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An Open Letter to San Jose State University
To: Thomas Bowen, Athletic Director, San Jose State University
From: Justin Karp, PitchforkNation.com, angry Arizona State Sun Devil fan
Dear Mr. Bowen:
I hope this letter finds you well today.
Actually, I hope it didn’t. I hope you dropped your carton of milk directly on your big toe, your box of Cheerios consisted of nothing but bottom-of-the-box crumbs and your dog relieved himself all over the rug you JUST had steam cleaned.
If you can’t tell by now, I’m a little bit agitated with you and your program. Behind me, I have a legion of Arizona State Sun Devil fans (much like the “network” from those irritating Verizon ads) that I had to convince to keep their burning wooden stakes and crowbars at home.
We’re keeping it classy. You wouldn’t know much about that, would you, Thomas? Is it OK if I call you Thomas? No? Too bad.
If you haven’t checked the headlines down here in Arizona lately, and I’m sure you haven’t, the Sun Devils have had to totally scramble over the past year or so to schedule another non-conference game for the 2010 season because you decided that playing at Alabama for more than $1 million in fat “come to us and lose” cash was a much better idea than hanging onto a game against an opponent who you’ve played a lot in the past and is close enough for your boosters to travel to easily.
When you pulled this little stunt off, several people came to me and put their frustration very bluntly: “San Jose State screwed us.” I couldn’t put it better myself.
Now, instead of playing you guys, ASU has been forced to burden the indignity of having to play two FCS opponents in back to back weeks to start the 2010 season - one against Portland State and one against our friendly neighbors to the north, THE Northern Arizona University.
Since the NCAA has that pesky rule that only one win against a lower division opponent per season counts towards bowl eligibility, our Devils must now win 7 games just to be considered for the postseason. On the surface, that doesn’t seem like too big of a burden - we shouldn’t in theory have any problem disposing with Portland State or the ‘Jacks, but it’s the principle of the thing that we’re dealing with.
On your personal web page, you describe your mission at San Jose State as building a “culture of champions.”
Methinks that sending your football team to play the defending national champions on their home turf on the day they raise a banner celebrating said national championship isn’t the best thing to put your players into a championship mindset.
Forget for a moment when you and your program did to put Arizona State into a corner - think about how what you did embodies all that’s wrong with college football these days.
Here’s the skinny - only about 8-10 teams per season in any given year enter their campaign with a legitimate shot at winning a national title. About 10 more might be able to put up a lengthy challenge for a conference title. 30 more will scrape and battle for second-tier bowl bids. Maybe about 10 more will go into the final week of the season needing the almighty sixth win.
Then there’s the group that your program belongs to, Thomas. Save me the babble about your rollicking trip to the New Mexico Bowl, which was your first postseason trip since, I believe, Eisenhower was in office. The Spartans are, year in and year out, a downtrodden, peon program which is the 3rd most popular college football team in San Jose. And before you argue that I don’t know what I’m talking about, I grew up in Santa Clara, 20 miles away from Spartan Stadium, and I went to more Stanford and Cal games during high school than I did Spartan games in my entire life.
Worse yet, moves like the Alabama stunt do nothing more than reinforce the idea that your program is bottom-of-the-barrel. I’m thrilled that this beat down you’ll take from the Crimson Tide will pay the athletic costs at SJSU for a while, but at the expense of what? Your biggest money making sport, football, will continue to lose because the program does not put its players in a position to gain confidence and win games.
Doesn’t it make more sense to take your team to Tempe, engage in what just might be a competitive football game? Or to truck your entire cadre to Tuscaloosa, get waxed 65-3 and take home a certified check?
It’s up to you. I’m not an AD, so maybe I don’t understand. What I do understand is that thanks to you, Arizona State’s schedule is weaker, our players have to do more work to get to a bowl game that your program won’t even sniff in 2010 and you’ve only reinforced the idea that San Jose State, a program which almost had to move down to Division I-AA because you can’t draw people to your games, is a joke of a college football program.
I said it back then and I’ll say it again - I don’t ever want to see your Spartans on Arizona State’s athletic calendar again.
I hope you have a fantastic day.
Sincerely,
Justin Karp
Five Things to Stew About
1) As remarkable as it sounds, it’s still an actual statistical probability that every team in the artist formerly known as the West Coast’s Premier Basketball ConferenceTM could finish 9-9. After last week’s split in Washington, it looks more and more like that’s where the Sun Devils will end up this season. After a solid win in Pullman, a place where last year’s team was stunningly upset on a Taylor Rochestie buzzer-beater, the Devils went out and absolutely blew it in Seattle. Ironically, Saturday’s game had first-place ramifications for the second consecutive year, but this time around, ASU didn’t even put up a fight and that’s disappointing. It’s also, sadly, expected - Washington outclassed and stayed cooler than the Devils when they found themselves in an early shooting hole. The Huskies were able to emerge from a shaky first few minutes, while the Sun Devils still only had 6 points at the under-8 media time out.
