Blogging with the Devils

Thought I’d pass along a few other peas and carrots before ASU hits the road for a whopper of a road trip.

The Sun Devils have nine wins against teams ranked in the nation’s top five:

1998: ASU 90, No. 4 Stanford 87 (OT);   1992: ASU 77, No. 5 Arizona 74

1983: ASU 78, No. 4 UCLA 76;  1982: ASU 68, No. 4 Oregon State 60;   1981: No. 5 ASU 87, No. 1 Oregon State 67;

1977: ASU 89, No. 5 San Francisco 70;  1971: ASU 95, No. 3 USC 78;

1965:  ASU 89, No. 3 Michigan 87;   1963: No. 6 ASU 93, No. 5 Wichita State 87.

The conclusion of Saturday night’s game against USC will mark the halfway point of the Pac-10 schedule, and the Sun Devils (4-3) will need a split of this road trip to ensure a winning first half slate for the second time in 13 seasons.

The 2002-2003 team was 5-4 midway through the Pac-10 schedule, then went 6-3 down the stretch and went to the NCAA Tournament.

Before that, ASU had winning records for three straight seasons (1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95). They went to the NCAA Tournament in 1995 and the NIT in the other two campaigns.

UCLA center Kevin Love had it far worse than anyone last weekend when it came to fan behavior, taking the brunt of derrogatory slurs, chants and signs by the Oregon student section. One sign displayed Love’s cell phone number.

Kevin Love (blue) had the last and best laugh against Oregon and its absurd fans with 26 points and 18 rebounds. (photo/L.A. Times).

The Ducks apologized for the bedlam, fueled largely because Love chose UCLA over Oregon (where his father, Stan, played).  The Bruins consider it done, but it was still hard not to feel bad for a 19-year-old guy who wanted to step outside his realm.  College boys will be college boys.

Even more impressive for the Bruins was they played the weekend with two regular contributors out of action, but starting forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (concussion) practiced this week and is expected to play against ASU on Thursday night.

GroinGate, the round-the-clock vigil dedicated to the status of James Harden’s pulled groin has pretty much ended (on Tuesday coach Herb Sendek said Harden looked as good in Monday’s practice as he has in a couple weeks).

So, to pick up the slack, a few slack-jawed yokels posing as ASU fans decided to chuck bottles toward the court following Saturday night’s loss to Washington State. A fine way to protest the officiating.

After the game, Cougars coach Tony Bennett said he was told by his assistants that the bottles hit a couple of his players.

When the game ended, Cougars’ forward Kyle Weaver was hunched over with his hands on his face, but later clarified to a Washington-area reporter he wasn’t hit by a bottle.

Bennett stuck by his team’s assertion during Tuesday’s Pac-10 conference call with reporters and fielded more questions about the incident, and said he wasn’t aware of anyone from ASU calling WSU administration.

It’s pretty much a dead issue at this point, especially since it’s widely understood the bleacher dimwits were aiming their vitriol at the referees and not the Cougars.

Still, on Tuesday night Wazzou received the apology from ASU it deserved, if nothing else to hear the athletic department denounce the behavior, even though it was only one hand’s worth of rejects.

Cougars’ sharpshooter Derrick Low burned ASU with four 3-pointers in Saturday’s second half, then more than one person saw him toss one of the bottles back into the Wells Fargo Arena stands from whence it classlessly came.

Onward to No. 5 UCLA and USC this week in Los Angeles, where the Bruins are looking more and more unbeatable when the Pac-10 season is all said and done.

There’s a 6-foot-10, 260-pound reason for that: Kevin Love.

The freshman was the conference player of the week again this week, has already set freshman scoring and rebounding records and averages a double-double.

He also took a verbal beating last week in his home state of Oregon by the Ducks’ students section, since Love chose UCLA over Oregon (where his father played). Their antics drew the wrath of Bruins coach Ben Howland and Ducks coach Ernie Kent.

