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What a regular season this has been. The Sun Devils where picked to finish no higher than 7th in the Pac10. Saturday afternoon the Devils secured 2nd place in the Pac10! It was that stifling 3/2 zone defense and another awesome performance by Eric Boateng that gave ASU the win. From azcentral.com;

“But few expected this kind of improvement from the man in the middle. Boateng, a native of London, didn’t start playing serious basketball until his teen years, and too many times this season, it showed. His hustle never was a problem. It was just consistency. Too often, Boateng never looked comfortable in the post. That’s changed. Over the past 10 games, Boateng has averaged 10.2 points and 8 rebounds, and is shooting 69.3 percent. “Can’t say enough about him,” Glasser said in the postgame news conference. “He’s carrying us. Every game we come in here and we say it’s his best game of the year and the next time I come in here I say it’s (his) best game of the year. I hope we can keep saying that.”

Eric Boateng is peaking at the right time, just as the Pac10 tournament is about to start. So we finish 2nd in the conference and if we make it to the semis of the tourement we’re in right? Going to the big dance? So are we going o the big dance or what? From houseofsparky.com;

“I truly believe that the Devils will go dancing, especially if they can win a few games in the Pac-10 Tournament. I don’t believe the hype that the P10 is a one-school conference – I’m siding with 2 or 3 depending on who wins the tournament.”

Exactly. There’s no way the Pac10 is a one school conference!

Wow, the seniors on this Sun Devil team came through big. The Devils battled back for a 68-60 win against Stanford at  Maples Pavilion. I can’t remember when the Devils won this many road games. Eric Boateng had a epic game. From fanster.com;

“But Boateng was unstoppable. The senior from London had 11 points in the first half, including three dunks. Stanford’s post defenders, Jack Trotter and Andrew Zimmerman couldn’t do anything to stop him, and Boateng contributed to Zimmerman fouling out and Trotter drawing 3 personals. Derek Glasser added 20 points for the Devils, including 15 in the 2nd half. It was Glasser’s 4th 20-point game of the season, and his first since scoring 22 in a loss at BYU in early December. Glasser was perfect from the line, hitting all nine of his attempts, and pushing his season free throw percentage to 89%.”

Awesome, this win still has us at a 1/2 a game behind Cal for first place in the Pac10. ASU faces them this Saturday. From statepress.com;

“Now the showdown is set. On Saturday afternoon in Berkeley, first place and control of the conference championship are on the line. “It is going to be a fun game on their floor,” McMillan said. “You have to expect 100 percent from both teams, and it is going to come down to patience, poise and execution on both ends. It is going to come down to heart.”

This season has been great and if they win Saturday Herb Sendek has got to win Pac10 coach of the year! thebiglead.com knows whats up.

I was thinking about drinking at a dive tonight. Someplace I haven’t been in awhile. My choice was going to depend on how the basketball games played out. If the Suns and the Devils lost, it was going to be the Tally Ho. Someplace in walking distance if you know what I mean. The night didn’t start out so good. The Sun Devils lost to the Cal Golden Bears 78-70. The Devils tried to comeback but couldn’t take the lead, Cal always had an answer. Eric Boateng had a great game with 19 points and a career high 13 rebounds. It was the defense that came up short. From azcentral.com; For most teams, that’s no cause for alarm. But for ASU – a team that wins with defense – it’s an issue. The Sun Devils aren’t capable of winning shootouts. They haven’t reached 80 points in a game since before Thanksgiving.”

I was making my way to the Library on Mill Ave to watch the Cardinals game with friends when I noticed the ASU game getting out. People were streaming out of Wells Fargo Arena and by looking at the faces I could tell who won. Lots of Sun Devil smiles while the Cougar fans looked indifferent. Hard to be that upset when your in this great weather. The Sun Devils beat the Washington State Cougars 71-46 and swept the two schools from Washington for the first time since 2003. From houseofsparky.com; “ASU took care of business against a good team. Eric Boateng got 11 points and 9 rebounds. Ty Abbott achieved a double-double and looked very active and confident in himself. Lockett went 5-7 from the field and converted some offensive rebounds. ASU shot 50.8% from the field. The Sun Devils dished out 22 assists.” Ty Abbott has had a good season so far , we really need him to continue to improve if we want to stay alive in the PAC-10. From azcentral.com; “Pretty high right now,” Abbott said of ASU’s confidence, which might have bottomed out after two dismal losses to start the Pac-10 season. “We don’t feel like we’re going to go out and beat everybody, but after what happened last week, to come back and get two wins against two good teams, you can’t help but feel good.” Man, what a weekend. Good times.

It wasn’t a pretty win. But a win is a win. ASU defeated USC 61-52. Thats USC Upstate. Not the to be confused with USC Trojans. It going to take a better effort to beat them. Jamelle McMillan had 15 points and Ty Abbott had 15 as well, his season high. We needed someone to pick up the slack on offense, Rihards Kuksiks was scoreless (wwwhhaat) as was Eric Boateng who got into early foul trouble. With Boateng seeing limited minutes Taylor Rohde stepped it up with a career high 12 points. From arizonastate.scout.com; “Eric wasn’t at his best today, so Taylor played more minutes,” Sendek commented. “He has had some good moments for us. Today he chipped in with 12 points and five rebounds. He got to the free throw line. He certainly made tremendous progress over the course of his time here. His rate of improvement has been outstanding.” Did you know the Suns are playing the Thunder right now. I wonder how James Harden will do tonight?

