lightning on Monday, and currently has ASU in the Big Dance, as one of the last four teams into the tourney. And Lunardi’s the only one that has ASU in. My colleague, Greg Esposito’s Monday morning research showed that ASU is not in the current field of 65 in projections by CollegeRPI.com, Sporting News Today, ESPN Bubble Watch, SI.com Bubble Watch, and Fox Sports among others.
So now Pitchfork Nation has to be asking another question…”what did ASU do to piss off everyone with any insight on the NCAA Tournament?”
Yes, it’s a down year in the Pac-10. That’s not ASU’s fault. They played the teams on their schedule and beat 22 out of those 31 opponents. I realize ASU lacks a high RPI number. As of this morning, the Devils are #52 in the RPI Rankings. No it’s not sexy–but it’s still higher than the RPIs of UConn and Notre Dame!!!
In each of the last three NCAA Tournaments, the team with the lowest RPI to make the field came from the Pac-10. Last year, Arizona, with 19 regular season wins and an RPI of 62 got into the tournament. In 2008, the Oregon Ducks, who had 18 regular season wins got in with an RPI of 58. And in 2007, Stanford was 18-12 with a low RPI of 62 and was one of the 65 teams announced on selection Sunday.
By the way, all three of those teams, who would seemingly need wins in the Pac-10 Tournament to help their case, lost their opening games in Los Angeles.
I know each year is a different situation, but come on! Twenty-two wins and a 2nd place finish in a major conference has been good enough every other year. So why is it even a question this season?
After a lost weekend in the Bay Area in which he scored 4 points total in two games, ASU junior Rihards Kuksiks showed up at the right time for the Arizona State Sun Devils.
The Latvian sharpshooter scored 24 points in leading the Sun Devils to a crucial 59-54 over the USC Trojans which keeps the hope alive for ASU to grab a share of their first-ever regular season Pac-10 championship, and helps their case for an NCAA Tournament bid.
Kuksiks was 8 for 13 from the field, 6 for 9 from three-point range, and made two crucial free throws with :15 left that put the Sun Devils up by three. It was the biggest offensive output for Kuksiks since scoring 25 in a win at Oregon on January 14th.
Kuksiks didn’t have any huge explanation for his renewed shooting touch. “They found me, so I made my shots,” he said following the game.
He also kind of explained his recent shooting slump, which included a 1 for 12 stretch against Stanford and Cal last weekend. “I’m just coming back, I was somewhere else for a couple of games.”
ASU head coach Herb Sendek applauded Kuksiks’ effort. “Rik played a great game for us tonight,” Sendek said. “I think it really started with him making a great effort to move without the ball, and his teammates did a terrific job screening for him and hitting him when he was open.”
Kuksiks also added 5 rebounds and 3 steals for the Sun Devils, who pushed their record to 21-9, and 11-6 in the Pac-10. If ASU can beat UCLA on Saturday in Tempe, and Stanford knocks off California in Palo Alto, the Devils can grab a share of the regular season conference crown. Although by virtue of their two losses to Cal, ASU would still be the number two seed in next week’s Pac-10 Tournament in Los Angeles.
NOTES
ASU made 11 three point field goals on the night, and just 6 two point shots. Four of those were layups/dunks and two of them were jump shots.
Derek Glasser’s free throw with :41 remaining gave him 1,000 points for his ASU career. He is the 32nd player in ASU basketball history to reach that plateau. Eddie House is still ASU’s all-time leading scorer with 2,044 points during his career that spanned from 1996 to 2000.
Basketball fans in Tempe will get their last look at the Sun Devils’ senior class this weekend as ASU, needing wins to help their NCAA Tournament case, will host USC and UCLA tonight and Saturday in Tempe.
It’s interesting too, when you consider how different the careers of Boateng, Glasser and Shipp have been.
Glasser only ended up at ASU when senior-to-be Kevin Kruger took advantage of a new NCAA rule that allowed him to transfer without sitting out a season. He ended up at UNLV and played for his father, Lon, leading the Runnin’ Rebels to a Sweet Sixteen appearance in the NCAA Tourment. Glasser was set to walk-on at USC, when Kruger left, opening up a spot and a deep need for a point guard in Tempe.
Glasser struggled mightily his freshman year, and so did the Sun Devils. In a piece published earlier this week on SI.com, Sun Devil coach harkened back to a game at Xavier where he didnt’ think Glasser was able to bring the ball up the court. Glasser played just 5 minutes in that road loss, registering one statistic on the sheet–a turnover. Predictably, with a new coach and a slew of new players, the Sun Devils finished the 2006-07 season at 8-22, going just 2-16 in the Pac-10.
But Glasser perservered. He started 19 of 34 games as a sophomore, and became the full-time starter at the point as a junior, when the Sun Devils won 25 games and advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Syracuse.