Love played at Lake Oswego HS. Had Sun Devils freshman Jamelle McMillan moved from Seattle to Portland when his father, Nate, became the Trail Blazers coach two years ago, he and Love would have played on the same high school team, which makes it hard to imagine they would have lost a game in their junior or senior seasons.

As it happens, McMillan stayed in Seattle won three state championships, and also played against Love in AAU circuits. McMillan said he talked to Love a couple weeks ago.

Sized and skilled, once Kevin Love gets his hand on the rebound, the Bruins’ big boy heaves it downcourt with the best of them.

Both McMillan and Jeff Pendergraph were asked about what’s been so impressive about Love’s 17 points, 11.3 rebounds and 59 percent shooting as a freshman.

Pendergraph: “Their outlet passing game is ridiculous.”

McMillan: “He can make outlet passes from here to Florida.”

That’s a tough thing to have to worry about going against a 6-foot-10 double-double machine.

It was clear James Harden wasn’t his dynamic self on Thursday night - he confirmed as much Friday afternoon - but his progress appears positive.

Neither Harden nor coach Herb Sendek reported any further problems from the groin injury (now officially known as GroinGate on this blog).

Harden didn’t practice for four days this week, and said he felt fatigued later in the game as a result. Things such as diving for a loose ball and parts of his lateral movement (especially defensively) were hampered.

“I’m healthy. I just need to get my groove back a little bit and I’ll be alright,” he said.  “… I was kind of sluggish, but that’ll wear off.”

Sendek said the injury can fully heal, though at what point that happens remains unclear, but a physically improving Harden will be in the lineup Saturday afternoon.

How much longer will GroinGate linger?  Not long, according to Harden and his coach. 

As for the randomness:  After losing 22 straight games to AP ranked teams, ASU has won its past two with its win over No. 22 USC last year and the 77-55 win over No. 17 Xavier on Dec. 15.

Sendek is 2-3 against AP-ranked teams in Tempe.  ASU was 2-28 against AP ranked teams the previous 11 seasons dating back to the  Sweet Sixteen appearance in 1995.

Here’s one good reason why No. 6 Washington State has become an elite team the past two years, or what ASU is trying to become:  ASU has had seven freshmen make a total of 119 starts in two seasons under Sendek. WSU has had one freshmen make four starts in these two seasons.

ASU’s last win over a top-10 team was Jan. 23, 2002, an 88-72 win over No. 10 Arizona.

Get there early on Saturday (5 p.m. tipoff), ASU is expecting at least 10,000 in attendance.  

Nobody loathes comparisons to previous years or other teams more than Arizona State coach Herb Sendek, but with Washington (Thursday) and Washington State (Saturday) coming to town he was asked about both schools of, say, two years ago vs. this year’s ASU squad, both of which emerged anonymously to further deepen the conference.

Sendek gave credit to the Bennett’s at Washington State, first father (Dick) and now son (Tony), but otherwise shied away from the subject.

But junior Jeff Pendergraph recalled a conversation he had with WSU redshirt junior Daven Harmeling after the two teams played at Wells Fargo Arena last February (WSU won 48-47), by which time the Sun Devils were stuck in a 15-game losing streak of mostly close games, and the relatively unknown Cougars were No. 18 in the country and en route to the NCAA Tournament, and the Cougars have ascended further this season.

“They got tired of that (losing) label and worked their butts off to get where they’re at,” Pendergraph said. “… (Harmeling) thought our team last year reminded him of who they used to be and how things were going for them,” Pendergraph said. “He’s seen what can happen and it’s happening here.”

A few other bits of randomness:

Sendek, on Washington forward Jon Brockman, who leads the Pac-10 with 12 double-doubles and is was last week’s Pac-10 Player of the Week for a third time this season: “The thing you have to admire about Jon is he’s productive. Some guys look good, some guys tease you, some guys ooze potential, and perhaps none of those measure up to the importance of production. He produces. He fills up the stat sheet, he scores, he rebounds and you have to admire his competitive spirit.”

Jon Brockman: 6-foot-7, 255 pounds and streaking toward a Wells Fargo Arena near you.