2) I do want to finally give kudos to Herb Sendek, however, for doing what he does best. Much like he did in 2006 when his undersized team couldn’t defend Xavier man-to-man and installed the now-famous 3-2 matchup zone, Sendek installed more motion and more flow into an offense that I affectionately referred to as “34 seconds or more.” With points hard to come by throughout the Pac-10 almost two-thirds of the way into this conference season, Unkie Herb had to find a way for the Devils to put more points on the scoreboard. Though his guys fell on their faces against Washington, Sendek’s ingenuity has once again risen to the top of our minds and has kept Arizona State competitive in the strangest conference race in some time.
3) I almost feel bad for putting this in because I feel like saying even the slightest of negative things about Charli Turner-Thorne is like telling your mom you don’t like her meat loaf, but her Devils 66-62 loss at Washington State last weekend may go down as one of the lowest points of her tenure in Tempe. The perennially downtrodden Cougars entered the game winless in the Pac-10 and riding an 11-game skid overall. It was also the first time since 2004 that Washington State knocked off Arizona State. What more, the Sun Devils had WSU down 13 in the first half AND the Cougars turned the ball over 28…28…28 times! However, it goes to show that when you shoot poorly on any given night, you have a chance to lose.
4) The Tim Esmay era starts in 10 days. Get excited.
5) With a major tip of the cap to Ted Miller over at ESPN.com, we bring you this: On Monday, the Pac-10 hired former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg as the conference’s new deputy commish and COO. Before his time in the Big 12, Weiberg spent nine years under Jim Delany in the Big Ten - right smack in the middle of the era when that league welcomed Penn State into the fold and charged hard toward annexing Notre Dame. He also helped lay the initial groundwork for the monster Big Ten TV contracts and, later, the launch of the Big Ten Network. Are your gears turning yet? With the Pac-10’s TV deal expiring in 2012 and the league’s collective eye still (for some reason) on expanding to 12 teams, you do the math.
Sun Devil of the Week
We’ll head back to the mats for this one for the 2nd straight week.
Despite losing their 3rd straight match and dropping to 8-7 in a loss to Iowa State, both Anthony Robles and Jake Meredith pulled off stunners and garner Pitchfork Nation’s honors.
Robles, the 3rd ranked wrestler in the nation, fought from an early deficit in his match against #5 Andrew Long. After falling behind 10-3 early, Robles, who has now won 10 straight individual matches, pulled off a stunning comeback, scoring nine straight points off three near-falls to in 12-10.
Unranked Meredith’s victory over #7 Jerome Ward was even more stunning - a 3-2 scrapping victory despite the fact that the Devils were already headed toward a match loss. Meredith and Ward entered the third period of their match tied at 2 and battled until the final 10 seconds, when the referee called Ward for stalling, awarding Meredith one penalty point, giving him the victory.
Meandering non-Sun Devil Thought of the Week
First off - allow me to blow my own horn for a second - as I came only 4 points off the cumulative total at Super Bowl XLIV and correctly assessed that the New Orleans Saints would pull off the victory. You’re welcome.
This week, I implore all of you, as we get tied up in the news of massive Toyota recalls, Barack Obama’s health care summit and Snowmageddon, to remember that Friday marks one month since a massive 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, killing 150,000 and displacing millions.
Thanks to our never-ending news cycle, which was specifically designed with the short-attention span in mind, Haiti’s plight has dropped off our national radar screen over the past two weeks or so.
I’m not implying or asking to donate any more than you may already have, but even though we’re a month out and news networks might not be devoting much time to the topic at all, remember that it’s still going on down there.
The Arizona State Sun Devils had what you could call an up-and-down weekend in the Great Northwest.
Thursday, the Devils got 18 points from Ty Abbott and 15 from a resurgent Derek Glasser, and they cruised to an 81-70 win over the Washington State Cougars in Pullman. It was ASU’s first win at Friel Court since the 2002-2003 season, when they scored an 87-54 win over the Cougs.
But then, Herb Sendek’s team followed their impressive Thursday performance with a stinker in Seattle on Saturday. The Sun Devils 79-56 loss to the Huskies was their worst loss in 69 games, dating back to an 84-51 blowout at the hands of then 5th-ranked UCLA in January of 2008. Arizona State grabbed an early 2-0 lead on two Trent Lockett free throws in the game’s first twenty seconds, but it was downhill from there.
ASU trailed by as many as 27 in the loss, which sunk them to 6-5 in conference play, and into a 5-way tie for 2nd place in the Pac-10.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
What was good…
The offense against Washington State. The Sun Devils shot a blistering 56.5% from the field for the game (62.5% in the first half). The Sun Devils’ 81-point performance, coupled with their previous 88-70 win over Stanford, marked the first time in the Herb Sendek era that ASU had topped the 80-point plateau in back-to-back Pac-10 games. It was the first time they have accomplished the feat since scoring 82 and 94 points in back-to-back losses to UCLA and USC in January of 2005.
