Arizona State Basketball

In a defensive battle, Washington State defeated visiting Arizona State in Pullman, WA, Thursday evening.  The final score was 59-47, but the game was much, much closer than these numbers indicate.

Derrick Low led the Cougs' offensive effort and prevented ASU from taking a lead at any point in the game.  That’s right.  Low finished with 15 points, one of three Cougar starters in double figures.

Aron Baynes and Taylor Rochestie chipped in 10 points apiece.

WSU led the game end-to-end.  But before Cougar fans exploded with an enthusiastic “All right!” holding the lead was still very important.  The Sun Devils were not dominated.  Not nearly.

So what was so close about this game?  Four of the five starters for WSU played great basketball.  Kyle Weaver was a little off his game, possibly slightly hobbled by ongoing shin problems.  This shows each player executed his own game.

Fans of the Pac-10 have come to expect the sort of hard fought contest witnessed on the hardwood of Friel Court.  Bodies were flying everywhere.  Both teams hounded whoever might have the ball on offense.  There were very few uncontested shots.

In the end, Arizona State was taken so completely out of their offensive flow in the second half that they were held to a minuscule 23 percent shooting from the floor.  Oh my!   That was the difference in the game.

Baynes was outstanding, playing some of his best basketball of the season.  He frustrated Jeff Pendergraph, who could do very little near the basket.  Aron jumped in to make four steals, one of which had him running the entire court for a slam dunk, sending the Zzu Cru into a wild frenzy.

Coach Tony Bennett was beaming once the final buzzer sounded.  At the risk of redundancy, his team played like a team.  There’s no question he was pleased to see his troops earn a victory over an outstanding basketball team.

Arizona State is good.  Thursday night, the Cougs were marginally better.

Unlike the matchup of these two squads down in Tempe, there won’t be any second-guessing how the officials called, or didn’t call, the game.  Trailing by two possessions with one minute left, all the Sun Devils could do was hoist three-point attempts.  They were forced to shoot from well beyond NBA range, doinking the ball off the rim and into the well-positioned hands of WSU players.

The Cougs weren’t going to let ASU get a good look at the basket.  They were all about defense.

Chances are these two teams will meet again in the Pac-10 tournament.

While ASU needs a win Saturday in Seattle against Washington, the Cougs will have their hands full with the Arizona Wildcats who will be fighting mad after losing a game to those same Huskies Thursday night.

Washington State moves to 9-5 in conference play, leaving them in third place behind UCLA and Stanford.  The Cougs are 21-5 overall, showing they are deserving of their No. 17 ranking in the nation.

GO COUGS!!!

Washington State University will host the Arizona schools in Pullman this week.

First in town Thursday will be the Arizona State Sun Devils.

The question to be asked here though is: "Which ASU team will show up in Pullman?"

At one point this season, Coach Herb Sendek had his Sun Devil team playing brilliant basketball.

ASU was 16-2 and the squad was ranked among the top/elite teams in the country. There was talk of a Pac-10 championship. Fans had visions of playing for an NCAA championship. Sendek was going to be in line for Coach of the Year honors. And suddenly, one of the toughest tickets to secure in the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix area) was a reserved seat to see Arizona State play basketball. There was a basketball team in Phoenix other than the Suns getting media attention and love.

Things took a dramatic change for the Sun Devils just about as quickly as their ascension to college basketball prominence.

Their road trip to northern California got off to a good beginning in Berkeley. A few days after their 16th win on the season (a victory in double overtime), ASU ran into the talented, well-coached team in Palo Alto. Stanford shut down the Sun Devil offense and handed them a one-sided defeat, 67-52.

ASU has earned just two victories in their last eight games. Yikes! Such are the challenges of playing in the Pac-10.

Coach Sendek’s team completed a season sweep over in-state rival Arizona. It’s been more than a decade since that last happened.

Last Thursday, the Sun Devils rallied back to take the Stanford Cardinal into an overtime period. That was all they needed to exact revenge for the loss that began their downward spiral. The victory looked as though it might be the start of a winning streak.

California hung on to defeat ASU on their home court Saturday, enjoying a measure of revenge for themselves. Though the loss wasn’t worthy of inflammatory adjectives, it was a blow to a team that has to travel to Washington this week.

Enough about Arizona State.

Things have been rosier for Washington State these days. The Cougs were in the midst of a tailspin that saw them lose three games in a row to begin this month. They were plummeting in the national rankings. Instead of winning close games, they were coming out on the short end of the score.

Three solid wins over USC, OSU and Oregon have quieted opposing fans roaring the chant, "Overrated".

The emergence of Taylor Rochestie as scorer has, and will, set a fire for the Cougar offense. If teams want to take the ball out of the hands of Derrick Low, Coach Tony Bennett is more than fine with that. Rochestie has plenty of scoring talent. WSU offense is never going to amaze fans, but Coach Bennett has plenty of weapons to attack opponents. He would be the first to credit much of the team’s success to having seven legitimate scorers in his rotation. That has been critical because of inconsistency. If five of the Cougs ever get hot at the same time, look out!

