March 21, 2008
ASU Statistics only in PDF Format 
Updated Pac-10 Statistics in PDF Format
Updated NCAA Rankings For Pac-10 Schools in PDF Format
SUN DEVIL DATA: The Arizona State's men's hoops team, 21-12 and 9-9 in the Pac-10 under second-year coach Herb Sendek, continues its season with a chance to become the nation's most improved team from one year ago as it hosts the two-time defending national chamnpion Florida Gators Tuesday at 6 p.m. (Arizona) on ESPN. ASU has posted a 20-win season for just the fourth time in 27 years as the Sun Devils (picked to finish ninth in the Pac-10 preseason media poll) notched nine Pac-10 wins for just the third time in the past 13 seasons (11-7 in 2002-03 and 10-8 in 1999-2000) and went 5-4 in the second half of the Pac-10 with road wins at NCAA-bound Arizona, Washington and Oregon State and home wins vs. the NCAA-bound duo of Stanford and USC. Only UCLA and ASU beat both Stanford and USC, as ASU notched wins over RPI top-60 teams Xavier (9), Stanford (14), USC (28), Arizona (twice, 37) and Oregon (58). Freshmen have made a league-leading and school record 93 starts, played more than 46 percent of the minutes and scored more than 52 percent of the points. Freshmen James Harden earned first-team All-Pac-10 and All-District IX USBWA honors while junior Jeff Pendergraph earned third-team accolades. Coach Herb Sendek earned the west coast media Coach of the Year accolades with his District IX USBWA honors.
ON THE SIDELINES: Billy Donovan and Herb Sendek will be on opposite sidelines Tuesday, but they have been on the same sideline before in some big games. Donovan was the point guard for Providence's 1987 Final Four run with Rick Pitino as the head coach, and Herb Sendek was an assistant. The duo also were on Rick Pitino's staff at Kentucky together.
NIT QUICK RECAP: ASU topped Alabama State last Tuesday (March 18) in the first round of the NIT 64-53 behind James Harden's 25 points and 13 boards as ASU opened up a 39-21 lead at the half. It then topped Southern Illinois 65-51 on Thursday (March 20) behind 16 points, seven assists and six boards from James Harden and 12 points, 10 boards and a school-record matching eight blocks by Jeff Pendergraph. ASU held the Salukis to just 29.3 percent from the field (17-of-58).
BIG WIN: ASU was the only Pac-10 team to have a win over a RPI top-10 team outside the loop with its 77-55 victory over #9 Xavier, who is 20-4 since the loss on Dec. 15. The 22-point win is the largest over a ranked team in school history. ASU had as many top 50 RPI wins as Arizona (five) and one more than Washington State, USC and Oregon (four each).
MULTIPLE WINS OVER NCAA TOURNAMENTS TEAMS SEEDED #1-3
4-Pitt (Louisville, Duke and Georgetown twice)
3-Purdue (Louisville and Wisconsin twice); Texas (Tennessee, Kansas and
UCLA); UCLA (Stanford three times)
2-Arizona State (Stanford and Xavier); Duke (North Carolina and Wisconsin);St. Joseph's (Xavier twice); Tennessee (Memphis and Xavier); USC (Stanford and UCLA)
STUFF TO KNOW: ASU is led in scoring by the most famous Sun Devil southpaw since Phil Mickelson, James Harden, who has an ASU freshman record 16 20-point games on the year (seventh-best in school history). The 18-year old Harden (born August of 1989) is the youngest player in the Pac-10 as his 17.8 points per game is second-best in ASU freshman history and he leads the Pac-10 with 72 steals, fifth-best by a freshman in Pac-10 history...ASU was 5-4 at home in Pac-10 games after going 9-27 in Tempe the previous four seasons...ASU is 23-15 after starting last year 6-19...ASU has won its share of close games (7-4 in games decided by 10 points or less) and makes its free throws (.742 percentage is currently fifth-best in school history and second best in past 21 seasons)...ASU's winning record (5-4) in the back half of Pac-10 play was just the third for the Sun Devils in the past 13 seasons.