The performance of freshman Demetrius Walker vs. Washington — Walker didn’t play against WSU, but was a real sparkplug Saturday in the loss to Washington (more below). Walker continues to be an intriguing part of the roster because of his high energy play and the ease with which he can get to the basket, an ingredient lacking from the Sun Devils’ offense.
What was bad…
The offense vs. Washington. ASU followed up their impressive performance in Pullman with an evening-long struggle in Seattle. The Sun Devils missed their first six shots against the Huskies, and went nearly 5 minutes to start the game without a hoop. Midway through the first half, they’d managed only 6 points and trailed by 15. Some of the credit has to go to the UW defense, which played a physical pressure defense all night.
What was ugly…
The rebounding. When a team employs a zone defense almost exclusively, like ASU does, you expect the rebounding numbers to be a little low. But the Sun Devils allowed 19 offensive rebounds and were outrebounded 48-29 on the night in Seattle.
Individual player notes from the weekend…
Ty Abbott: Abbott averaged 14 points and 6.5 rebounds for the weekend, while shooting 42% from the field and 45% from three point range. The junior got off to a slow start against Washington (who didn’t?), but looked like he might go off on one of his recent hot streaks when he hit two three-pointers in just :17 early in the 2nd half to cut into a large Washington lead. But, those would be the last points Abbott would score on the night. He continues to rebound well from the guard position, and was very active defensively in the Washington loss, blocking two shots and getting his hands on numerous passes.
Eric Boateng: Boateng was adequate again this past weekend, averaging 11 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. The English senior shot 10 of 16 from the field to remain number one in field goal shooting in the conference at 63.7% for the year.
Derek Glasser: Glasser came off the bench for the 2nd straight game on Thursday vs. Washington State and responded with 15 points–his highest scoring output in 13 games. Glasser then started against Washington in Coach Sendek’s four-guard setup and struggled, logging only 3 points and 2 assists while turning the ball over 5 times. For the weekend, Glasser averaged 9 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.
Rihards Kuksiks: It was a quiet weekend for the junior from Latvia. Kuksiks scored 8 points in 23 minutes of action Thursday against Washington State, and came off the bench for the first time this season against Washington and scored 8 points again in just 16 minutes. For the weekend, Kuksiks averaged 8 points and 1 rebound per game and shot 54% (7 of 13) from the field.
Trent Lockett: Lockett started both games this weekend, averaging 7.5 points, 1 rebound and 2.5 steals per contest, while shooting just 33% from the field. Like most of his teammates, Lockett didn’t shoot well in Seattle, hitting just 1 of 6.
Jamelle McMillan: McMillan made his return to the Sun Devils’ lineup after missing four games with a foot injury. Played well Thursday, scoring 7 points and grabbing 5 rebounds in the win over Washington State. McMillan started and played 29 minutes against Washington, handing out 4 assists but he did not score. For the weekend, McMillan averaged 3.5 points, 3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and shot just 38% from the floor.
Ruslan Pateev: Pateev played a total of 10 minutes over the weekend, scoring 2 points and grabbing 4 rebounds (including 3 offensive boards) vs. Washington.
Taylor Rohde: Rohde also played just 10 minutes off the bench in relief of Boateng, and scored 3 points against Washington State.
Victor Rudd: Saw some of his most extensive action of the season against Washington, playing 13 minutes off the bench. Rudd scored one point, and went 0 for 3 from the field over the weekend.
Jerren Shipp: The senior was a steadying force on the floor this weekend for ASU. For the two games, Shipp averaged 5.5 points, 2 rebounds and 15 minutes of playing time.
Demetrius Walker: Didn’t play in the win against Washington State, but was one of the lone bright spots in Saturday’s loss to Washington. Walker had a career-high 14 points on 5 of 7 shooting in just 15 minutes off the bench. Walker scored 8 points in a stretch of 2:08 late in the 1st half.
Elsewhere in the Pac-10
Thursday
Arizona State 81…..Washington State 70 - ASU’s first win in Pullman in seven years.
Washington 81…..Arizona 75 - Quincy Pondexter (UW) 30 points, 12 rebounds.
UCLA 77…..Stanford 73 - Reeves Nelson (UCLA) off the bench for 18 points.
USC 66…..California 63 - USC had 25-0 run over 10:46 of the game.
Saturday
Washington 79…..Arizona State 56 - Huskies now 16-0 at Bank of America Arena.
Washington State 78…..Arizona 60 - DeAngelo Casto (WSU) 19 points, 9 rebounds.
California 72…..UCLA 58 - Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson (CAL) 20 points each.
USC 54…..Stanford 49 - Nikola Vucevic (USC)18 points, 14 rebounds.
Oregon State 62…..Oregon 42 - Omari Johnson (OSU) 18 points
Take it for what it’s worth, but ESPN.com’s Page 2 has named ASU’s basketball court as one of the five ugliest in the NCAA.