Washington State isn’t about offense. They are all about defense and controlling the tempo of the game.

Come Thursday evening, the Cougs are going to need to play some outstanding defense to minimize the impact of arguably the best guard in the Pac-10, freshman James Harden. This kid is an awesome talent. He can take over a game at either end of the court and has done so repeatedly this season. As Harden goes, so go the Sun Devils.

Fortunately, WSU is on their home court and playing good basketball. The Zzu Cru will give the Cougs an extra shot of adrenaline. They escaped Tempe will a razor thin victory, so clearly won’t be overconfident facing a team that is struggling a bit.

Prediction: WSU 72 - ASU 61

GO COUGS!!!

Cal sophomore forward Ryan Anderson called it "ridiculous," senior wing Eric Vierneisel opted for "crazy" and coach Ben Braun admitted he was nervous.

"I thought the clock would never stop," Braun said.

Arizona State made seven three-pointers in the final 1:07 Saturday night, but Cal had built enough of a cushion and poise at the free-throw line to cling to a season-saving 76-73 victory in front of 9,827 at Ned Wulk Court in Tempe.

The Bears (15-9, 6-7) snapped a two-game skid by making 15 of 18 foul shots in the final two minutes and playing one of their best defensive games of the season in response to back-to-back defensive debacles. Oregon made a school-record 18 three-pointers on Feb. 9, and Arizona scored on 15 consecutive possessions and scored 52 second-half points Thursday.

Cal limited the Sun Devils (16-8, 6-6) to one field goal during a 12:38 stretch that spanned halftime and pushed its lead to 40-32. Post Jeff Pendergraph and guard James Harden were held to a combined 14 points on 4-of-15 shooting after torching the Bears for 53 points on 22-of-31 shooting in their 99-90 double-overtime win last month.

"I haven't seen us play with that kind of defense or with that kind of urgency in a while," said Anderson, who led Cal with 28 points and 11 rebounds and moved his road averages to 25.8 and 12.5. "For a while, we'd just say, 'We lost. Let's move on and try to win the next one.' "

But the Bears realized that they are running out of "next ones." There are five regular-season games remaining, and it is widely projected that they'll have to get to .500 in conference play - meaning winning three of the final five - to get an NCAA Tournament nod.

"We read the papers and see the standings, and we know that we've put ourselves in a position in which we can't let any more of these games slip away," said Vierneisel, who drew a charge, blocked two shots and had two steals after earning the second-half start. "We want to keep playing, and we've got to keep winning to do that."

Apparently, the message Braun has preached his entire career finally sunk in at halftime. That's when sophomore forward Jamal Boykin led a spirited exchange, challenging his teammates to be dedicated to defense.

"In the locker room, we were screaming at each other to get each other focused and ready to play defense like we need to," Anderson said. "We needed to go out and defend like we haven't all year, like this was our last game.

"I don't want to say that we settled in the past sometimes, but sometimes after a team makes a run on us, we tend to put our heads down. Tonight that didn't happen."

That contention is confirmed in the numbers for just about every Cal player.

Anderson added a career-high four steals to his offensive barrage, sophomore wing Patrick Christopher had 20 points and five rebounds and sophomore point guard Jerome Randle went for 10 points and four assists. Freshman forward Harper Kamp chipped in seven points and six rebounds, senior center DeVon Hardin had six points and seven rebounds despite foul trouble and Vierneisel held Ty Abbott, who had a game-high 30 points, without a field goal for the first 12:04 of the second half.

"You can't just talk about playing defense; it takes a concerted effort," Braun said. "There's nothing easy or glamorous about it, but it has to become a habit. If our guys enjoyed the victory, they have to enjoy what defense did."

The win marked Braun's 550th career victory and the Bears' seventh in the last eight in Tempe.

"I think No. 551 will be better, and then the same goes for 552," Braun joked. "Those are things you look at when you're done coaching. I'll remember this game because of the game, not the number."

Both Washington State and Arizona State will be looking to return to winning form early Saturday evening on the Sun Devils' campus in Tempe.

#24 ASU were upset by the Washington Huskies. The sixth-ranked Cougars fell to Arizona. One team will be headed to a second consecutive conference loss while the other will defend their national ranking.

Arizona State had their worst shooting performance of the season against the Huskies, making a dismal 32 percent of their attempts from the field. The Sun Devils played decent defense, forcing the Dawgs to be almost as inept from the field, holding them to percent accuracy.

Jeff Pendergraph, an anchor for ASU, averaging 14 points and 7 rebounds a game, had a sub-par game Thursday. That included 6 turnovers, something uncharacteristic for the 6′ 9″ junior forward. Freshman guard James Harden turned in a decent game, matching his season average of 17 points. Harden poses big time trouble for any team with his awesome shooting touch and excellent court sense. This kid is a player. Speaking of players, the Sun Devils landed another good one in freshman Ty Abbott. Though Abbott is from Phoenix, he was going to play for New Mexico. He took recruiting visits to both UW and WSU, so he is no stranger to either teams coaching staff. Eventually, he stayed home opting for ASU after there was a coaching change at New Mexico.

