It wasn’t pretty
December 22nd, 2007, 6:22 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Mark Heller
Arizona State coach Herb Sendek looked about as ticked off as he has after any win this season. This won’t make him feel any better about his team, but it might make you, the fans, raise an eyebrow.
A win is a win, right?
Derek Glasser started in place of Jamelle McMillan on Saturday. McMillen has struggled the past three games. He made two nice plays against Idaho, forcing a turnover by knocking away an in-bounds pass and finding Pendergraph on a lob pass for an easy basket, but it’s a lot of growing pains going on for Jamelle, especially in decision-making and avoiding turnovers.
Jamelle McMillan comes from an NBA background (his dad, Nate, coaches the Portland Trailblazers) and often sends game films home for dad to critique.
It’ll take him some time, but the extremely bright, well-spoken McMillan will figure it out and eventually be a solid point guard in the league.
Meantime, Glasser had a career-high nine assists and earlier this week coach Herb Sendek noted Glasser’s increased confidence with his shot. Before Saturday’s 0-fer, he was at 51 percent on the season.
Unofficially, ASU is one of three teams (possibly four) in the country with more wins before Christmas then all of last season.
ASU is 9-2. It went 8-22 last season.
Iona is 5-7. It went 2-28 last year.
Northern Colorado is 5-6. Last year: 4-24.
The wild card is UNC-Wilmington, which led at halftime Saturday when this blog entry went into cyberspace. The Seahawks entered the game 7-4 after going 7-22 last season.
Remember Coppin State? The team the Sun Devils beat 60-43 early this month?
The Eagles play a brutal schedule to begin with (Xavier, Kent State, Southwest Missouri State and Ohio State). This weekend, they played an 8 p.m. (Central time) game Friday night at Marquette, lost by 47 points, then took an overnight bus from Milwaukee to Bloomington, Ind., for a noon (Central time) tipoff Saturday against the Hoosiers.
Ouch. No wonder the Eagles lost by 35 points.