The site, ESPN’s version of a humorous sports blog, placed the Wells Fargo Arena court as the fourth ugliest in all of college hoops.
4. Arizona State, Wells Fargo Arena
The Sun Devils’ court makes this list for one reason: The giant cartoon basketball at the top of each lane. ASU hoops fans, apparently, have hard time remembering what sport they are watching.
After years of poor play, it doesn’t seem like anyone should hold it against fans if they needed “giant cartoon basketballs” to remind them of the sport they’re watching.
The years between the end of the Freider era and the start of the Sendek era left the fans in the building half asleep. Right now, the solid product playing on the court is much more important than the graphics on it.
Ironically enough, maybe someone at ESPN Page 2 needs giant posted notes at the top of their computer screens that read “check your facts”. ASU’s court no longer includes “giant cartoon basketballs”. It now has a much simpler look.
UPDATE: Thanks to the power of Pitchfork Nation, ESPN Page 2 has removed the blurb about ASU’s court and admitted their information/image were outdated.
Page 2 Lists The Ugliest Courts In College Basketball [ESPN]
Do you think the Sun Devils court is ugly? Have a court you think is worse? Let us know in the comment section below.
The unofficial beginning to the 2010 college football season is here, as thousands of high school and junior college players signed their names to letters of intent to play at schools all over the country.
That includes 26 who signed the dotted line to play football at Arizona State University for head coach Dennis Erickson.
The group includes 20 high school players and 6 junior college products. Improving on the offense was certainly the goal for this year’s class, as 16 offensive players were signed, along with 10 defensive players. Six of the offensive players are lineman, the most signed in a single Arizona State class since 2002. One of them, mammoth 6-8 tackle Brice Schwab of Palomar College, was ranked the 9th-best junior college prospect in the nation by Rivals.com. Schwab was committed to USC, but changed his mind after head coach Pete Carroll bolted for the NFL.
Erickson addressed the media to talk about his 2010 recruiting class, the fourth of his ASU career. “We probably have more offensive guys than we have recruited in a while. That was our plan coming in, to build the defense and go from there. We fulfilled what we wanted to. We have a heck of good recruiting class. Probably as good as we have had. I’m excited about it. Everybody is. At this time of year, everyone is excited,” Erickson said.
Audio: Erickson comments on each member of ASU’s 2010 recruiting class
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Arizona State 2010 Football Recruiting Class
Name
Position
Height
Weight
School
Other schools considered
Ramon Abreu
S
5-10
180
Marcos de Niza HS Tempe, AZ
Colorado, Colorado State, San Diego State
Lee Adams
DL
6-2
255
Centennial HS Corona, CA
Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico State NLV, UTEP
Sil Ajawara
OL
6-4
305
Tesoro HS Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
Arizona, UCLA, Washington
Kevin Anderson
WR
6-1
185
Lakewood HS Lakewood, CA
BYU, LSU, Washington Washington State
George Bell
WR
6-3
195
Southwestern CC San Diego, CA
Colorado, Fresno State, Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, San Diego St., Utah
Carl Bradford
LB
6-1
230
Norco HS Norco, CA
San Diego State
Alden Darby
CB
6-0
180
Millikan Senior HS Long Beach, CA
Iowa State
Chris DeArmas
OL
6-4
305
El Camino JC Torrance, CA
Florida Intl, Memphis, Tulsa, Utah
Jamil Douglas
OL
6-5
252
Cypress HS Cypress, CA
Nebraska, San Diego State, Utah
Eddie Elder
DB
6-0
190
College of San Mateo Sacramento, CA
Arizona, New Mexico State, Tulsa, Utah
Josh Fulton
TE
6-5
235
St. Mary’s HS Phoenix, AZ
Boise State, Cal, Colorado, Washington
Taylor Kelly
QB
6-3
185
Eagle HS Eagle, ID
Nevada
Randy Knust
WR
6-3
200
The Woodlands HS The Woodlands, TX
SMU
Deantre Lewis
RB
5-10
189
Norco HS Norco, CA
Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, USC
Jordan McDonald
DE
6-4
225
Saguaro HS Scottsdale, AZ
Colorado, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico State
Kyle Middlebrooks
WR/RB
5-9
176
Fountain Valley HS Fountain Valley, CA
Arizona, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah, Washington
Nduka Onyeali
DE/LB
6-1
240
Mullen HS Denver, CO
Syracuse, Minnesota, TCU, Kansas, USC
Brice Schwab
OL
6-8
320
Palomar College San Marcos, CA
Arizona, Arkansas, Florida State, LSU, Oklahoma, Penn State, Pittsburgh, UCLA, USC, Washington
Aderious Simmons
OL
6-7
310
El Camino JC Torrance, CA
San Diego State, Utah
Devan Spann
CB
5-11
175
Junipero Serra HS Gardena, CA
New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Washington State
The second half of the Pac-10 schedule gets under way Thursday night as the Arizona State Sun Devils (15-7, 5-4) travel to the Palouse to take on the Washington State Cougars (14-7, 4-5) at Friel Court.