TURNAROUND: ASU became just the fifth team in 30 years of the Pac-10 to go
from a last-place finish (2-16 last year) to a .500 record in conference
play the next year. Washington State did it last year as Tony Bennett earned
National Coach of the Year.
LAST PLACE PAC-10 TEAMS TO REACH .500 IN LEAGUE THE FOLLOWING SEASON
Washington State from 3-15 in 1980-81 to 10-8 in 1981-82
California from 5-13 in 1987-88 to 10-8 (NIT) in 1988-89
Stanford from 2-16 in 1992-93 to 10-8 (NIT) in 1993-94
Washington State from 4-14 in 2005-06 to 13-5 (NCAAs) in 2006-07
Arizona State from 2-16 in 2006-07 to 9-9 (NIT) in 2007-08
THIEF: James Harden set the Pac-10 tournament record with seven steals against USC (March 13). It is the most steals by a Sun Devil since Eddie House had seven vs. Kansas State on Nov. 24, 1998, in the Maui Invitational. It marked just the ninth time a Sun Devil had at least seven steals. Harden's 72 steals is fifth-best in school history and is just four shy of the ASU record of 76 set by Fat Lever in 1981-82. He is averaging 3.7 steals in the past six games.
ANOTHER FRESHMEN: Freshman Rihards Kuksiks is averaging 26.8 minutes and 9.3 points in the past 11 games (second on the team) and has made 25 three pointers. He had 15 points in the win over seventh-ranked Stanford on Feb. 14, 15 at Washington on Feb. 23 and 10 in March 1 win vs. USC. He has 96 points in his past 10 games after scoring 42 in the first 22 games. In the second half of the Pac-10 season, four Sun Devil freshmen played 52 percent of the minutes, scored 54 percent of the points and made 53 three-pointers.
YOU READ THIS BEFORE: The Sun Devils had five wins over teams in the top 50 of the RPI. ASU (5-7) beat #9 Xavier, #14 Stanford, had two wins over #37 Arizona and beat No. #28 USC on March 1. Other Pac-10 records vs. the top-50 include UCLA (11-2), Stanford (7-4), Arizona (5-8), Washington State (4-7), USC (4-8), Oregon (4-9), California (2-10) and Washington (2-10).
DON'T COUNT THEM OUT: The Sun Devils came back from double-digit deficits in two big wins, as it put the brakes on a five-game losing skid in dramatic fashion on Feb. 10 in Tucson, falling behind 22-6 but coming back to take a 13-point second-half lead and winning 59-54 to sweep Arizona for the first time since 1994-95 (and notch first win in Tucson since March 11, 1995). On Feb. 14 against seventh-ranked Stanford, ASU was down by 14 in the second half and by seven with 1:49 left before a rally put the game into overtime as ASU won 72-68. On Feb. 16 against Cal, ASU made seven three-pointers in the final 1:11 to chop an 11-point deficit to three before falling 76-73.
HEADING INTO THIS WEEK: ASU's scholarship roster has an interesting mix as it includes one senior, one junior, five freshmen, sophomore transfer and three sophomores who played 87.3 minutes per game last year...ASU ranks second in the Pac-10 in steals (7.00) and is third in field goal percentage defense (.405)...Sun Devils give up 61.7 ppg., which is fourth in the league...Derek Glasser is second in the Pac-10 and 25th in the nation in assist/turnover ratio at 2.32...ASU is third in the Pac-10 in free throw percentage at .742...Jeff Pendergraph is second in the Pac-10 in field goal percentage (.592). The ASU record is .630 held by Trent Edwards in 1988-89.
A LOT OF MINUTES: James Harden and Ty Abbott both topped the pace set by Byron Scott in 1979-80 for Sun Devil freshmen minutes played in the 18 Pac-10 games. Harden averaged 35.9 minutes per game in the 18 league games while Abbott finished at 34.8. Derek Glasser averaged 32.2 minutes last year in Pac-10 play.