Pendergraph was steamed, livid, off-the-deep-end after the Stanford game Saturday night, while his parents (mostly) unsuccessfully tried to calm him down and noted the Cardinal will come to Tempe on Valentine’s Day.

He’s since cooled down, and noted the difference of losing a third game of the season instead of consecutively, but the team’s emotional leader set sail on a new mission.

“I was really mad,” said Pendergraph, who’ll spend most of the night handling Brockman. “Losing that one game really reminded me of all the ones we lost last year. I hate that feeling. It was real familiar to me.

“I thought we could win both games, and even though we won 10 in a row, that goes away really quick when you lose that one. There’s no way I’m going back to last year. I’m not letting that happen again. That was so frustrating.”

“… We lost. We shouldn’t have. Keep moving. Don’t forget that’s what happened last year and it really sucked, so keep that feeling.”

New NCAA stat rankings came out this week. ASU is 12th in shooting (49.4 percent) but 134th in scoring (71.5 points per game).

The Sun Devils are 20th in points allowed (59.2), 33rd in opponents shooting percentage (39.5) and only commit 12 turnovers per game (13th).

Derek Glasser is second in the country with a 3.75 assist-to-turnover ratio (Ifeanyi Koggu of Arkansas State is 3.8). Pendergraph is eighth in the country in shooting (65.8 percent), while Brockman is second in the country in rebounding (11.6) behind Kansas St. freshman phenom Michael Beasley.

As for Thursday night, with or without Harden, Washington wants to put on full-court pressure defense ASU has barely seen this season. If Harden can’t play, points becomes a much more precious jewel, which means the Sun Devils need to slow the game down, not turn the ball over (which they haven’t in Pac-10 play) and keep the best Pac-10 offensive rebounding team off the glass.

Arizona State’s basketball team went back to work on Monday, a rough Stanford game (but overall solid road trip) in the rear view mirrow.

As for James Harden’s groin injury, he’s got four days to heal it before Thursday. We’ll get an update Tuesday.

Couple other quick figures: 

When James Harden and Ty Abbott each topped 25 points, it was the first time in school history two ASU freshman have done that on the road, and the third time that two freshmen have topped 20 points in the same game. 

Derek Glasser hit a big 3-pointer against Cal, but his shooting numbers are still slumping (from .501 three weeks ago to .397). He has 25 assists and two turnovers in Pac-10 play.

He’s cursed himself about his brick-shooting lately, but Derek Glasser has done the best thing coach Herb Sendek can ask: Don’t turn the ball over.

After Jeff Pendergraph picked up his fourth foul early in the second half against Stanford, the Sun Devils were outscored 40-19.

The Sun Devils (14-3) are still in poll position this week, and lead the nation’s Division I schools in turnaround with a plus-6 victory total over the end of last season.

Iona (7-12, plus-5), San Jose State (9-8), UNC-Wilmington (11-8), Cleveland State (14-5), Denver (8-9) and Northern Colorado (8-10) are all plus-4.

Update on Johnny Coy , a small forward from Missouri who’s signed up to play at ASU next season. He had 29 points, 13 rebounds, seven blocks and four assists in a game last week. Through a dozen games, he’s surpassed 300 points for the season, and is averaging 27 points per game with a chance at 2,000 for his high school career.

Greetings from the Bay area. There aren’t many scenes better than flying over the snow-capped mountains en route to the Bay area, or the sights of San Francisco during the landing process. The views are worth the price.

As for basketball, Arizona State got off to a whale of a start in dramatic fashion Thursday night against California.

First of all, what a game. There were 12 ties and 18 lead changes. And three times in the final 15 minutes of play, Cal had ASU on the canvas.

But the Devils — with a starting lineup of three freshmen, one junior and a little-used senior — survived 99-90 in double overtime in their first conference road trip of the year. They did it even though they led just twice in the second half of regulation, couldn’t stop a potent Bears’ offense (yeah, they’re good) for the first 40 minutes, and barely made half their free throws.

ASU, 4-0 and in first place in the Pac-10, has now won 10 consecutive games for the first time since the 1980-81 season.