Last month, ASU cruised past Wazzu in Tempe 71-46, holding the Pac-10’s leading scorer, Klay Thompson, to just 9 points in the process.
Don’t expect the same level of ease for the Sun Devils this time out. ”
The Sun Devils expect to have junior guard Jamelle McMillan back on the floor on Thursday night. McMillan has missed the last 4 games with plantar fascitis in his left foot.
But, senior point guard Derek Glasser was on crutches earlier this week, with a sprained right ankle suffered in a practice drill. He sounded hopeful earlier this week that he’d be ready to go.
The Cougars come into Thursday’s game having lost two straight, including a 92-64 beatdown administered to them by rival Washington last Saturday. Thompson didn’t start that game, the first time he’s ever come off the bench for the Cougars. The sophomore, who is the son of former NBA star Mychal Thompson, was late to the team bus, and paid for it with playing time.
Thompson only sat out for the first 1:47 of the game, but struggled once he got on the floor, shooting just 2 for 15 with a season-low 7 points.
Sendek, Abbott and Glasser preview Washington State
Arizona State senior point guard Derek Glasser made his way into the weekly visit with the local media on crutches.
Glasser said he suffered a sprained left ankle on Monday when landing on the foot of a team manager while doing drills. “It was in skill, we weren’t even practicing live,” he said.
Glasser, who scored 12 points and dished out 10 assists in Saturday’s win over Stanford indicated the the crutches were for precautionary measures, and was hopeful he’ll be able to play Thursday night as the Sun Devils visit Washington State.
“It didn’t feel as bad as when I did it against San Diego State, and then I was able to play two days later, so hopefully I’ll be able to play against Washington State,” Glasser said.
Back on December 19th, Glasser sprained his right ankle in a win over San Diego State, and did start the next game against UC Santa Barbara, scoring 3 points and handing out 7 assists in 34 minutes.
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I admit it - I give up. This is officially a Tuesday feature now. My schedule and workload just makes more sense for me to finish this column on Monday night instead of Sunday night, so this here column is going to be up on the second day of the week rather than the 1st.
Plus, I dislike Tuesday more than I like Monday anyway, so I hope these nuggets of (semi)wisdom push you through what I think is the most frustrating day of the week. I mean, come on, Monday is bad, but Tuesday is almost as far away from the weekend as Monday is except you’re now past the point of reminiscing on how cool of a Saturday/Sunday you just had.
To hell with Tuesday. I’m doing this day a favor.
Casting My Ballot - Away With Polls
The Associated Press, ESPN, USA Today, the BCS, Baseball America and numerous other publications and outlets do something funny to us during various college seasons.
Their national polls make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. We beat our chests when our teams are #1, we jump for joy when we finally crack into a top 25 and we feel that familiar pang of anticipation when our squad appears in the “receiving votes” category - so close to the brass ring and within snatching distance of having a prized number next to your team’s abbreviation on the score bug.
However, I want to let you in on the dirty little secret that everyone except guys who throw pigskin around a field knows - polls are hooey.
Straight bunk.
I mean seriously, what sport’s national authority would be dumb enough to base something as vital and sought after as their national championship on a bunch of ballots and algorithms?
*slowly tip-toes backwards away from Dennis Erickson’s office*
It’s painful but true. Polls don’t mean anything in college sports. They exist as the only measuring stick, an enormously subjective one at that, which teams have against their brethren across the country instead of their own region or conference.
There are no national standings in college football, basketball or baseball. There’s no true way to determine whether Arizona State is better than, say, LSU in any sport until they play. We have tangible evidence of who is better than whom in every league because they play each other and come up with this remarkable concept - standings. We can look at the Pac-10 standings in any given year and see that Oregon is better than Oregon State, USC (usually) is better than Oregon and everybody is better than Washington State.
That rings true in every other intercollegiate sport. The difference is that each of those sports has a true way to make sure that the best of the best from across the country pit against each other on the field or court rather than in a back room.
Before I go on, the last thing this column will be today is a grandstand for a college football playoff. In fact, the lack of one is exactly what keeps the swaths of football fans (including me) dying for Sunday evening to come around when the new polls come out and then, from November on, those BCS rankings.
The real truth is that college football truly is the only sport in which we are forced to and should actually care about where your team is ranked and, realistically, you should only care if said squad is within shouting distance of #1 or #2.
In the past two weeks in college basketball, we’ve seen so many supposed top-ranked teams fall it makes your head spin. Texas has lost three of its last five. Kentucky lost to South Carolina a mere 36 hours after taking the throne. Team after team at the top of the rankings will inherently fall in every sport as long as they lose a single game - something in basketball that hasn’t happened since 1976 and I’m pretty sure has never happened in college baseball.