HARDEN ON DEFENSE/OFFENSE: James Harden is trying to become just the fifth freshman to lead the Pac-10 in steals. The others are Jason Kidd of Cal (3.8 spg/1993), Baron Davis of UCLA (2.4 spg/1998) and USC's Errick Craven (2.1 spg/2002) and Gabe Pruitt (1.9 spg/2005). He also had 19 blocks, seventh on the ASU freshmen list, two behind Tommy Smith (17 in 1999-2000) for the sixth spot. His 72 steals is fifth-best in Pac-10 history for a freshman. When you compare the points with the all-time freshman steals leaders, it is safe to say Harden could end up as the first freshmen in league history with 70 steals and a 17.0 points per game average.
PAC-10 FRESHMEN STEALS LEADERS (PPG. AND RPG. ALSO) Player, School Year Steals PPG RPG 1. Jason Kidd, Cal 1992-93 110 13.0 4.9 2. Baron Davis, UCLA 1997-98 77 11.7 4.0 2. Brevin Knight, Stanford 1993-94 77 11.1 3.9 4. Mike Bibby, Arizona 1996-97 76 13.5 3.2 5. James Harden , ASU 2007-2008 72 17.8 5.2
TURNAROUND II: ASU¹s 13-game turnaround in wins (ASU was 8-22 overall in 2006-07) is currently the best by any major conference team and tied for second overall.
BEATING THE BEST: Since December of 2001 to March of 2005, Herb Sendek has defeated seven of the past eight NCAA champs. The only NCAA champion his staff has not defeated in the 1999-2007 period is Florida (2006-2007). It knocked defending NCAA champion UCONN (1999 and 2004 champion) out of the 2005 NCAA Tournament and has beaten past champions Michigan State (2000), Duke (2001), Maryland (2002), Syracuse (2003) and North Carolina (2005).
Date Score Opponent NCAA Title Season Jan. 26, 2003 86-77 North Carolina 2005 NCAA Champion Feb. 25, 2003 75-67 @North Carolina (OT) 2005 NCAA Champion March 20, 2005 65-62 vs. #13 UCONN (Worcester) 2004, 1999 NCAA Champion Dec. 8, 2001 82-68 @#9 Syracuse 2003 NCAA Champion March 9, 2002 86-82 vs. #2 Maryland (Charlotte) 2002 NCAA Champion Jan. 22, 2003 80-71 #3 Duke 2001 NCAA Champion Feb. 15, 2004 78-74 #1 Duke 2001 NCAA Champion March 15, 2002 69-58 vs. Michigan State (Wash. D.C.) 2000 NCAA Champion
MORE PENDERGRAPH: Jeff Pendergraph became the 30th member of the ASU 1,000-point club against USC on March 1. He has 1,065 points in 90 career games (11.8 points per game). He also has 652 career rebounds (7.2 per game), just four away from joining the ASU top-10 list.
CLOSE GAME UPDATE: Last year, ASU was 4-17 in games decided by 10 points or less, but this year the Sun Devils are 7-4 with wins over LSU (87-84 in Maui), Montana State (66-62), Oregon (62-54), Arizona twice (64-59 in OT and 59-54 in Tucson), at California (99-90 in double OT) and vs. seventh-ranked Stanford (72-68 in OT). ASU lost its only overtime game last year but is 4-0 this year with the wins over LSU, Arizona, at Cal and vs. #7 Stanford. The four overtime wins is the most by an ASU team since 1985-86 as the Sun Devils were 4-2, while the school mark is 5-0 by the 1980-81 team. Also, ASU was 3-12 in two-possession games last year (six points or less or OT) but is 6-4 this year.
NIT: ASU is making its tenth appearance in the postseason NIT and has a 5-9 (.357) markŠASU's last appearance was at UNLV on March 17, 2005, when it fell 89-78...in 1999-2000, ASU beat New Mexico State 83-77 on March 15 in Tempe but lost at North Carolina State, coached by Herb Sendek, 60-57 on March ...Herb Sendek is now 8-7 in the NIT as his 1999-2000 team made it the finals after beating Tulane, ASU, Mississippi in home games and then beat Wake Forest in New York City before losing to Penn State.
