March 13, 2000
Arizona State Sun Devils (14-14, 7-11) vs. Colorado State Rams (20-9, 9-5)
Thursday, March 16, 2000 - 7 p.m. - Moby Arena - Fort Collins, Colo.
Women's National Invitation Tournament First Round
In their first postseason invitation since 1991-92 and just the fifth in the history of the program, the Arizona State Sun Devils will travel to Fort Collins, Colo., to take on the Colorado State Rams in the first round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament Thursday, March 16. The Sun Devils will be looking to win their first postseason game since earning a first-round win over Utah in the 1983 NCAA Tournament. Hitting the road will also pose a challenge for Arizona State which will be aiming to snap a seven-game road losing streak that dates back to a Jan. 15 victory over Washington State in Pullman, Wash. Arizona State finished the regular season with a 14-14 overall record and a 7-11 mark in the Pac-10, good for seventh place in the conference, the team's most overall and conference wins since 1992-93.
The winner of Thursday night's game will play the winner of a USC-Santa Clara matchup being played in Santa Clara, Calif., on Thursday night. The second-round game would be played either Saturday, March 18 or Sunday, March 19 at a site to be determined. The WNIT features a field of 32 teams in a single-elimination format. All games, including the semifinals and championship game, will be hosted at on-campus sites.
Media Exposure
The Sun Devil Sports Network will bring Thursday's game to the Valley of the Sun on KTKP 1280 AM with the voice of Arizona State women's basketball, Robby Robinson, calling the action.
Last Time Out
All three Arizona State seniors scored in double figures in their final regular-season action, but it wasn't enough as the Sun Devils fell to the surging Stanford Cardinal 91-67 Saturday at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif.
Stanford shot 64.4 percent in the game to reach 91 points, the most scoring the Sun Devils had allowed all season. The Cardinal jumped out to an early advantage, hitting seven three-pointers in the first 10 minutes. Stanford led by as many as 16 points with 7:04 to play in the first half, but Arizona State cut the lead to 39-31 with 1:47 left in the first half when senior Rachel Holt (Buckeye, Ariz.) hit a pair of free throws. The Sun Devils, who were without the services of their leading scorer in sophomore Theresa Jantzen (Medicine Hat, Alberta) due to a concussion suffered in practice on Friday, would not score again in the half as Stanford took a 43-31 lead into the locker room. Stanford's offensive onslaught continued in the second half as the Cardinal shot 71 percent from the field en route to the 91-67 victory.
Senior Kitch Kitchen (Newark, N.J.) led the Sun Devils in scoring for the second straight game with 13 points, including a career-best three three-pointers. Holt added 11 points and fellow senior Kristine Sand (Oslo, Norway) chipped in with 10. Sophomore Leah Combs (Yorba Linda, Calif.) also turned in a season-best 10 points and paced the team in rebounding for the second straight game with five rebounds. Four Stanford players scored in double figures, led by sophomore Lauren St. Clair's 14 points.
Probable Starters
| Pos. | Ht. | Cl. | PPG | RPG | NOTES | ||
| #22 | Theresa Jantzen | F | 6-3 | So. | 12.4 | 4.9 | Missed Stanford game w/concussion |
| #54 | Rachel Holt | C | 6-3 | Sr. | 11.8 | 5.4 | Led team in scoring in 7 of last 10 |
| #33 | Natalie Tucker | G | 5-9 | Jr. | 7.2 | 3.9^ | Season-best six rebs. vs. Arizona |
| #15 | Kitch Kitchen | G | 5-7 | Sr. | 9.2 | 3.5 | Has led team in scoring in last 2 |
| #12 | Brett Leonard | G | 5-5 | Fr. | 1.3 | 1.8^ | Has started seven games |
Off the Bench
| Pos. | Ht. | Cl. | PPG | RPG | NOTES | ||||
| #3 | Liz Paulson | G | 5-11 | Jr. | 3.8 | 1.5^ | First guard off bench | ||
| #11 | Aubrey McFadyen | G | 6-1 | Jr. | 2.8 | 1.3 | Career-best 16 pts. in 16 min. vs. OSU | ||
| #13 | Leah Combs | F | 6-2 | So. | 3.4 | 3.8 | 9 rbs. at Cal, 10 pts. at Stanford | ||
| #14 | Kristine Sand | F | 6-0 | Sr. | 10.7 | 4.5 | Tied for 3rd in career treys at ASU | ||
| #21 | Sarah Allen | F/G | 6-1 | Fr. | 5.3 | 2.5 | 28 treys ranks 3rd on season list | ||
| #32 | Rainy Crisp | G | 5-6 | So. | 1.1 | 1.4 | Career-best 4 pts., 4 ast. vs. WSU | ||
| #50 | Kellie McDanal | F | 6-4 | Jr. | 1.2 | 1.6 | Has played in nine games |
Arizona State in the Postseason
The Sun Devils will be participating in March Madness for the first time since the 1991-92 season and just the fifth time in school history. Arizona State's last postseason appearance came in the 1992 NCAA Tournament when the sixth-seeded Devils fell in the first round of the Midwest Region at DePaul 67-65. Arizona State advanced to the second round in the 1983 NCAA Tournament, falling in the Sweet Sixteen to eventual national champion USC 96-59, while the year before the team also lost to the eventual national champion with a 92-54 semifinal decision at the hands of top-seeded Louisiana Tech in 1982. ASU's only other postseason appearance came in 1981 when the Sun Devils advanced to the championship game of the National Women's Invitation Tournament in Amarillo, Texas, but fell just short of a national title with a 75-73 overtime loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. Arizona State has a 4-4 all-time record in postseason play and a 2-1 mark in the WNIT.