He’ll leave Tempe as ASU’s all-time leader in assists, a mark he set earlier this season in a win over UC Santa Barbara. Not bad for a guy who was nearly a walk-on at another Pac-10 school, huh?
“It think it (the program) is in a much better place than when I first got here. I think Coach Sendek’s done a phenomenal job of changing the culture of the program,” Glasser said earlier this week.
So, does Glasser ever think about what his life would have been like if he had ended up in Los Angeles? I asked him that question during Tuesday’s weekly press conference. His answer was a definitive ‘no’.
Jerren Shipp’s career in Tempe has been, with all due respect, a strange one. As a freshman in 2006-07, Shipp scored 23 points in his first collegiate game, a loss to Northern Arizona. He played 39 minutes in that game, and ended up that season playing the second most minutes on the team. A sign of great things to come, right? Not exactly. Shipp’s playing time has dwindled steadily in the last three seasons. In fact, even as a senior he’s had three ‘DNPs’. He’s never scored as many points in a single game as he did in his college debut.
Shipp admitted earlier this week that he thought about transferring. “It crossed my mind, but I never wanted to quit on the program. I’ve been through a lot with these guys, and I didn’t want to leave them or the team because my individual stuff wasn’t going right,” Shipp said.
And the Sun Devils are glad Shipp didn’t quit. He’s playing arguably his best basketball as a Devil. Shipp’s fingerprints were all over ASU’s win over Arizona last month, when he scored 8 huge points in a key stretch of the second half. He was easily the best player on the floor for Arizona State in last Saturday’s disappointing loss to Cal in Berkeley.
For his efforts and perseverance, Shipp will be in the starting lineup on Senior Day Saturday. It will be just his 3rd start of the year, and only his 4th in the last two seasons.
Boateng may have had the most interesting journey of all the Sun Devil seniors. As a McDonald’s All-American, Boateng landed at Duke, where he played sparingly (just 50 minutes) as a freshman on a team that featured three future NBA players (J.J. Redick, Shelden Williams and Josh McRoberts). He transferred to ASU and sat out the year required by the NCAA. But then he ended up sitting almost two full seasons playing behind former Sun Devil Jeff Pendergraph. Boateng averaged just under 10 minutes a game as a sophomore and junior. He’s struggled at times, he’s been the butt of jokes among ASU fans for his unorthodox playing style, but he just keeps plugging along.
Evidence of that was his night last Thursday at Stanford when he scored a career-high 24 points on 11 of 11 shooting from the field in leading the Sun Devils to an important 68-60 win over the Cardinal.
A lot of times, Senior Day at a particular institution is the highlight of the afternoon. Either a team’s postseason future has already been determined, or they’re just playing out the string, and Senior Day is one more chance for the home crowd and the student’s to tip their cap to the outgoing players one last time.
That’s not the case for Arizona State. Saturday’s game against UCLA is enormous if these seniors want to end their careers on college basketball’s biggest stage. Yes, it is the end for their careers in Tempe. But it also could be just the beginning for one last meaningful run in the postseason too.
The National Football League’s annual Scouting Combine has come to an end. I know, now what will pigskin addicts watch? Hockey? Not likely. Spring Training baseball? Nah. College basketball? Never.
Well, anyway, there was a strong contingent of Arizona State Sun Devils on hand in Indianapolis, showing their wares to those interested in attendance.
Defensive end Dexter Davis, linebacker Travis Goethel, offensive lineman Shawn Lauvao, and receivers Chris McGaha and Kyle Williams all attended the Combine, and none of them did anything to hurt their status for the NFL Draft, which begins on April 22nd.
Let’s see what they did:
Dexter Davis
Out of 66 defensive lineman invited to the 2010 NFL Combine:
–Davis recorded the fastest 40-yard dash time (4.64)
–Davis recorded the 7th-best 3-Cone Drill time (7.08)
–Davis recorded the 8th-best 20-Yard Shuttle (4.30)
Travis Goethel
Out of 36 linebackers invited to the 2010 NFL Combine:
–Goethel recorded the 7th-best 3-Cone Drill time (6.93)
–Goethel ran the 40-yard dash in 4.70 seconds, just missing the top ten at his position
Shawn Lauvao
Out of 47 offensive lineman invited to the 2010 NFL Combine:
–Lauvao recorded the fastest 20-Yard Shuttle time(4.51)
–Lauvao recorded the 6th-best bench press (33 reps)
–Lauvao recorded the 7th-best 3-Cone Drill time (7.56)
Chris McGaha
Out of 44 wide receivers invited to the 2010 NFL Combine:
–McGaha recorded the 2nd-best bench press (19 reps)
–McGaha recorded the 3rd-best vertical jump (40 inches) –10th overall regardless of position
–McGaha recorded the 10th-best 20-Yard Shuttle time (4.21)
–McGaha recorded the 6th-best broad jump (10 feet 2 inches)
Kyle Williams
Out of 44 wide receivers invited to the 2010 NFL Combine:
–Williams recorded the 5th-best 40-yard dash time (4.43)–8th fastest 40 time overall regardless of position
–Williams recorded the 8th-best 20-Yard Shuttle time (4.19)
H/T to ASU Associate Athletic Director for Communications Mark Brand and Head Strength Coach Ben Hilgart
Well, Old Spice has another that falls into the gem category. The “I’m on a horse” spot debuted during New Orleans’ Super Bowl win over Indianapolis, and has been a hit both on television and the internet ever since.