The Devils are also 4-0 in their past four visits to Cal. They’ve won just four road games in three seasons spanning the rest of the globe.

It was a shame this one wasn’t on TV back in Arizona, and, for about 15 minutes early in the game, the KKNT (960 AM) radio broadcast got booted off the air from the player introductions through part of the first half.

According to play-by-play man Tim Healey, the cause of the outage wasn’t certain, but it was believed a cord or plug was accidentally kicked out of place beneath the scorer’s table.

Speaking of worth the price of admission, there’s Jeff Pendergraph, who missed one shot in the first half and finished 12 of 17 from the floor. He’s shooting 67.5 percent for the season, tops in the Pac-10. He was a bully inside, had his touch working outside (except for one ugly-looking 3-point attempt – but he had no regrets afterward about taking it).

Jamelle McMillan and Antwi Atuahene got the starting nod in place of Derek Glasser and Jerren Shipp, respectively. The reason wasn’t known Thursday night as there wasn’t time to ask Coach Herb Sendek about it. But a few people around the program felt it stemmed from practices, and Atuahene had been especially impressive of late.
Regardless, both Glasser and McMillan played well, and Shipp came up with some key rebounds in the two overtimes.

This wraparound pass by Jamelle McMillan turned into one of the prettier exchanges. It went to Antwi Atuahene under the basket, who then fed Jeff Pendergraph (26 points) for an easy layup.

Cal’s problem, ultimately, was its defense. ASU shot 58 percent in the first half and still trailed by three points, and neither side relented when it came to making shots until overtime, when Cal went stone cold (21 percent in the two overtimes). Relatively speaking, the Sun Devils did not (43 percent in the OTs). Cal coach Ben Braun figured either Harden or Abbott were going to take those late 3-pointers, but the Bears still failed to switch on defense and Abbott was left open.

With Jordan Wilkes out because of injury, former Mesa Mountain View standout Harper Kamp tussled with Eric Boateng and (briefly) Pendergraph. The freshman Kamp only played 10 minutes and didn’t attempt a shot, but he appears to be a ways away from major minutes because of Cal’s depth up front. Still, he’s a big, strong body and, in time, should develop into a solid contributor.

ASU’s Eric Boateng (left) briefly got the the best of Harper Kamp (right) Thursday night, but these meetings have only begun.

Final stat of the night: In 50 minutes of action, Glasser and McMillan combined for 10 assists and one turnover at point guard.

No significant injuries to report.

Up next: Stanford on Saturday at 8 p.m. (Arizona time) on FSN Arizona.

Before Arizona State sets out for its first true road trip of this Pac-10 grind, here are a series of facts, figures and theories to chew on:

Road sweeps have been rare around these parts for the past few years. You’re probably thinking, ‘How about one win?’  and you’d be right, but a 3-0 start in Pac-10 play makes for a lot of dreaming.

The Bay area teams (California and Stanford) were victims of ASU’s last Pac-10 road weekend sweep in early January of 2005. They last swept the Washington schools in 2003 (long before Washington State became an elite team), the Oregon schools in 2001 and the L.A. schools (UCLA and USC) in 1987.

This figure won’t last long while conference play gets in full swing, but only two teams in the nation have three top-25 RPI wins this year (as of Wednesday): Arizona State (3-0) and Texas (3-2). ASU’s three top-25 wins are Arizona (10 in the RPI), Xavier (11) and Oregon (25).  The Longhorns have beaten  Tennessee (3), St. Mary’s (6) and UCLA (7)

Lastly, some ASU love from Dick Vitale.  And in the bigger picture, a story by the San Francisco Chronicle about the emergence of defense in the Pac-10, a league known for scoring but “soft” when it came to getting stops (most agree it started changing when Ben Howland came to UCLA from Pittsburgh).

The latest polls are out, and Arizona State, as expected, snuck in for the first time since the final rankings of the 1994-95 season.

ASU is ranked 22nd in this week’s Associated Press poll and 25th in the ESPN/USA Today (coaches) poll.