A Springboard for the Future
Arizona State's invitation to the WNIT bodes well for the future. Of the 32 teams that advanced to the WNIT last year, seven earned NCAA Tournament bids this season and nine advanced to the WNIT for a second season (a total of 16 team teams in postseason play). On the season, Arizona State played a total of 13 games against eight teams which advanced to one of the two postseason tournaments (North Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Stanford, UCLA, Arizona and Oregon to the NCAA Tournament and USC to the WNIT).
Holt, Jantzen, Allen Earn All-Conference Honors
Senior Rachel Holt (Buckeye, Ariz.) has been named to the All-Pac-10 Conference team, becoming the first-team selection for the Sun Devils since Ryneldi Becenti in 1992 and 1993. Sophomore Theresa Jantzen (Medicine Hat, Alberta) and freshman Sarah Allen (Cincinnati, Ohio) also earned all-conference honors, being named to the honorable mention All-Pac-10 and Freshman All-Pac-10 teams, respectively.
Arizona State's starting center for the past three years, Holt has been selected to the Pac-10 first team for the first time in her career after earning honorable mention laurels last season. She leads the team in rebounding (5.4 rpg) and is second in scoring (11.8 ppg) this season. Holt ranks third in the conference in field goal percentage, hitting 56.4 percent of her shots. She is also eighth in the Pac-10 in blocked shots (0.86 bpg), ninth in free throw percentage (76.6) and 12th in scoring (11.8 ppg). Holt has scored 965 points in her career and ranks fourth in career field goal percentage at Arizona State (52.5) and third in career blocked shots (77).
Jantzen earned honorable mention All-Pac-10 honors for the second straight season after leading the Sun Devils in scoring this season at 12.8 points per game. Last year, she paced Arizona State in scoring and rebounding and was named to the Pac-10 All-Freshman team in addition to her honorable mention all-conference honors. Jantzen also finished second on the team in rebounding (4.9 rpg) and field goal percentage (52.3).
Allen becomes only the third Sun Devil to be named to the All-Freshman team. She started 22 games for Arizona State this year and proved deadly from three-point range. Allen finished second on the team with 28 three-pointers, a mark which ranks 12th on the Arizona State single-season lists, and turned in one of the best performances from three-point land in the Pac-10 this season, hitting six of eight attempts at Washington on Jan. 13.
Road Woes
Arizona State has struggled on the road this year with a 3-11 mark, but the team's record doesn't quite tell the whole story. The Sun Devils played a tough nonconference road slate, falling to ranked opponents in three of their five road games, including a heart-breaking 72-68 loss at then No. 10 North Carolina.
The team will be looking to snap a seven-game road losing streak, dating back to a 64-54 victory over Washington State on Jan. 15. In Pac-10 play, however, the Sun Devils lost a pair of two-point decisions - at Washington (76-78) and at then No. 15 Arizona (60-58) - and a 60-55 overtime loss at Cal last week.