Mustafa played for the Sun Devils from 1995 to 1996 catching 23 passes for 289 yards and 2 touchdowns, and was a member of the Pac-10 Championship team from ‘96 that nearly won a national championship.
The commercial is a hit on YouTube, and has had over 4 million views as of Wednesday morning. Mustafa was never a star on the football field, but we could be watching the birth of a Hollywood star before our very eyes. Mustafa’s been acting for a while, having appeared on television shows like Ugly Betty, Navy NCIS, Eli Stone, and Days of Our Lives, but more people have seen Mustafa’s work on this spot than ever before.
And we’re not the only ones noticing. He’s scheduled to appear on Oprah (imagine the catcalls those housewives will send his way) and The Ellen DeGeneres Show in the near future.
Check out the commercial here…
…and an interesting video on how the commercial was made…
TEMPE, Ariz.–Former Arizona State University graduate assistant Trent Bray has been named Linebackers Coach for the Sun Devil football team, Head Coach Dennis Erickson announced Tuesday. Defensive Coordinator Craig Bray, whose defense ranked No. 1 in the Pacific-10 Conference last year in total defense (297.6), rush defense (108.6), pass defense (189.0), opponent first downs (15.8) and opponent third-down conversions (29.7), will coach the safeties, with assistance from cornerbacks coach Greg Burns. The Sun Devil defense appeared in three Top 20 categories nationally, including 13th in total defense, 19th in rushing defense and 20th in pass efficiency defense.
Bray will assume the full-time role of coaching the ASU linebackers, a task he is no stranger to as he served as graduate assistant for the linebackers/defense in 2007 and 2008.
Bray enjoyed a stellar playing career at Oregon State University. A member of Dennis Erickson’s 2001 signing class, Bray was a standout linebacker for the Beavers from 2002-2005, staring 34 of 49 career games.
As a junior in 2004, he collected 122 tackles and was named Second-Team All-Pacific-10 Conference. He also earned Insight Bowl Defensive MVP honors by making an Oregon State-bowl record 10 tackles in a victory over Notre Dame.
He was selected co-captain of the Beaver football team as a senior, and he backed it up with another terrific season, recording 116 tackles and earning First-Team all-Pac-10 honors.
Bray finished his collegiate career with 337 tackles, the sixth-highest total in Oregon State history, 29.0 tackles for loss and 10.5 quarterback sacks while making 33 consecutive starts over his final three seasons in Corvallis. He then moved on to the National Football League, where he spent time with the Miami Dolphins and the Houston Texans.
Bray rejoins the Sun Devil football family after spending the past year as an assistant coach (linebackers/quality control) for the California Redwoods of the United Football League.
There are a select few things that will ever make me turn off an Arizona State Sun Devils game of any type.
Most of them are out of my control - maybe the fire alarm goes off where I’m at…threat of nuclear holocaust…Lindsey Vonn…are a select few.
However, the one other thing that could ever drive me to turn off a game early is when the disparity between talent and success is so great that I have better things to do with my time than watch one team get run out of the gym.
That’s exactly why I didn’t watch the last five minute of this past Saturday’s Arizona State/California game.
I’m admitting it. I turned it off. I couldn’t bear to watch the Sun Devils get trampled. I couldn’t stand the thought of Cal fans rushing the floor to celebrate a Pac-10 title. I didn’t want to see this team once again come up a few steps short of an improbable and first conference title.
I don’t think that makes me any less of a fan. It was just too much to take for the second consecutive year.
Nearly a year ago to the date, I sat at the Four Peaks Brewery on a Thursday night with my best friends to take in the 2009 Pac-10 Game of the Year. That game between the Sun Devils and Washington Huskies in Seattle lived up to all the billing. It was a nip-and-tuck, up and down game that took overtime and a heroic effort from Isaiah Thomas to quell the scrappy Devils and put them down.
Two days later, we watched Taylor Rochestie break our hearts, but that’s a different story.
