Blogging with the Devils

It’s a Mardi Gras (sort of ) at Arizona State, as Lisa Love’s athletic department earned a fourth-place finish in the Directors’ Cup standing, best in school history.

The long-awaited totals have been added, and Arizona State finished a school-best fourth place in this academic year’s Directors’ Cup standings.

The Sun Devils were hovering around ninth place most of the year, but a national championship in softball, a second-place finish in women’s track and field, fifth place from the women’s golf team and sixth place from men’s track and field pushed ASU into the top five for the first time in school history.

Baseball and men’s golf also combined for another 110 points.

The rest of the Pac-10 did its part and more. The conference won 13 NCAA titles in the 2007-08 academic year, one short of the all-time record set by the Pac-10 in 1996-97.

The Big Ten was second place with five total championships. ASU and UCLA were the only Division I schools to win three national championships.

In addition, Pac-10 women’s teams compiled eight national championships, easily the most of any Division I conference.

Mark Heller will hold down the blog fort for the next four weeks as I take some time to relax and recharge the batteries for football season. I will return in mid-July, prior to Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles.

Activity inside Arizona State’s athletic department figures to slow down, as coaches and administrators take vacations. However, there are four items to keep an eye on in the coming weeks:

1. The final U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup standings that measure overall success of athletic departments will be released on Thursday, and ASU is expected to post its highest placement ever. The school is ninth in the current standings, which matches its best finish, in 2000-01.

After ASU’s point totals from baseball (64), men’s track and field (73.5) and women’s track and field (90) are tallied, it is projected to have 1,146 points, which should be enough to pass at least eighth-place Penn State.

2. A report on the findings of an internal investigation into the baseball program is being prepared for submission to the NCAA and Pac-10. Athletic director Lisa Love said that ASU plans to publicly disclose the findings when the report is complete.

Coach Pat Murphy, who got a vote of confidence from Love on Friday, believes that any infractions will be minor.

When I asked Love last week about compliance issues in general, she said: ”There will always be things that challenge us. People make mistakes with violations, but that comes with the territory in college athletics, I’m sorry to say. But I can promise that we will continue to be diligent on how we handle such things.”

3. ASU’s preseason football practice schedule is still in limbo as officials evaluate the construction progress of the indoor practice facility, which is scheduled to be completed on Aug. 1. Coach Dennis Erickson said on Friday that Camp Tontozona near Payson will be utilized, but the length of the Sun Devils’ stay is to be determined.

“I think we should know more in about two weeks,” Erickson said.

4. Men’s swimming and men’s tennis, which were two of the three sports cut by ASU in May, continue fund-raising efforts in hopes of gaining reinstatement. The swimming program recently sent an e-mail to supporters outlining a process of raising $1 million by March 31, which would provide four years of operating expenses.

For now, ASU officials will not raise their optimism above the cautious level.

“We’re still working toward meeting the (fund-raising) goals,” senior associate athletic director Dawn Rogers said.

Love said that a deadline has not been set for the two sports — they each need an endowment of $5 million — to secure funding that would allow them to compete in 2008-09. If necessary, she said, the Pac-10 could quickly revise schedules.

See you in a month.

This little corner of cyberspace was born on June 13, 2007,  the result of Arizona State’s impeding appearance in the College World Series. It has been a year of fun and, on many occasions, frivolity.

We tracked the ever-changing hairstyles of football player Rudy Burgess. We were there when men’s basketball coach Herb Sendek got in touch with his inner cool dude. We ranked the Pac-10 football stadiums, in a list that was lambasted here and on the Web sites it was linked to.

We gave a eulogy for a squirrel during Camp Tontozona. We made a case for vintage football uniforms to honor the 50th birthday of Sun Devil Stadium. We marveled at the quickly-changing Pac-10 men’s basketball landscape. We joined in the ridicule choir after Arizona’s football coach opened his mouth and inserted his foot on signing day.

And we paid homage to a dear, departed friend.

It has all added up to a what, on many weeks, ranks as the second-most visited blog on the Tribune’s Web site, behind Cop Shop. There is no way Mark Heller and I could have made this happen by ourselves.

Thanks to the ASU athletes and coaches whose exploits are so, uh, bloggable.

Thanks to these guys for inspiring the name:

And most of all, thanks, dear readers, to you.