Home Cookin'
Arizona State turned in an 11-3 mark at home this season, including six Pac-10 Conference victories, which ranks second on the ASU list for home victories in a season with the 11-1 mark of the 1981-82 team. The 1982-83 Sun Devils hold the school record for home wins with a 12-3 mark in Wells Fargo Arena, while ASU's 78.6 winning percentage at home ranks third in school history behind the 91.7 percentage in 1981-82 and the 80.0 percentage in 1982-83. With their 11-3 mark this season, the Sun Devils finish the regular season with four more wins than the team accomplished at home last season (7-7) and surpass the number of Pac-10 victories at Wells Fargo Arena last year (3-6). As a team, Arizona State averaged 71.3 points per game at home and allowed its opponents just 63.2 points per game in the friendly confines of Wells Fargo Arena, compared to totals of 67.5 and 64.2 overall.
Soft Touch
Seniors Rachel Holt (Buckeye, Ariz.) and Kristine Sand (Oslo, Norway) and sophomore Theresa Jantzen (Medicine Hat, Alberta) rank among the Pac-10's best in field-goal shooting this season, hitting 52.4 percent of their combined shots (337-643). Overall, ASU ranks fifth in the league in field-goal percentage at 43.2 percent. Holt ranks third in the conference in field-goal percentage at 56.9 percent (115-202), while Jantzen ranks fifth at 52.3 percent (114-218) and Sand is seventh at 48.4 percent (108-223).
Shaking Up the Lineup
Head coach Charli Turner Thorne has shaken up her starting lineup in the later half of the season after using the same five in the first 18 contests. Freshman Brett Leonard (Glenview, Ill.) earned the first start of her career at Oregon and has started seven games this year, including the past three.
| 1999-2000 ASU Starters | Overall | Pac-10 |
| Allen, Jantzen, Holt, Tucker, Kitchen | 11-10 | 4-7 |
| Sand, Holt, Tucker, Kitchen, Leonard | 0-2 | 0-2 |
| Jantzen, Holt, Tucker, Kitchen, Leonard | 2-2 | 2-2 |
| Allen, Jantzen, Holt, Tucker, Leonard | 1-0 | 1-0 |
Tough Defense
The Sun Devils have done a great job on the defensive end of the floor in the past 12 games, holding nine of their last 12 Pac-10 opponents under 67 points (including five to 60 or less - 53 by WSU, 53 by UW, 56 by UCLA, the Pac-10's third-leading scorer, 58 by OSU and 60 by Cal).
Crashing the Glass
The Sun Devils are 11-3 when outrebounding their opponents this season and are averaging 35.3 rebounds per game. Even more notable is the fact that ASU has held its opponents to just 34.3 boards per game, which ranks fourth in the Pac-10. The Sun Devils have held six of their last 10 opponents under 30 rebounds, including three to a season-low 24 rebounds (Washington, USC and Oregon).
Individually, senior Rachel Holt (Buckeye, Ariz.) leads the Sun Devils in rebounding at 5.4 boards per game, while sophomore Theresa Jantzen (Medicine Hat, Alberta) is second on the squad at 4.9 rpg. Holt has turned it up a notch in Pac-10 play with 5.6 boards per game, including team bests in seven of the last 12 games, to rank 11th in the league.
Inside and Out
Arizona State has turned in a balanced scoring attack this season with eight Sun Devils averaging at least three points per game and three averaging in double figures. The scoring has come from the inside and from the perimeter with three posts and three guards among the team's top six scorers, while seven different players have led the team in scoring in games this year.
Bench Help
Arizona State has averaged 21.5 points per game from its bench this season (603 points), including 23.6 points per game over the last 13 games (307 points). Those numbers include four 30-plus-point performances, including 35 points vs. Cal Poly on Nov. 22, 32 vs. UCLA on Jan. 22, 34 at Arizona on Jan. 30 and most recently, 30 points vs. Oregon State on March 4. The Sun Devils are 10-8 this season when their bench outscores their opponent's bench.
Senior Kristine Sand (Oslo, Norway) is the leading scorer off the bench at 10.7 points per game and broke into the starting lineup at Oregon after leading ASU in scoring in two of three games (15 vs. UCLA and a season-high 25 vs. Arizona). She also started the Stanford game on March 11 in place of the injured Theresa Jantzen and finished with 10 points.
Beyond the Arc
Arizona State ranks fourth in the Pac-10 in three-point field goal percentage this year, hitting 33.9 percent of its attempts (129-380), including a season-best 58.3 percent vs. Oregon State on March 4 (7-12). Senior Kristine Sand (Oslo, Norway) stands in fifth in the conference, shooting 39.5 percent (34-86) from three-point land, including a career-best 4-of-5 at Arizona on Jan. 30. Freshman Sarah Allen (Cincinnati, Ohio) has also proved to be a deadly threat from beyond the arc, hitting 28 treys this year. Allen turned in one of the best performances from three-point land in the Pac-10 this year, draining 6-of-8 at Washington on Jan. 13. With 34 treys on the season, Sand is tied for eighth on the Arizona State single-season list, while the Sun Devil senior has hit at least one three-pointer in 20 games this year including 12 of the last 15. Allen has drained at least one three-pointer in 16 contests including seven games with two or more.