The similarities between that loss to Washington and Saturday’s defeat at the hands of the Golden Bears have striking similarities. Both times, each team came in with their sights set on the regular season conference title and the #1 seed in the Pac-10 tournament. The Devils were not far removed either time from an emotionally draining and hard fought win over the Arizona Wildcats.
Both games went back and forth at a frenetic pace; if you weren’t running, you weren’t on the floor. The Huskies and Sun Devils and, subsequently, the Bears and Sun Devils played with reckless abandon.
Both times, the game went into the half with a one-point lead; the Huskies last year, the Devils this year.
And that’s where the comparisons maddeningly end. All of a sudden, coming out of the halftime break, Arizona State had no mojo. No energy.
Nothing.
This is why I’m more frustrated over the ASU loss this year over the game in Seattle last season. Call it a talent disparity. Call it fatigue after having to go down to the wire with both Arizona and Stanford in their last two games.
Call it whatever you want. I call it a team that came out without realizing the implications of that 2nd half on their tournament chances - a 16-point second half effort that will go down as one of the most forgettable yet memorable stretches in recent memory.
The ramifications of losing this game are easy to fathom. Last year, the loss to Washington didn’t do anything to damage ASU’s tournament prospects. We all know how weak the Pac-10 is this season and that, more than likely, only the winner of the Pac-10 Tournament will get a ticket to the Big Dance.
Back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament still aren’t out of this group’s reach. They’ll still end up with a good seed and good draw in the first round at Staples Center in a few weeks. However, after this loss, there’s no wiggle room. Saturday’s game was about much more than the throne atop this league; with the win, Cal made a statement as the only team in the league that should be considered for an at-large bid should they get bounced in the conference tournament.
Don’t sell that fact short because it leaves Arizona State and the other 7 post-season eligible teams in the Pac-10 in a position where they must win the tournament to go dancing.
So now the key is to get back on the horse. The Devils finish with two winnable games and can still put themselves into a great position to carry momentum into a run through Los Angeles. Let us not forget that even after last year’s disastrous weekend in Washington, the Devils came within a few minutes of a Pac-10 Conference Tournament title.
Hopefully, that’s another parallel we can draw once that bridge is crossed.
Three Things on the Bright Side
Usually, in this part of the column, we stew about things. I think we’ve stewed enough for one week because, inherently, the sun always comes up the next day (unless you live in Washington, DC, where I don’t think we’ve seen the sun since Halloween).
1 - There’s no doubt that here on Pitchfork Nation, we’ve had our share of fun and laughs at the expense of Eric Boateng. OK, so maybe the entire fan base in Tempe has had more than their share. However, there’s no doubt that what Boat pulled off last Thursday in Palo Alto should go down as one of the greatest single game performances in Arizona State’s long basketball history. When you start rolling like Boateng did, the position he plays in the low post makes it easy to lose track of just how many shots a big man is sinking in a row. It’s easier, for instance, to notice a perfect double-digit shooting day when a guy like Christian Laettner is doing it. What Boateng did in the win over Stanford was remarkable and, with all due respect, totally out of character, but it’s something I’m going to remember forever. Not everyone goes 11-for-11 in a college basketball game. James Harden didn’t do it. Ike Diogu didn’t do it. Neither did Fat Lever, Byron Scott and every other great Sun Devil. Eric Boateng did. However, of course, in classic Eric fashion, the 11th straight shot he hit ended with an and-1. He nearly air-balled the free throw. We won’t hold that against you, Boat.
2 - It’s very odd to be sitting here right now and thinking about an NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament without Arizona State as a participant. However, you have to admire the scrappiness that Charli’s bunch has shown down the stretch as they jockey for an at-large bid. As expected, the Devils were rolled by one of the best teams in the game in Stanford, but the other two games in their last three have been gritty, come from behind wins over Arizona and California on Senior Day. The Cal win was especially poignant, considering the performance Danielle Orsillo turned in during her last performance at Wells Fargo Arena. Right now, Charlie Creme doesn’t have ASU in his latest round of Women’s Bracketology, and sitting starkly in 5th in the Pac-10 could be reason for most teams to pack it in and play out the string. Never this team, though, and that’s something to admire.
3 - Other schools that boast football factories and swaths of talent for the NFL might get more national attention, but I have four words for them: I’m on a horse.
I’ll just post the link instead of pasting the whole text of it here, but you should read the article I just wrote this morning about the merging of Gatsby and Foursquare, two of the newest and most popular entries into the world of social networking. The gist: be careful with what you’re putting out there.
Also, for those of you who spent hours and took years off your life guzzling Cherry Pepsi and downing sliders like it was your job…was I the only one?…this one’s for you. Long live Dave’s Doghouse!
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A day after being named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year, Arizona State’s Herb Sendek held his weekly chat with local media in Tempe.
There are a select few things that will ever make me turn off an Arizona State Sun Devils game of any type.