The Sun Devils lost to Duke 64-53. ASU had the game tied 41 all at halftime. In the second half the Duke Blue Devils proved to be to much handle, their size and defense allowed the Blue Devils to pull away for the victory.  From azcentral.com; “Nothing came easy for us,” ASU coach Herb Sendek said. “Everything was challenged. And I think the difference in the game was their defensive effort in the second half.” Derek Glasser had 13 points. Eric Boateng had a horrible game with only four points and three rebounds. Redemption came today in the form of a 71-52 victory over LSU. Down by seven points at half, the Devils rallied behind Derek Glasser’s career high 24 points and some choice words from the coaching staff. From azcentral.com; “I’m not sure I can say some of those things,” senior point guard Derek Glasser said when asked for Sendek’s reaction at the midpoint of Friday’s NIT Season Tip-Off consolation game at Madison Square Garden. “None of the coaches were happy. They came in the locker room and let us have it. They gave us a little spark.” I think the Sun Devils earned a little bit of respect in the college basketball world.

Thank god basketball season is here to take our minds off the dismal football program. Herb Sendek Has the Sun Devils playing great ball to start the season. Tough pressure defense and great three point shooting has given this team a chance to play the Duke Blue Devils in the NIT pre-season tip off. Strength Of Schedule (SOS) has been a sore subject for Sun Devils Basketball but this season could change all that. From houseofsparky.com; ”With the invitation to the Preseason NIT, however, the Devils are about to experience a dramatic increase in Strength of Schedule. Regardless of outcome, ASU will be playing the #9 team in the country, Duke, and then either face #12 UConn or a solid LSU team that is 3-0 on the season. This serves ASU very well, considering the argument against them in 2007 was their weak SOS. After defeating Arizona (19-14) twice in conference play and having a better record than the Wildcats (ASU was 19-12), UA was still invited to the big dance based on their SOS (and their perceived prestige, I guarantee) while the Devils were relegated to #1 seed in the postseason NIT tournament.” It seems funny saying “ASU vs Duke”, its not every day you face such a famous basketball program. However  Coach Sendek and center Eric Boateng are both very familiar with the Duke. From azcentral.com;

In 10 seasons at North Carolina State, Herb Sendek went 3-21 against Duke. This isn’t a great memory for the fourth-year Arizona State coach, especially as the Sun Devils prepare to meet No. 7 Duke on Wednesday in the NIT Season Tip-Off semifinals in New York. But all these years later, one triumph over the Blue Devils still sticks out during Sendek’s Atlantic Coast Conference days. It’s the first one, a win that came during the 1997 ACC Tournament, one that sent the eighth-seeded Wolfpack on a run that nearly landed an improbable automatic NCAA Tournament bid.” Eric Boateng transfered from Duke and I’m sure he wants to put in a god effort against his former team. The Game Is Wednesday night at 7pm on ESPN2. Good luck Sun Devils.

That was a dog fight! ASU and TCU were battling it out trading leads all night. But with less than 4 minutes to play TCU took an 8 point lead. The Sun Devils fought back with Ty Abbott putting them in the lead with a floater in the lane. It was definetly a team effort, however one Sun Devil stood out. Eric Boateng. Boateng had a career high 22 points and 12 rebounds. That was also his first double double. From statepress.com; “What can you say about Eric? He literally put us on his back and carried us across the finish line,” Sendek said. “He got good post position and took his time and then he finished.” Boateng said that there was no panic after falling behind by eight. “We tried to stick together and stay together and do what we do,” Boateng said. “We are learning things about each other and today was a situation where we had to come together and overcome some things.” Nice win Devils! Now it’s off the New York to play at Madison Sqaure Garden for the first four of the preseason NIT!

I guess you could say we are in a rebuilding mode. Or are we? What ever we are going through, the rest of the PAC-10 is going through it too. It will be interesting to see how we deal with losing James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph to the NBA. One thing we have going for us is Herb Sendek. Sendek is one of the most talented coaches in the NCAA, who stresses fundamentals and defense. From allpac10.com; “Will ASU be able to survive without the superstar duo? I believe the answer is yes for one simple reason: Herb Sendek. Sendek has proven that his Devils can compete against anyone because of a deliberate offense and meticulously crafted zone defense. Aside from Pendergraph and Harden, ASU returns every major contributor from last season’s NCAA Tournament team. The challenge this year will be incorporating a talented freshman recruiting class into Sendek’s complicated system.” And it’s not like we are completely devoid of talent. Derek Glasser will be returning. This senior is tough as nails, humble, and had a better NCAA Tournament then James Harden last year. From statepress.com; “It’s definitely going to be a committee role. I’m not going to sit here and tell you we have a new James Harden. I’m not going to sit here and say I’m going to do everything he did, or Ty’s going to do everything he did. We have a team of role players — we don’t have a superstar now. Somebody’s going to have to step up, whether it’s me or it’s Ty or Rik, and be, I’m not going to say a star, but somebody’s going to have to offensively pick up some slack.” Another senior that is expected to step it up, is center Eric Boateng, he has improved and will be needed to hit the boards. The Sun Devils start the season Friday the 13th against Western Illinois.