In the very first entry on this blog, I wrote: “In the two years that I’ve been on the ASU beat, I’ve found that no fans, with the possible exception of hardcore baseball seamheads, soak up information as eagerly as college sports followers. I’d be privileged if the blog became part of your daily ASU sports reading routine.”

A year later, the sentiments are the same.

Arizona State’s national softball title padded the Pac-10’s championship resume. (Ralph Freso/Tribune)

The Pac-10 likes to call itself the “conference of champions,” a moniker that especially fits in 2007-08.

Arizona State’s triumph at the Women’s College World Series on Tuesday was the conference’s 13th national title of this academic year, putting it one shy of tying the all-time record for a league, which was set by the Pac-10 in 1996-97.

With five championships this academic year, the Big Ten is a distant second among conferences.

Three NCAA titles — baseball and men’s and women’s outdoor track and field — have yet to be decided. The Pac-10 has three schools left (Arizona, ASU and Stanford) in the baseball tournament, and ASU, Southern California and UCLA will be among the contenders at the men’s and women’s track nationals.

The Sun Devils won both indoor track titles in March. The other Pac-10 champions are Arizona in men’s and women’s swimming; California in men’s water polo; Oregon in men’s cross country; Stanford in women’s cross country; UCLA in men’s golf, women’s tennis and women’s water polo and USC in women’s golf and women’s soccer.

ASU will collect 100 points from the softball title as it eyes its highest-ever finish in the U.S. Sports Academy Director’s Cup standings. The most recent standings were released on May 29, with ASU in 13th place with 762 points.

The next standings are unveiled on June 11, with the final numbers out on June 26. ASU’s best finish is ninth, in 2000-01.

Stanford leads with 1,348 points and is a lock for its 14th straight Cup title. Five of the top 13 schools are from the Pac-10, as California (881 points) is sixth, UCLA (875 points) seventh and USC (787.5 points) 10th.

In 10 postseason pitching appearances in 2008, Katie Burkhart pitched 53 innings, allowing 28 hits and three runs while recording 95 strikeouts.

Since we’ve seen the last of Katie Burkhart in an Arizona State uniform, where does she rank among the best left-handed athletes in school history? 

Burkhart did not need to pitch ASU to a national title to cement her place among all-time Sun Devil softball greats. She was already there.

But after this year’s Women’s College World Series, the ace hurler has earned her way into the discussion of the school’s most accomplished athletes — woman or lefty, take your pick.

ASU can count Phil Mickelson, Barry Bonds, Reggie Jackson, Rick Monday, Floyd Bannister, Larry Gura and Burkhart among its superb southpaws. James Harden – who was in attendance with men’s basketball teammates at Wednesday’s softball championship rally — could someday join that group.

You tell us: Who do you think is/was ASU’s best-ever left-hander?

When I attended Arizona State University in the early 1990s, the professor in an economics class I took had a saying: “I don’t give the grades away.” The diplomas are not given away, either, so a tip of the cap and tassel to the 60 Sun Devil athletes who graduate this week:

BASEBALL: Greg Bordes (interdisciplinary studies); Dustin Brader (interdisciplinary studies), Derik Olvey (interdisciplinary studies), Tommy Rafferty (interdisciplinary studies), Ryan Sontag (kinesiology)

MEN’S BASKETBALL: Antwi Atuahene (interdisciplinary studies)

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Sybil Dosty (interdisciplinary studies), Jill Noe (Masters of liberal studies), Reagan Pariseau (kinesiology)

FOOTBALL: Rudy Carpenter (interdisciplinary studies), Djadji Daffe (French), Wes Evans (interdisciplinary studies), Angelo Fobbs-Valentino (interdisciplinary studies), Michael Jones (interdisciplinary studies), Garrett Judah (interdisciplinary studies), Nate Kimbrough (interdisciplinary studies), Tashaka Merriweather (interdisciplinary studies), Brent Miller (interdisciplinary studies), Kellen Mills (interdisciplinary studies), Troy Nolan (interdisciplinary studies), Jeremy Payton (interdisciplinary studies), David Smith (interdisciplinary studies)

WOMEN’S GOLF: Charmaine Erasmus (interdisciplinary studies)

GYMNASTICS: Josie Hancock (interdisciplinary studies), Lisa Lanza (communication), Karissa Vossler (interdisciplinary studies)

SOCCER: Kim Bingham (marketing, psychology), Alissa Oldenkamp (marketing, management), Carla Scanniello (finance)