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Site: Wells Fargo Arena, Tempe, AZ

Tipoff: 4pm

Television: Fox Sports Net

Online: Gametracker

For several seasons, the ASU basketball program was languishing in the bottom half of the PAC-10. Last season under new Coach Herb Sendek, that trend continued only in terms of their win-loss record. In the second half of the season, Sendek had the Sun Devils playing some pretty good team basketball. The Carnegie-Mellon graduate, has made a solid mark in college basketball coaching. He began his head coaching career in 1994 at Miami University (Ohio). Earning the Conference Coach of the Year that first season. Does that sound familiar Cougar Nation? Two years later he moved up to NC State, and took the team to the NCAA Tournament each year of his last five, also earning the ACC Coach of the Year. This season he has the Sun Devils playing great basketball with a very young squad. Though they may fall from the Top 25 after their loss to Washington, make no mistake, Coach Sendek has his team playing well every game.

The Sun Devils are scoring 71 ppg while giving up an average of just 60 points. Those are some pretty good stats. That is how you earn national recognition.

Unfortunately for ASU, it is unlikely that the Cougars will falter again on offense the way they did in the second half against Arizona. They have plenty of game to win in Tempe, and will definitely be hungry to start another winning streak. This game will be a matchup of experience versus youthful talent. That should be a difference maker that favors the Cougars.

Prediction: WSU 75 - ASU 68

GO COUGS!!!

If you'd told me that there would be a key game in November featuring two Pac-10 teams with national title dreams, I would have said...

"Duh! USC and Cal play on Nov. 10th."

So much for that.

With the wheels falling off for the Trojans and Bears, the real battle is between No. 4 Arizona State and No. 5 Oregon on Saturday in Autzen Stadium.

For all the hype around Tim Tebow and Matt Ryan, the real Heisman front-runner is Oregon QB Dennis Dixon.

Gone is the mistake-prone, indecisive scrambler from years past. Dixon is 14th in the country in total offense, with 24 TDs (eight rushing) and only three INTs.

It helps to have Jonathan Stewart in the backfield, but everybody knows who makes this Duck squad tick.

On the other side of the field, ASU QB Rudy Carpenter has benefited from Dennis Erickson's tutelage. Carpenter has completed 65 percent of his passes and is a great game manager—but it remains to be seen whether he'll be hindered by an injured thumb.

Speaking of Erickson—who deserves the Coach of the Year Award more than he does? He's taken a mediocre program and molded it into a national title contender.

Kudos to the coach for being the missing piece of the puzzle.

ASU-Oregon should be a hard-fought game, with the winner squarely positioned to make a run for the conference crown—as well as a national title game berth.

The talking heads are predicting a high-scoring contest, but I'm not so sure. ASU's defense has become a force, ranking in the top 10 nationally in total D.

It should be great to see these two teams clash—instead of USC vs. Cal.

Some other notes on the Week 10 action...

- Will either team score in Thursday night's game between VA Tech and GA Tech? Both teams have top 15 defenses and really bad offenses.

6-4, anyone?

- Nick Saban is a jerk...but he's a jerk who can really coach football.

That said, Leaving LSU for Alabama was dumb, especially considering the beatdown the Tigers are about to give the Tide. No chance Bama wins this game.

By the way, the happiest man in the world who Saban left behind: future Michigan head coach Les Miles.

- Virginia and Wake Forest meet in the only battle between ranked ACC teams this week—this from a slate that includes BC-FSU and VT-GT.

Is THIS the future of ACC football?

- So it's now Ohio State and everybody else in the Big Ten. Can underachieving Wisconsin bring the overachieving Buckeyes back down to earth?

Without a healthy P.J. Hill in the backfield, it's going to be tough.

- Is Georgia going to bring out props after its first score against Troy? And, on the flip side, how long will it be until Vandy uses a premeditated celebration against Florida?

Honestly, this story is WAY overblown.

- Michigan-Michigan State is always a throw-down, but now the Spartans have the type of spread running attack that gave the Wolverines fits early in the year.

MSU tailback Javon Ringer holds the key to this game.

- Mizzou hasn't won at Colorado since 1997. If the Tigers want to catch Kansas in the Big 12 North, they'd better reverse that trend.

Chase Daniel is a dual-threat beast.

- UConn is now the favorite in the Big East—how weird is that?

Rutgers is still shaken up after a thrashing at the hands of West Virginia. Can Ray Rice carry his team to an upset win?

- Texas A&M closes the season with four games against top-15 opponents. Loss No. 2 will come this week against Oklahoma.

Good luck with that job security, Dennis Franchione.

- USC, in its mortal state, looks to get some revenge over Oregon State, who shocked the Trojans 33-31 last season.

If the Beavers win this one, we can honestly wonder what in the world is going on with this bunch of Trojans.

- If Florida State, by some miracle from God, beats Boston College, College Gameday will have no choice but to come to Clemson on Nov. 17.

- And speaking of the Tigers, no way they lose to Duke this week. Look for offensive numbers similar to those from the Central Michigan game.

UPSET ALERT: No. 11 Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech.

Thanks for reading...GOD BLESS!