REAL DEAL: The Pac-10's youngest player, James Harden (turned 18 on Aug. 26), leads ASU in scoring (17.8 ppg./tied for fourth in Pac-10), steals (2.20 per game/leads the Pac-10) and minutes per game (34.0/ninth in Pac-10). He is shooting .525 from the field, .757 from the free throw line and .408 from the three-point stripe. Harden is the first McDonald's All-American to sign with ASU out of high school since 1984 (it was Chris Sandle before you ask). He has 16 20-point games (topping Ike Diogu's ASU freshmen record of 12) including five straight from Dec. 29-Jan. 17 which is a first for an ASU freshman. He averaged 18.2 points (tied for fifth) and 5.1 boards in Pac-10 games and was the only player in the league to lead his team in scoring in each of the first eight Pac-10 games. He was named as a top 30 midseason finalist for the Naismith and Wooden Awards (one of just six freshmen on the Wooden list and one of seven Pac-10 players noted).
HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION: Arizona State improved by seven wins in league play this year (2-16 to 9-9), one of just 11 teams to do that in league history, and just the fourth team in the past 15 seasons (1994-95 to present).
STEADY: Jeff Pendergraph has 56 blocks (he had 45 in his first two seasons) and is shooting .592 from the field (second in the Pac-10) and .799 from the free throw line. He has five double-doubles this year (18 in career). Pendergraph led the team in scoring (12.1) and rebounding (9.1) last year, as his rebounding average matched the second-best mark by a Sun Devil in the past 26 seasons. He is shooting .759 from the free throw line in his career (249-of-328). His 101 career blocks is sixth in ASU history.
SOME RANDOM HARDEN NOTES: In 37 minutes against a good defensive team in USC on March 1, Harden missed two shots out of 18. He was 7-of-8 from the field and 9-of-10 from the line...in ASU's four overtime games (all wins and three of them in Pac-10 games) he averaged 24.8 ppg and 5.5 rebounds and has 10 steals...in ASU's five Pac-10 home wins he averaged 23.4 points, six boards, three assists and two steals as he led ASU to 5-4 Pac-10 home mark. In the prevous four years, ASU was 9-27 in Pac-10 home games...is second on the team in assists (107), including 63 (3.5 per game) in Pac-10 games...in ASU's eight Pac-10 wins he shot 54.5 percent from the floor and was 13-27 from three-point stripe. He averaged 20.0 points and 5.6 boards in those nine games...shot 45.2 percent from three-point land in road games.
JUST HOW GOOD ARE THEY?: Coming into this season, only seven Pac-10 freshman had averaged 17.2 points or more in overall games. Currently there are four freshmen above that number. Only two Pac-10 freshmen have averaged 19 points and led their team to a NCAA Tournament berth (Ike Diogu of Arizona State in 2002-03 and Shareef Abdur Rahim in 1995-96) prior to this year.