MEN’S SWIMMING: Lucas Azevedo (management), Ellis Schieman (communication)

WOMEN’S SWIMMING: Lindsey Russenberger (interdisciplinary studies), Emlynn Tursick (kinesiology)

WOMEN’S TENNIS: Roxanne Clarke (interdisciplinary studies), Jessica Leitch (management), Vendula Pilecka (interdisciplinary studies)

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD: Kyle Alcorn (interdisciplinary studies), Jordan Durham (interdisciplinary studies); Andrew Haas (civil engineering), Tomas Navarro (kinesiology), Bradley Roth (history), David Ryan (marketing)

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD: Jenna Kingma (marketing), April Kubishta (mathematics), D’Metra Macedon (interdisciplinary studies), Jessica Pressley (justice studies), Sarah Stevens (kinesiology), Alana Waterford (microbiology), Bridgette Williams (interdisciplinary studies)

VOLLEYBALL: Colette Meek (French, psychology), Staci Smith (interdisciplinary studies)

WATER POLO: Traci Aparicio (justice studies), Windy Ballejos (design studies), Ashley Bower (journalism & mass communication), Caylinn Wallace (marketing)

WRESTLING: Alex Pavlenko (interdisciplinary studies), Patrick Pitsch (interdisciplinary studies), Quinton Pruett (justice studies), Richard Renzi (interdisciplinary studies), Jason Trulson (biology)

Information on ASU’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies can be found here.

The Sun Devil Club is sponsoring the Sun Devil Express, a series of five luncheons with Arizona State coaches in May. It’s basically a chance to listen to coaches talk about their programs and perhaps answer a few questions.

Here’s the skinny (all times are 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. unless noted):

Friday at Don and Charlie’s, 7501 E. Camelback Rd. in Scottsdale, with football coach Dennis Erickson and women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne.

May 13 at Monti’s La Casa Vieja, 100 S. Mill Ave. in Tempe, with Erickson (sold out).

May 15 at Majerle’s, 3095 W. Chandler Blvd. in Chandler, with men’s basketball coach Herb Sendek and Turner Thorne.

May 22 at Majerle’s, 24 N. Second St. in Phoenix, with Sendek.

May 28 at Tucson El Saguarito, 1035 E. Mabel St. in Tucson, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. with Sendek.

Tickets are sold in advance. Contact the Sun Devil Club at (480) 727-7000 or sundevilclub@asu.edu for more information.

Thanks in big part to 200 points from the indoor national-title winning men’s and women’s track teams, Arizona State rose to eighth place in the U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup standings released on Thursday.

ASU, which has 467.5 points, was 26th in the previous standings, which reflect the overall achievement of college athletic programs. The school’s best Directors’ Cup finish is ninth, in 2000-01.

Considering that ASU’s traditional strength has been its spring sports, it figures to better that placement this year. Baseball and softball could make another trip to their respective College World Series, both tennis squads are ranked and most of the women’s golf team that contended for a national title in 2007 are back.

Also, both track units will be among the favorites at the NCAA outdoor meet. (Thanks to a recent change in Cup points policy, indoor and outdoor track placements count in the standings, instead of the highest of the two.)

Three Pac-10 schools are in the top 10. Stanford, winner of 13 straight Cup titles, is first with 668 points, and California is fourth with 499.

Click here for a PDF file that extensively details ASU’s yearly performance in the Directors’ Cup, which was founded in 1993. 

Thomas Weber

At spring football practice on Thursday, auditions began for long snapper and holder, with the highest marks going to freshman Thomas Ohmart, a walk-on from Scottsdale Horizon High.

“Ohmart snapped on punts and field goals, and he’s our best guy right now, on both,” said coach Dennis Erickson, who also cited the snapping work of linebackers Travis Goethel and Mike Nixon.

Backup quarterback Danny Sullivan and kicker/punter Zach Richards held for Thomas Weber, who won the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top kicker a year ago. Weber will have a large say on who gets the holding job.

“If all things are equal, he’s the guy who is kicking, not me,” Erickson said. “I want him to have the guy he’s most comfortable with.”

Weber, who hit 24-of-25 field-goal attempts last season, said that he currently has the most synergy with Sullivan. The two worked together during the winter.

Placekicking might be Weber’s only duty next season.