In fact, since the seeding system began in 1979, only six teams that entered the NCAA Basketball Tournament ranked #1 have gone one to win the national title.
1982
North Carolina Tar Heels
1992
Duke Blue Devils
1995
UCLA Bruins
2000
Michigan State Spartans
2001
Duke Blue Devils
2007
Florida Gators
That means in 30 years since Magic v. Bird, 24 top-ranked teams have entered March Madness and fallen directly onto their collective faces.
College baseball is even more convoluted. If there’s any more fractured sport where a handful of teams have dominated the landscape forever, talent pools are heavily concentrated in certain areas and many cold-weather teams spend the first three weeks of their season on the road, polls on the college diamond are among the most worthless in sports.
So, this entire column is just a long way to get to the point of this: this week, the major outlets that cover college baseball released their preseason polls. Baseball America calls Arizona State their #14. Rivals calls us the 9th ranked team in America.
The ESPN/USA Today poll neglected to include the Sun Devils. And, because of that, there has been a groundswell of frustration and anger - how could ANYONE leave our Devils of the Tim Esmay era out of any poll - ever?
It just doesn’t matter.
Those warm-fuzzies of being highly ranked in a poll don’t mean squat once the postseason rolls around and, despite all the time you spent in the top 5 or the top 10 or the top 25 or the top whatever, Fresno State could still knock you around on your home field and send you to an early summer.
Call me when the season starts. I’ll be the one not caring about where anyone is ranked until the tournament starts.
Five Things to Stew About
1 - Undoubtedly, we knew Pat Murphy was going to end up somewhere. That place was confirmed this week when the San Diego Padres hired the Devils recently-deposed bench boss as a special assistant to the baseball operations department. I’m not exactly sure what a special assistant does - it could be one step above Assistant to the Traveling Secretary for all we know - but it’s nice to see Murph get some love from Major League Baseball after so many excellent years building great players and great men in Tempe and on other stops in his college coaching career. The recently suffering Padres organization is now better off for having Pat in their organization. Don’t overlook the fact that the team is now run by Jeff Moorad, who spent numerous years in the desert in the Arizona Diamondbacks front office, either; he had a front row seat what Murphy was doing at Packard Stadium.
2 - The two ASU teams that took the floor last week against California and Stanford were like Jeykll and Hyde; two complete opposite ends of the spectrum were on display in the split weekend. On Thursday, we saw the team that let themselves get into a major 1st half hole and not have quite enough steam to fight back for the victory. Two days later, the team exploded for a win over Stanford which the margin of victory didn’t quite represent quite what a butt-kicking it really was. Either way, I think it goes without saying that in this helter-skelter Pac-10, the more Saturday-type performances we get out of the Sun Devils, the better.
3 - I got this question from a couple people VIA Twitter, so I feel like answering it here. If I’m Jamelle McMillan, I’m a little nervous about the impending arrival of JuCo transfer Brandon Dunson, who announced his intent to come to Tempe next season this week. Not only is Dunson a natural point who thinks defense ahead of offense, he’ll automatically be the most up-tempo guard in the rotation in 2010-11 and improve the Sun Devils inside/outside game. We all know how much Herb Sendek values a guy that plays tireless defense and, with Derek Glasser’s impending departure, his spot is up for grabs among several returning one-guards. McMillan has struggled to stay healthy this season and has equally had trouble finding consistency when he is on the court this year.
4 - Speaking of Glasser, don’t think that he won’t respond to his benching. The senior was held out of the starting lineup on Saturday for the first time in 54 games as the Sun Devils whipped Stanford. Herb Sendek said the message to the only starting point guard he’s ever had in Tempe was to stop pressing and get back to his game and the rapidly matured Glasser will do just that. Unkie Herb was cryptic for his reasons for sitting Derek, who had been mightily struggling from the field over the last two weeks or so, but knowing the way Glasser has responded to adversity in the past on the court, this will fuel his fire. Derek will be back to himself very shortly.
5 - National Signing Day is Wednesday. Whoop-a-dee-doo. This is your token mention of the day when kids from across the country will begin sitting on the dotted line to play college football. Half of them will never see the football field in their careers, some will become nice role players and about 0.5% will become superstars. So, instead of looking ahead at the Devils 2010 class, it’s more prudent to mention that out of the signing class that just graduated after the 2009 season (which would spotlight the 2006 signing class), spat out only four guys who made a legitimate impact on this team over their time in Tempe - Travis Goethel, Troy Nolan, Kyle Williams and Ryan Torain. Sure, guys like Saia Falahola, Jon Hargis, Ryan McFoy, Dimitri Nance, Justin Tryon and even some kid named Danny Sullivan were part of Dirk Koetter’s last signing class, but none of them made anything more than a barely tangible mark on the program. So, we’ll revisit Wednesday’s signing class on February 2, 2013, when they’re gone.
Sun Devil of the Week
It would be easy to just write the words Ty Abbott in this space and leave it be after he rained three’s on the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday, but that would be too obvious, wouldn’t it?