Pac-10 Freshmen Scoring List Rk. Player, School, Year PPG Team Notes 1. Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Cal, 1995-96 21.1 NCAA team went 17-11 2. O.J. Mayo, USC, 2007-08 20.7 NCAA team 21-12 and 11-7 3. Harold Miner, USC, 1989-90 20.6 Team went 12-16 4. Jerryd Bayless, Arizona, 2007-08 19.7 NCAA team 18-14 and 8-10 5. Ike Diogu, ASU, 2002-03 19.0 NCAA team went 20-12 6. Don McLean, UCLA, 1988-89 18.6 NCAA team went 21-10 7. Cliff Robinson, USC, 1977-78 18.4 Team went 14-13 8. James Harden, ASU, 2007-08 17.8 NIT team is 21-12 and 9-9 in NIT 9. Tom Lewis, USC, 1985-86 17.6 Team went 11-17 10. Kevin Love, UCLA, 2007-08 17.1 UCLA 31-3 overall and 16-2 11. Todd Lichti, Stanford, 1985-86 17.2 Team went 14-16 overall 12. Ryan Anderson, California, 2006-07 16.3 Team went 16-17 overall 13. Jason Kapono, UCLA, 1999-2000 16.0 NCAA team went 21-12 14. Chase Budinger, Arizona, 2006-07 15.6 NCAA team went 20-11 14. Sean Elliott, Arizona, 1985-86 15.6 NCAA team went 23-9
PLAYER OF WEEK: Jeff Pendergraph earned Pac-10 Player of the Week honors following his Feb. 10 outing at Arizona when he posted 29 points on 12-of-16 shooting and eight boards in 39 minutes in ASU's 59-54 win. Freshmen Ty Abbott and James Harden became the fourth and fifth ASU freshmen to win Pac-10 Player of the Week honors, as Abbott took home the Dec. 17 honor after his 19-point performance in the 77-55 win over Xavier on Dec. 15 which included five three pointers in the largest win over a ranked team in school history. Harden notched the honor after leading ASU to just its third 2-0 start in Pac-10 history when they swept Oregon (Jan. 3) and Oregon State (Jan. 5) in Tempe to open Pac-10 play. Other Sun Devil freshman to earn the honor are Ike Diogu (Feb. 16, 2003), Mario Bennett (Feb. 24, 1992) and Chris Sandle (Dec. 10, 1984). Seventeen ASU players have been named Pac-10 Player of the Week on 26 occasions, but this year marks the first time in the 25-year history of the award three separate Sun Devils have taken home the honor.
AT HOME: ASU has won 15 home games for first time in the 32-year history of Wells Fargo Arena, as it is 15-4 this year with wins over NCAA Tournament teams Arizona, Xavier, Stanford, USC, Oregon and Coppin State. ASU previously won 14 home games in 1974-75 (14-0), 1979-80 (14-3), 1980-81 (14-1), 1990-91 (14-4), 1994-95 (14-3), 1997-98 (14-4), and 1999-2000 (14-3).
TREE: Herb Sendek has six former assistants who are D-I head coaches: Jim Christian, Kent State, Miami Assistant (1994-96); Charlie Coles, Miami (Ohio), Miami Assistant (1994-96); Larry Hunter, Western Carolina, NC State Assistant (2001-05); Ron Hunter, IUPUI, Miami Assistant (1993-94); Thad Matta, Ohio State, Miami Assistant (1994-95) and Sean Miller, Xavier, Miami (1994-96) and NC State Assistant (1996-2000). Coles, Miller and Matta all led their teams to the 2007 NCAA Tournament.
VS. RANKED TEAMS: Coach Sendek has 32 career wins against ranked foes, including 11 top-10 wins in his past eight seasons and seven top-five wins in his past dozen seasons. He notched his first at ASU in the final chance last year as ASU topped No. 22 USC 68-58 on Feb. 18, 2007, and won his first attempt this year, 77-55 over No. 17 Xavier on Dec. 15 (largest win over a ranked team in ASU history)...against seventh-ranked Stanford on Feb. 14, ASU beat its highest ranked opponent since its 90-87 overtime win at No. 4 Stanford on Jan. 31, 1998, and earned its first win over a top-10 team since Jan. 23, 2002 (88-72 win over No. 10 Arizona in Tempe)...it also marked ASU's first win over a top-10 team in Tempe not named Arizona since a 68-60 win over fourth-ranked Oregon State on March 6, 1982...Herb Sendek has won seven games against top five teams in the past 12 seasons.
RANKINGS: For the first time since the final poll of 1994-95 (March 13) ASU grabbed a spot in the Associated Press rankings, as it was No. 22 (No. 25 in the USA Today Coaches' poll on Jan. 14). ASU was ranked No. 24 in the Jan. 21 AP poll. Coach Sendek had the Sun Devils in the rankings in his second year, two years prior to his rebuilding effort at NC State that resulted in five straight NCAA Tournament appearances (2002-06).