As she wraps up her career at ASU, Sand has taken over third place on the Sun Devil career three-point list. Sand has drained 91 treys so far in her career, surpassing the 90 that two-time All-Pac-10 selection Ryneldi Becenti hit from 1991-93.
More Notes from Three-Point Land
While the Sun Devils have seen success from three-point land, they have been just as successful in defending against the three-point shot. Arizona State leads the Pac-10 in three-point percentage defense, allowing its opponents to shoot just 26.8 percent from beyond the arc (66-246). In fact, Arizona State has held its opponents to two or fewer three-pointers in 18 of 28 games this year, including five games with no three-pointers.
Dishing It Out
The Sun Devils have dished out an average of 15.3 assists per game, a mark which ranks fourth in the Pac-10. ASU turned in a season- and then conference-high 26 assists in the team's win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with four players dishing out five or more assists.
Junior Natalie Tucker (Georgetown, Texas) leads the team with 108 assists, the second straight year she has broken the century mark in that category. She ranks seventh in the Pac-10 with 3.9 assists per game, including a career-high eight in ASU's upset of Stanford on Jan. 6. With 238 assists in her career, Tucker already ranks eighth on the Arizona State career list heading into her senior season.
About Colorado State (20-9, 9-5 Mountain West)
The Colorado State Rams head into Thursday's game with Arizona State after a 77-69 loss to BYU in the second round of the Mountain West Conference on March 10. The Rams have dropped four of their last five games but bring a 13-4 home record into the matchup with the Sun Devils.
Junior Heather Haanen leads the Rams in scoring at 13.5 points per game including team highs of 16 points vs. BYU and 19 points vs. Wyoming. The team will be without the services of freshman Ashley Augspurger who paces the Rams in rebounding (5.8 rpg) and is second in scoring (12.2 ppg). She injured her knee in a practice before the March 2 UNLV game and will miss the rest of the season. As a team, the Rams have drained 220 three-pointers on the season and are hitting 35.0 percent of their shots from beyond the arc.
Probable Starters
| Pos. | Ht. | Cl. | PPG | RPG | ||||
| #44 | Heather Haanen | F | 5-11 | Jr. | 13.5 | 4.2 | ||
| #24 | Jackie Campbell | F | 5-10 | Fr. | 3.0 | 1.6 | ||
| #50 | Shannon Strecker | C | 6-2 | Fr. | 3.3 | 2.4 | ||
| #10 | Jacque Johnson | G | 5-8 | Sr. | 11.1 | 3.3 | ||
| #14 | Angie Gorton | G | 6-0 | So. | 11.4 | 5.3/3.9 apg |
In the Series
Arizona State leads the series with Colorado State 6-0 with the last meeting coming during the 1985-86 season. The Sun Devils have defeated the Rams by an average of 18.8 points per game, including a 37-point victory (85-48) in Tempe in 1985-86.
Comparatively Speaking
| ASU | CSU | |
| Points Per Game | 67.1 | 72.3 |
| Field Goal Percentage | 43.2 | 43.8 |
| 3-Pt. FG Percentage | 33.9 | 35.0 |
| Free Throw Percentage | 71.2 | 67.8 |
| Rebounds Per Game | 35.3 | 36.9 |
| Assists Per Game | 15.3 | 14.7 |
Colorado Connections
Four Arizona State players claim ties to the state of Colorado. Junior Aubrey McFadyen (Redmond, Wash.) started her collegiate career at Colorado State, averaging 2.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game in 8.5 minutes for the Rams in 1996-97 before transferring to ASU, while junior Kellie McDanal came to Tempe from Evergreen High School in Conifer, Colo. Redshirts Melody Johnson and Nikki Swagger also hail from the state of Colorado after both growing up in Colorado Springs and transferring from the University of Colorado last year.
Good Start
For Arizona State, its 14-14 record bodes well for the future. It marks the most wins for ASU since 1992-93, ASU's last winning season, while the Sun Devils opened the Pac-10 campaign with a 2-0 record for the first time in school history this year. Arizona State's 7-1 start to the season was also the best since the 1991-92 campaign when the Sun Devils reeled off a school-record nine victories to open the season en route to a 20-9 overall record and ASU's last NCAA Tournament appearance. The Sun Devils lost to DePaul 67-65 in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament.
