It’s not always apples and oranges
January 23rd, 2008, 3:35 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Mark Heller
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.