FRESHMEN: Freshmen accounted for 69 of 150 starts in Herb Sendek's rookie 30-game season. Through 33 games, the numbers now read 162 out of 315 starts in his 63 games (freshmen have started 87 games this year). In his two years, ASU has had freshmen make 51.4 percent of the starts. Sophomores have made 67 starts (.213), juniors 50 (.159) and seniors 36 (.114). Against Xavier on Dec. 15, ASU started four freshmen for the first time in school history. ASU's freshmen have accounted for 52 percent of the points this year. Last year ASU's 69 freshmen starts set the school record by 24 starts that the Sun Devils blew have easily surpassed.
THE HEAD COACH: Herb Sendek is in his 15th season as a head coach and has averaged 18.7 wins per season. He led the Wolfpack to five straight NCAA appearances from 2002-06 and is now 283-192 (.596) in 15 seasons and was 191-132 (.591) at NC State. The 44-year-old (born Feb. 22, 1963) Pittsburgh, Pa., native is the second-youngest full-time coach in the Pac-10 behind only second-year coach Tony Bennett of WSU. Only Duke posted more ACC wins (regular season and ACC Tournament) than NC State's 53 victories from 2002-2006. Another overlooked note is his 10-year stay at NC State. To compare it to the Pac-10, since the league expanded to 10 teams in 1978-79, only five coaches have coached at their schools for at least 10 years: Lute Olson (24 at Arizona), Ralph Miller (19 at Oregon State), Mike Montgomery (18 at Stanford), Ben Braun (12th at California) and Ernie Kent (11th at Oregon).
QUICK NOTES: Derek Glasser has made 56-of-67 (.836) free throws this year and is 91-of-112 (.813) in his 63-game career. He had a career-high nine assists against Idaho on Dec. 22, the most by a Sun Devil since Antwi Atuahene had 10 vs. Oregon on Feb. 11, 2006 (most in past 65 games). Glasser had 69 assists and 32 turnovers in Pac-10 play, a 2.16 ratio that was second in the league. He also has 228 career asists in just two seasons, more than halfway to the ASU career record of 454 set by Bobby Thompson from 1983-87...Jerren Shipp matched a career-best with nine boards at California and played a career-best 42 minutes against Arizona on Jan. 9. He had a Pac-10 season-high 11 points at Arizona on Feb. 10...Ty Abbott has 73 three-pointers, best by a freshman in ASU history.
HITTING FREEBIES: ASU is shooting .742 from the free throw line, currently the fifth-best mark in ASU history and second-best in past 21 seasons. In his 10 seasons at NC State, Coach Sendek's teams led the ACC four times in FT percentage (including three straight seasons, 2002-04). In 2004 NC State led the nation and set the ACC record by shooting .799 from the charity stripe. While at NC State, his squads shot 71.3 percent, as his poorest FT shooting team was his first year (1996-97/.649). One good note on his 2003-04 NC State team is in the past nine seasons, that squad's .799 FT percentage is tied for the best in the NCAA with St. Joseph in 2005-06.
SOLID WIN: ASU has hosted the likes of Final Four-bound Kansas in 1990-91, Final-Four bound Oklahoma State in 1994-95, Texas, Georgia, Kerry Kittles-led Villanova, Kenny Thomas-led New Mexico, BYU, 2006 defending Big Ten Tournament champ Iowa and Louisville since 1990, but No. 17 Xavier was the highest ranked non-conference foe to visit ASU since No. 14 ASU beat No. 7 Ohio State 71-58 on Dec. 20, 1980. Xavier also was the first non-conference ranked foe to visit Tempe since No. 18 UTEP topped ASU 60-55 on Dec. 18, 1983. ASU's 77-55 win over the Musketeers is the largest over a ranked team in ASU history, topping ASU's only win over the nation's top-ranked team, an 87-67 win at Oregon State on March 7, 1981. It was ASU's highest-ranked non-conference win since Nov. 23, 1994 (97-90 win over seventh-ranked Maryland in Maui) and Xavier's worst defeat since an 80-49 loss to La Salle in the 1999-2000 season. ASU's 59.5 shooting percentage is the best against Xavier since Elite Eight-bound St. Joseph's in 2003-2004 shot 60 percent. St. Joseph's went undefeated in the regular season.