ASU Sets Single-Game Attendance Mark
Arizona State broke its single-game home attendance record with 5,271 fans in attendance, surpassing the mark of 4,203 set Feb. 8, 1997 vs. Arizona.
Cooking in the Kitchen
One of the team's defensive sparkplugs, senior Kitch Kitchen (Newark, N.J.) has been making things happen on both ends of the floor for the Sun Devils this season. The senior guard ranks 10th in the Pac-10 with 1.82 steals per game and is just out of the conference rankings with 3.14 assists per game. Kitchen has stepped up her offensive production as well and is fourth on the team in scoring at 9.2 points per game, including team highs in the past two games (16 points at Cal, 13 points at Stanford). The biggest change for Kitchen from one year ago has been her shooting. This season she is hitting 36.6 percent of her attempts (83-227) and 41.5 percent of her three-point attempts (17-41), compared to 28 percent from the field (53-189) and 26.9 percent from three-point land (14-52) last year. Kitchen hasn't been afraid to crash the glass either, pulling down an average of 3.5 boards per game overall and 3.9 in Pac-10 play.
Kitchen became the first Sun Devil to win Pac-10 Player of the Week honors this season for the week of January 10 after averaging 13.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.5 steals in Arizona State's victories over Stanford and California. She shot 50 percent from the field and 77 percent from the line last week to earn the first Pac-10 Player of the Week honor of her career and become the 16th all-time selection for the Sun Devils. Kitchen had 12 points, a team-high seven rebounds and four assists in ASU's 74-68 upset of Stanford and then added 14 points, a team-high six rebounds and three steals against Cal.
A Home at the Charity Stripe
When the Sun Devils tied the ASU school record by going 39 of 52 from the charity stripe in their win over California on Jan. 8, it wasn't completely unfamiliar ground. The Sun Devils have already taken 670 trips to the free-throw line (an average of 23.9 per game) compared to just 387 for their opponents (13.8 trips per game). ASU is hitting 71.2 percent of its free throws (477-670) to rank third in the Pac-10. In fact, ASU turned in the second-best performance in the conference this year, draining 96.3 percent of its free throws (26-27) Feb. 19 at USC.
Individually, sophomore Theresa Jantzen (Medicine Hat, Alberta) has missed just 24 free throws all season, hitting 81.7 percent (107-131), good for fourth in the Pac-10. Junior Natalie Tucker (Georgetown, Texas) ranks seventh in the league at 78.8 percent (63-80), while senior Rachel Holt (Buckeye, Ariz.) is ninth at 76.6 percent (98-128). As a team, Arizona State has had players turn in perfect outings at the line on 15 occasions this season (minimum of four attempts).
Staying Out of Trouble
The Sun Devils have been adept at staying out of foul trouble this season with an average of just 15.9 fouls per game, while their opponents have been whistled for an average of 20.7 fouls per game. That disparity has paid off for ASU, which has scored 25.4 percent of its points at the free-throw line this year (477 of 1878).
70 is the Key
It's no secret that scoring more points than your opponents equals success, but for the Sun Devils this season, scoring 70 points seems to be the key. Arizona State has turned in an 11-2 record when scoring 70 points or more, while the team is 1-8 when allowing its opponents to reach the 70-point mark.
Head Coach Charli Turner Thorne
The Sun Devils' 69-59 victory over California on Jan. 8 marked the 80th win of head coach Charli Turner Thorne's coaching career. She has notched a 45-63 mark in four seasons at Arizona State and was 40-40 in her three years at Northern Arizona.
In her three years at Arizona State, head coach Charli Turner Thorne has embraced her goal of turning the Sun Devil women's basketball program into a perennial top 10 program in the country. She has guided ASU to back-to-back double-digit win seasons in 1997-98 and 1998-99 for the first time in six seasons. Turner Thorne led the Sun Devils to a 12-15 overall record and a 6-12 mark in the Pac-10 Conference last season, the school's most victories in five years, while her team has surpassed that with 14 wins this season and has advanced to postseason play for the first time since 1991-92.
