Feb. 23, 2009
Coach Herb Sendek
On the offensive balance for the Sun Devils tonight:
"Those two shots he (Rihards Kuksiks) made at the end were life savers for us. To tack on, he had five threes in the game. It is good in the last three games to see greater balance with our team. Tonight, we were three points short of having five guys in double-figures. Against SC, we were a point short and against UCLA, we did actually have five players in double-digits. I think a lot of that is a function of James (Harden). Teams are doing a variety of things to tend to him very carefully and in his unselfish, playmaking way, he is setting the table for his other players. Tonight, with Jamelle (McMillan) in the first half, Rik down he stretch, Derek (Glasser) as he went into the locker room, we had a number of guys step up and make plays. Having said that in a very complimentary way about James, I couldn't be prouder of Jeff (Pendergraph). Once again, a double-double, played all forty minutes, stayed out of foul trouble and really was monumental in our effort tonight."
On not losing their focus during Arizona's run in the second half:
"Basketball in general is a game of runs. We saw that yesterday when Maryland was down 16 in the first half and won against Carolina. Tonight, Duke was up 22 and Wake Forest cut it to two. So it's not an anomaly. In the first half, we were able to take the lead because we were making shots. We went 10-of-16 from three in the first half. Then the tide turned and Arizona was making shots, In fact, I don't think they grazed the rim for a few minutes. It was swish, swish, swish, and in that same segment, from our standpoint, we weren't getting any shots dramatically different from the first half, we just missed them. So, as we talk about frequently in our sport, putting the ball in the basketball is paramount."
On Kuksiks' getting the green light to shoot:
"If he's open, we want him to take it. Usually we don't have to twist his arm to do that."