“I grew to like (punting),” said Weber, who averaged 39.3 yards on 47 boots in 2007. “But coach Erickson has expressed that he’d prefer I not do both. But if it comes down to me being the best guy, I’ll do what the coaches want.”

The Sun Devils will conclude Saturday’s workout, which is at 10 a.m. at the Kajikawa Practice Facility, with a scrimmage.

Receiver Chris McGaha was limited on Thursday due to muscle tightness, but Erickson said that the wide receiver should be fine.

With Chase Field’s center-field wall as a backdrop, former ASU pitcher Brian Flores makes a delivery during last year’s Challenge at Chase game against Arizona.

Arizona State’s non-conference contest against Arizona on Tuesday at Packard Stadium, which will likely be a matchup of the consensus top two-ranked teams in the nation, has sold out.

It is a scenario that screams for a stage much bigger than Packard, which has a capacity of 3,879. The last two seasons, the schools had one, playing a non-league contest at Chase Field, a benefit game labeled the Challenge at Chase.

Proceeds went to the Diamondbacks Foundation’s youth field building program. But attendance at both games — 5,201 in 2006 and 4,296 last year — was lower than expected, and the event was not scheduled this season. Perhaps it is just as well for the Sun Devils, as the Wildcats won both games.

Still, the Chase Field setting was nice for college baseball, and here is hoping that it can be revived in the future, possibly with a different format.

ASU could explore holding its early-season tournament there, inviting Arizona and national powers such as Vanderbilt and Oregon State, who took part in the DeMarini Invitational last month at Packard. Such an event would mirror the Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park, one of the most successful regular-season tournaments and one the Sun Devils participated in last year.

Multiple games at Chase Field would help in coach Pat Murphy’s early-season objective of playing on bigger parks. He feels that helps his team prepare for Pac-10 games in the Northwest, where the field dimensions are similar to Packard’s, but the ball does not travel as well in the heavier air.

“You get on a big field like that, one that plays totally different than what we’re used to, that can only help us,” Murphy said.

ASU is one of 16 schools taking part in the Gridiron Bash, a spring football fan festival. The main event at Sun Devil Stadium on April 18 — the day before the spring game – is a musical performance by 3 Doors Down, which has sold 12 million records and boasts six No. 1 singles.

Tickets can be purchased at the Gridiron Bash’s official Web site.

This week, the New York Times published “The Scholarship Divide,” a well-done series that details the misconceptions that some athletes and parents have about athletic financial aid — and the challenges that college coaches have in determining who gets how much. The latter is something that baseball coaches, with only 11.7 scholarships available for rosters in excess of 30 players, wrestle with constantly.

Clicking on the above link will take you to the first story in the Times series; the other articles are available via a menu on the left side of the page.

Bob Moran

Praise for the late Bob Moran has come in from near (Paola Boivin and Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic and former Tribune writer Darren Urban, now at azcardinals.com), far (Paul Buker of The Oregonian) and his previous workplace (Ryan Finley of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson and Charles Durrenberger, formerly of the Star).

However, the best place for insight on the journalist and man that Bob was remains the Tribune’s online guest book, which as of this writing has ballooned to 12 pages and includes entries from several former Arizona State athletes and coaches.

In the last few days, I have received many inquiries about Bob’s columns in which Sparky Sun Devil and Wilbur Wildcat converse about the athletic happenings at their respective schools. Most of them exist as newsprint clips in a file cabinet in the Tribune’s library and would require time to re-type, but I found four that have survived online:

Sparky and Wilbur meet at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts — June 1, 2003

Football talk during a round of golf in Eloy — Aug. 10, 2003

Wilbur interrupted while watching “Law & Order” — Oct. 5, 2003

The mascots at a hotel bar after a baseball game — May 30, 2004

The Sparky-Wilbur columns comprise the writing that Moran is most known for. But to me, his all-time greatest hit was his coverage of the ASU football team’s signature regular-season victory, the upset of two-time defending national champion Nebraska in 1996. As a Tribune rookie on the copy desk that night, I edited his story and remarked to my fellow workers, “The Sun Devils weren’t the only guys that rose to the occasion.”

Without being over-written, Bob’s story deftly crafts the how and why behind ASU’s victory with the historical significance that few writers can provide. Enjoy:

By Bob Moran, Tribune
September 22, 1996

History born. History died.

It was 21 years ago that Arizona State made school history by defeating Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl.

It was on the playing surface of Sun Devil Stadium that Nebraska became the first college team in 39 years to win consecutive undisputed national championships.