No Sophomore Slump
Sophomore Theresa Jantzen (Medicine Hat, Alberta) has picked up right where she left off last year. After leading the team in scoring and rebounding last year to earn Pac-10 All-Freshman honors, Jantzen is again pacing the Sun Devils in scoring and is second in rebounding (12.4 ppg, 4.9 rpg), reaching double figures for scoring in 16 games this season and coming in at 11th in the Pac-10 in scoring. In Pac-10 play, she has dropped off a bit at 10.9 ppg, but she scored a team-high 20 points against California and 20 against Washington, her fourth and fifth 20-point showings of the year. The Sun Devil sophomore led the team in scoring with 15 points vs. Oregon and 16 points vs. Oregon State two weeks ago but played only 21 minutes at Cal due to food poisoning and missed the Stanford game due to a concussion suffered in practice March 10.
Consistency Personified
Senior Rachel Holt (Buckeye, Ariz.) has been one of ASU's most consistent forces in the middle in the past four years. In her senior campaign, she leads the squad in rebounding (5.4 rpg) and is second in scoring (11.8 ppg). Holt has led the team in scoring in seven of the past 11 games, including game highs of 20 against Washington and Arizona. She scored her 900th career point at USC on Feb. 19 and has now scored 965 points in her career, an average of 9.1 points per game (106 games). Holt has also hit 52.5 percent of her career field-goal attempts (338-644), a mark which ties her for fourth all time at ASU.
Holt has blocked a team-high 24 shots this year to rank eighth in the Pac-10 and moves her into third place on the ASU career list (77). With her block of Kansas' Jaclyn Johnson's shot in the first half of that game, Holt moved past Monique Ambers who blocked 66 shots for the Sun Devils from 1990-93. She was named Pac-10 Player of the Week for Feb. 7-13 after averaging 18.0 points and 7.0 rebounds in ASU's home sweep of the Washington and Washington State. She posted 16 points and eight rebounds in Arizona State's 73-53 victory over Washington State and 20 points and six rebounds in the 74-53 victory over Washington. For the weekend, she shot 61.9 percent from the field (13-of-21) and 80 percent from the line (8-of-10). The Player of the Week honor is the first of Holt's career and the 17th all-time selection for the Sun Devils.
Sun Devils to Host Tennessee at Bank One Ballpark
In an attempt to break the NCAA women's basketball attendance record and play the first ever outdoor college basketball game, the Sun Devils will take on the six-time national champion Tennessee Lady Vols at 48,569-seat Bank One Ballpark Dec. 28, 2000.
Arizona State has enlisted the help of Intersport, a Chicago-based sports marketer, to produce the game, which will be televised nationally. Proceeds will benefit breast cancer research.
"This will be a historic event. This game has the ability to be one of the greatest events in women's basketball history," Arizona State head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. "In addition to being the first ever outdoor game and setting an all-time attendance record, we have the opportunity to make an impact by raising a significant amount of money for breast cancer research. When you put all of those things together in a community like Phoenix which has embraced women's basketball, it will be an opportunity for people in the Valley to make a huge statement about supporting women's athletics and a women's cause."
The all-time NCAA Division I women's basketball attendance record is 24,597, set by Tennessee in a game with Connecticut on Jan. 3, 1998, in Knoxville, Tenn., while the Lady Vols have been involved in all 10 of the best-attended games in NCAA history.
The Arizona State Sun Devils will return three starters from its team which opened the season with its best start since 1991-92 and won its first two Pac-10 Conference games this season for the first time in school history. In addition, Arizona State will gain the services of three Division I transfers who are redshirting this season and a top 100 recruit next year. Led by 26th-year coach Pat Summitt, the Tennessee Lady Vols will return all five starters and add a top five recruiting class next year.
Waiting Their Turn
The Sun Devils have reloaded for the 2000-01 season with the addition of three Division I transfers who will redshirt this year in accordance with NCAA rules. 5-9 guard Amanda Levens (Belvidere, Ill.) joins the ASU squad after helping Old Dominion to two NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances, while post players Melody Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo.), at 6-2, and Nikki Swagger (Colorado Springs, Colo.), at 6-3, come to Tempe from Colorado.
Radio and TV Exposure
The Sun Devil Sports Network has partnered with Radio Phoenix KTKP 1280 AM to broadcast all of Arizona State's women's basketball games. In addition to the game broadcasts, KTKP provides a postgame show with Head Coach Charli Turner Thorne. In his first year as the voice of ASU women's basketball, Robby Robinson is an account executive with the Sun Devil Sports Network and serves as its associate director of broadcasting. Robinson will provide play-by-play for all home and away games, while Jennifer Ruff Adams will provide color analysis at home. KTKP's broadcasts of ASU games can also be heard live over the Internet (via Audionet) at http://www.TheSunDevils.com.