Instead, this week’s SDOTW honor goes to someone who should be getting much more attention than he or his team gets.
On Sunday afternoon, ASU wrestler Anthony Robles won his 8th consecutive match in a dual loss at home to Oregon State, breaking an overall four-match winning streak for Arizona State. However, Robles dominating 17-0 win over Jason Lara pushed his season record to a startling 22-2. What more, his match victory kept ASU alive in the dual after eight previous matches in the meet went Oregon State’s way.
Robles continues to climb in the ASU wrestling record books, one that is dotted with some of the best West Coast wrestlers in college history.
Oh yeah, and don’t forget that he’s doing all of this with one fewer leg than everyone else.
I got to meet Robles back in 2006, the year before he started wrestling at Arizona State. There could not be a more humble and appreciative kid than Robles and he deserves all the success he’s earning in his Sun Devil career.
Meandering non-Sun Devil Thought of the Week
This one is short and sweet: Saints 30, Colts 20.
This Week in Sun Devil Sports
Wednesday, February 3 Men’s Golf at the Hilo Big Island Invitational
Thursday, February 4 Women’s Basketball vs. Washington, 6:30 PM at Wells Fargo Arena Men’s Basketball at Washington State, 7:00 PM in Pullman Men’s Golf at the Hilo Big Island Invitational
Friday, February 5 Wrestling at Cal Poly, 6:30 PM in San Luis Obispo, CA Gymnastics vs. Utah, 7:30 PM at Wells Fargo Arena Men’s Golf at the Hilo Big Island Invitational
Saturday, February 6 Women’s Tennis at California, Noon in Berkeley Women’s Basketball vs. Washington State, 1:00 PM at Wells Fargo Arena Men’s Basketball at Washington, 7:30 PM in Seattle Track & Field at the Lobo Classic in Albuquerque
Sunday, February 7 Wrestling vs. Iowa State, 2:00 PM at Wells Fargo Arena
The Arizona State Sun Devils wrapped up the first half of the Pac-10 schedule by splitting a pair with the Northern California schools–falling 78-70 against Cal on Thursday, and then riding Ty Abbott’s hot shooting to an 88-70 win over Stanford.
So, with 9 conference games (pre-Pac-10 Tournament) left, the Devils find themselves with more wins than any other Pac-10 team (15-7), and tied for 2nd place in the conference at 5-4.
If ASU can match their first half results in the second half, they’ll finish 10-8 in conference and have 20 wins heading into the Pac-10 Tournament in Los Angeles in March. Not too bad for a team that lost two players to the NBA after last season, huh?
But it’s not all rosy. For the first time this season, there are questions about the Sun Devils defense. ASU started the recently-completed three-game homestand ranked number one in the nation in scoring defense. After allowing 70 or more points in three straight games, they’re now ranked 5th. Seven different players scored 20 or more points against ASU during their stay in Tempe.
But for the struggles on defense, there are signs of the Sun Devils’ offense picking up. In their last two games, ASU has averaged 79 points per game, and has shot 48% from the field.
Here’s how the Sun Devils fared individually last weekend…
Ty Abbott: Abbott is playing his best basketball as a Sun Devil as of late. In the games against Cal and Stanford, Abbott averaged 24.5 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists per game. His early shooting against Stanford on Saturday had people reminiscing about Eddie House’s 61-point performance back in 2000. Any signs of the shooting slump that plaged Abbott during most of his sophomore season are gone.
Eric Boateng: It wasn’t Abbott, Rihards Kuksiks or Derek Glasser that led ASU back from a double digit deficit in the second half against Cal on Thursday–it was Boateng. The senior from London thru Duke scored 9 points in a stretch that saw the Cal lead shrink from 12 to 1. For the weekend, Boateng averaged 13 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks while shooting 67% from the field.
Derek Glasser: It was kind of a strange weekend for Glasser, who didn’t play well Thursday against Cal, scoring just 4 points in 28 minutes. He sat for a long stretch of the second half when ASU was forging their comeback. Head coach Herb Sendek was asked if Glasser was struggling, and his one-word response was “yes”. When asked what the reason was, Sendek replied, “I don’t know”.
Sendek then decided to make a change in the starting lineup for Saturday, inserting freshman Demetrius Walker into the point guard spot, and sitting Glasser, who saw his streak of 54 straight starts snapped. Glasser didn’t shoot much better in the win vs. Stanford, hitting just 1 of 6 shots–but he did dish out 10 assists and hit 10 of 12 from the free throw line. For the weekend, Glasser averaged 8 points, 1.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists on 20% shooting from the field.
Rihards Kuksiks: Kuksiks had an o.k. weekend, averaging 10.5 points on 44.4% shooting. He connected on 5 of 12 three-point attempts, but didn’t get to the free throw line once in the two games, and averaged only 2.5 rebounds.
