Comeback, Cardiac and Confounding kids
February 20th, 2008, 3:11 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Mark Heller
ASU coach Herb Sendek took little away from his team scoring 23 points in the final two minutes to at least make Saturday’s loss to California interesting in the end.
The previous 38 minutes were much more disconcerning.
But the Sun Devils have developed this little characteristic of giving up big runs, then returning the favor.
Runs are always life in college basketball, it’s why coaches rarely have any timeouts remaining at game’s end.
“In some instances we’ve had more than nine lives and overcome ourselves at times,” Sendek said.
This was the end scene at the end of a double-digit comeback in the final five minutes of regulation (and then overtime) against Stanford. The Sun Devils inadvertently became well-versed in burying themselves alive and then escaping. (Lisa Olson/Tribune)
There are many cases to his point. The Sun Devils trailed big against Stanford and Arizona, and came back to win.
As for Thursday’s opponent, they trailed Washington State by double digits before a furious comeback last month, but lost at the buzzer.
Ahead early, an 18-2 WSU run in the second half ultimately ended the Sun Devils’ day.
“We can’t have spurts of energy, because when that spurt ends, that’s when teams start smelling blood and get leads,” forward Jeff Pendergraph said. “Instead of us keep going and building on a lead, we dig deeper and deeper into a hole and then there’s five minutes left and down by 12 and it’s trying to pull another one out at the wire instead of having a good game.
“If we had our energy going and doing what we’re supposed to we’d have beat (WSU) by 20 instead of being down one.”
It makes for good entertainment and drama, even if the remaining hairs fall out of Sendek’s head a little quicker. It’s also a tribute that this team loaded with underclassmen doesn’t pack it in (other than UCLA and Nebraska).
Perhaps this group thrives on such high-wire acrobatics?
“I would hope they’re not that ill,” Sendek joked. “Who wants to give up an 18-2 run just to see if we can come back?”
Evidently, these guys.
Arizona State and Texas are the only two schools in Division I men’s basketball to have beaten multiple teams currently ranked in the top 10 of this week’s Associated Press Top 25.
ASU has beaten No. 9 Stanford and No. 10 Xavier (The Muskateers’ terrific season since losing to ASU in December has been huge in keeping the Sun Devils’ NCAA Tournament chances afloat).
Texas has beaten No. 2 Tennessee, No. 4 Kansas and No. 6 UCLA.
James Harden, on whether his college basketball has lived up to expectations: “In the beginning of the season it was like, ‘This is the Pac-10?’ We were winning all the time. Then we got going (into the season) and it’s like, ‘Yeah, this is tough.’”