At 13-2, 3-0 in the Pac-10, the Sun Devils are off to their best start since the 1987-88 season. UCLA (ranked fourth) and Washington State (eighth) are the only other Pac-10 schools in this week’s polls, as both Arizona and Stanford suffered losses last week to fall out of the rankings.

Don’t be surprised, however, if both those schools return to the Top 25.

Apologies for not emptying the vault on Thursday, but I got caught up doing our what-the-heck-let’s-do-it NCAA Tournament story.

Sure it’s mid-January. No, Arizona State doesn’t want any part of tournament talk (there’s a reason I didn’t bother seeking coach Herb Sendek’s thoughts). But with a 3-0 start to the Pac-10 and a week off until the California/Stanford road trip, people are talking.

One other quick note about James Harden (they’ll be fast and furious if he somehow keeps up this level of play):

With 26 points on Wednesday night, he scored 20 points for a fourth consecutive game, which no ASU freshman has ever done, and only two others have accomplished since 2000. Ike Diogu scored 20 in six consecutive games in 2004-05 and Chad Prewitt had four straight in 2001-2002.

Eddie House holds the school record of eight consecutive games in the 1999-2000 season.

Watching was all the Wildcats could do against Harden in the final 25 minutes Wednesday night. His string of 20-point games reached four consecutive.  (Ralph Freso/Tribune)

As expected, UCLA and Washington State both won, which leaves a three-way tie in the conference standings (though the Bruins lost Darren Collison during the game to a hip injury).  It sets up the first big tilt of Washington State at UCLA on Saturday. 

The rankings will come out Monday. ASU will likely be in one poll. They’ll likely take some of Arizona’s previous votes and leap Oklahoma (home to Kansas State on Saturday) and Notre Dame (at Marquette on Saturday) among those who are receiving votes, but losses by Miami (Fla.), and Stanford would also help.

Either way, it looks like the Sun Devils will have an easier time cracking the Associated Press poll than the coaches Poll.

We’ll find out Monday.

Everything appears all quiet on the night before the in-state storm.

Arizona State appears to be a fairly healthy bunch. Rihards Kuksiks has a banged up forearm, but it’s not believed to be serious.

No real revelations came from Tuesday’s Q&A smorgasbord with the team.  As expected, it was the biggest attended media event of the season to date, including a couple reporters already up from Tucson.

Couple quick bits of interest:

James Harden, who was in attendance for last year’s 61-58 Arizona win in Tempe: “It was exciting. I was ready to get on the court.”

Jeff Pendergraph’s most vivid recollection of his first four career meetings against Arizona: (Last January at McKale Center) Before the game during warmups someone spit on me,” he said. “I had a big blob on my head but I didn’t know it.”

Coach Herb Sendek spent most of his 10 minute news conference trying to downplay the significance of Wednesday’s game, noting it’s only the third game of an 18-game (minimum) grind. Some media types, however, weren’t buying in and kept trying to push Sendek into professing some speech about how it’s the Arizona Wildcats, which should make it a bigger game than the games against the Oregon schools.

Sendek’s too smart and possesses way too much tunnel-vision to buy into those lame answers and soundbytes.

Looks like Arizona won’t make a determination on Jerryd Bayless until Wednesday afternoon’s shootaround. He did some shooting and light practicing on Tuesday but not at full speed.

Jerryd Bayless is really good, but with a less-than-healthy knee he’d be better served sitting out another game or two.

One view:  As much as ASU players said they’d like to be tested against a fully-loaded Wildcats team, there’s no reason for Bayless to play.  The Wildcats have a tough game at Houston on Saturday, and a 1-2 conference record may set Tucson ablaze, but with their strong nonconference schedule and the Pac-10’s overall strength mean the ‘Cats can still finish in the upper half of the conference and go to the NCAA tournament.  It’s about how teams finish, and Bayless’ health is too important fprArizona to jeopardize in the name of an early January game.

Fewer than 1,000 tickets are left for sale ($25 each). Get there early.