Trent Lockett: Lockett has recaptured his early season swagger that had many (including ESPN’s Dick Vitale) drooling over his potential. Lockett averaged 16 points, 6 rebounds and 4.5 assists while shooting a respectable 55.6% from the field. He’s no longer settling for threes, instead using his slashing ability to get to the rim, as evidenced by his 16 free throw attempts this weekend.
Jamelle McMillan: Did not play. Has missed the last four games with plantar fascitis in his left foot.
Ruslan Pateev: Played a total of 11 minutes off the bench, totaling 2 points, 3 rebounds and one blocked shot.
Taylor Rohde: Rohde has seemingly fallen out of favor, and been passed in the rotation by Pateev. The sophomore from Phoenix did not play Thursday vs. Cal, but got 6 minutes in the win over Stanford, and had 1 point.
Victor Rudd: Rudd played 6 minutes off the bench against Cal, and was on the floor during ASU’s comeback. The freshman made the most of his time as well, scoring 5 points, grabbing 2 rebounds and coming up with a steal. But curiously, he didn’t see any time in Saturday’s win over Stanford.
Jerren Shipp: The senior played 11 minutes in each game, but didn’t score, going 0 for 3 from the field.
Demetrius Walker: Walker played 20 minutes vs. Cal, his longest stint since the season-opening win over Western Illinois, but struggled in the shooting department, going 0 for 7 from the field. But he did do a nice job on defense, playing out in front of the matchup zone. Walker got his first collegiate start on Saturday, and scored 5 points, while grabbing 2 rebounds and handing out 1 assist.
A year ago at this time, ASU guard Ty Abbott was mired in a shooting slump for the ages. In ASU’s first rotation through the Pac-10 in the 2008-09 season, Abbott shot just 20.4% from the field and just 7.7% from three point range.
Well, a year later, all signs of that slump are completely gone.
Abbott came out on fire, scoring 22 of his 29 points in the first half, leading Arizona State to an 88-70 win over Stanford at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.
The junior from Desert Vista High School in Ahwatukee set the tone by canning his first two three-point attempts in the first 1:19 of the game. But the onslaught didn’t stop there. Abbott hit 6 treys in the first 9:11 of the game as the Devils built a commanding 31-11 lead.
As is often the case, the shooting was contagious. Arizona State shot 65% in the first half and built a 37-point lead with just over two minutes to go in the first half.
But Stanford, to their credit, played a much better second half. Led by their two leading scorers, Landry Fields and Jeremy Green, the Cardinal crept back into the game. In fact, when guard Jarrett Mann hit two free throws with 3:36 left, Stanford trailed by only 12. But the Sun Devils outscored the Cardinal 11-5 the rest of the way for their 17-point win.
Freshman Trent Lockett added 17 points and Rihards Kuksiks had 14 for the Sun Devils, who snapped a 2-game home losing streak and pushed their record to 15-7 overall and 5-4 in the Pac-10.
But the real story was Abbott, who surpassed his season high in the first half and nearly matched his career high of 30 points against Cal during the 2007-08 season. “It kinda happens,” Abbott said with a smile. “Sometimes you get open looks and you get going, and it starts a snowball effect.”
“Ty Abbott was spectacular,” ASU head coach Herb Sendek said. “He propelled us to the lead in the first half, and just played a fantastic game.”
ASU coach Herb Sendek speaks after win over Stanford
For 54 straight games, ASU guard Derek Glasser had his name called during pre-game player introductions.
That streak ended on Saturday, as the struggling senior guard came off the bench, replaced in the starting lineup by freshman Demetrius Walker in Arizona State’s 88-70 win over Stanford at Wells Fargo Arena.
So, was Glasser disappointed? Not in the least.
“It’s no secret that I’ve been struggling and the past two games, I hadn’t been holding my own on the defensive end, and I didn’t deserve to start,” Glasser said.
Glasser came into Saturday’s game shooting only 27.4% from the field and 19% from behind the three-point arc in Pac-10 play after hitting 45% of his shots and nearly 48% of his three pointers in non-conference play.
But, to his credit, Glasser didn’t let his “demotion” bother him on Saturday. Although he didn’t shoot well (1 of 6 from the floor), he did dish out 10 assists, and knocked down 10 of 12 field goals to ice the game for the Sun Devils. Glasser, along with Ty Abbott, still played 35 minutes against Stanford to lead the team.
Head coach Herb Sendek says he wasn’t sending a message to Glasser and the rest of the team by benching his senior point guard. “I just was trying to help a young guy whose been pressing a little bit to catch his breath,” Sendek said.
When asked if this was a one-game decision, Sendek paused and said “Well, we gotta go back to practice on Monday.”
Glasser, who notched his 500th career ASU assist in the game, has started 98 of his 120 career games for the Sun Devils.
Derek Glasser speaks to the media following ASU’s win over Stanford
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The Arizona State Sun Devils had what you could call an up-and-down weekend in the Great Northwest.
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