And Nebraska’s run for an unprecedented third title probably ended on Saturday night, when the 17th-ranked Sun Devils (3-0) shocked the college football world with a 19-0 victory over the nation’s No. 1 team before 74,089.

“I’m just so proud of the team and my staff,” said a happy ASU coach Bruce Snyder. “They did a great job playing of planning what we needed to do to win this game.”

Defensive coordinator Phil Snow and his aides had a brilliant game plan that allowed the players to pitch a goose egg as improbable as a no-hitter at Coors Field.

“It will definitely make other teams take notice of our defense,” said ASU senior tackle Shawn “Rock” Swayda. “We shut out the No. 1 team in America!”

On a night when fans celebrated the dedication of the playing surface in honor of legendary coach Frank Kush, the Devils administered one of those old-fashioned derriere whippings.

You’d have thought some of Kush’s former players — 230 of them returned for the weekend — had suited up.

But these ’96 Sun Devils have forever made names for themselves, no matter what happens the rest of the season.

There was Jake Plummer passing for 292 yards in becoming the school’s all-time leading passer, passing the immortal Danny White. He led a well-conceived offense that produced 401 yards.

There was the inspired defense, led by end Derrick Rodgers, linebacker Scott Von der Ahe, and free safety Mitchell Freedman showing just how much improvement they’ve made since Nebraska rolled to 686 yards in the 77-28 rout in Lincoln last season.

Nebraska was held to just 226 yards.

“The story of the game was they just whipped us,” Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said after the Cornhuskers’ 26-game winning streak came to a crashing halt.

What was amazing is how ASU’s defensive front dominated what is generally regarded as the best offensive line in college football.

“We watched film all week of Nebraska’s offensive line,” Rodgers said. “We played exactly the way we expected to play.”

Nebraska (1-1), a 12-time NCAA rushing champion, could manage only 120 yards. And to punctuate the effort, Rodgers dropped struggling Nebraska quarterback Scott Frost in the end zone for ASU’s third safety with 6½ minutes to play.

ASU offensive linemen Juan Roque (74) and Kyle Murphy try to keep Nebraska’s Jason Peter and Grant Wistrom out of the passing pocket.

In the trenches is usually where these games are won. That’s where it was won when Kush’s 1978 Sun Devils pulled off another shocker, handing UPI national champion USC — the most athletically gifted team ever to play here — a 20-7 loss. That Trojans team featured Anthony Munoz, Heisman Trophy winner Charles White, future Heisman winner Marcus Allen, Dennis Smith and Ronnie Lott.

The defense made a 17-0 halftime lead stand up in handing Nebraska its first shutout since Miami (Fla.) did it in the 1992 Orange Bowl. From giving up 77 to zero. Wow. Double wow.

“Last year, they embarrassed us real bad,” Swayda said. “Nobody gave us a chance to win this game. I think even the coaches had their doubts.”

You should have known, though, something was up when ASU won the toss and elected to take the ball.

The not-so-subtle message was, “We don’t care what everybody’s saying about your vaunted defense; you’re going to have to prove it to us.”

ASU then crisply marched 80 yards in 10 plays to take a 7-0 lead and quiet the 25,000 Big Red fans who came hoping to see a repeat of the Fiesta Bowl slaughter of Florida.

The big play was a 31-yard pass to freshman tailback J.R. Redmond, who was flanked out to the right as a wide receiver.

Four plays later, the Cornhuskers secondary blew a coverage, and Plummer found Keith Poole in the moonlight for a 25-yard score.

“The first TD was a big confidence boost for our offense,” Plummer said. “We told them that we’re not scared and that we were going to play with them.”

The Cornhuskers’ first series was a disaster. They vividly showed offensive rust and just how much a change at quarterback can mean for a program — even one as strong as Nebraska’s.

Nebraska, which lost three of six fumbles, had done what would have seemed impossible last year — hurt itself with penalties. The ’Huskers had two infractions on their first possession. To compound that, tailback Ahman Green mishandled an option pitch, and the ball was fumbled out of the end zone for a safety.

Just 4½ minutes into the game, the Devils led 9-0. That is all ASU would need.

Nebraska had only two scoring threats, fumbling away both, the last when Green lost it at the Sun Devil 3 with 1:39 remaining.

“We’re No. 1 now,” Freedman said.

“There’s no way you can come into our house (and win).”