Much has been made of the Sun Devils having a starting QB battle in spring ball. Who will come out No. 1? Who will be the backup?

One thing to remember is ASU has had 13 starting QBs in the past 15 seasons, since Jake Plummer started the final 40 games of his career from 1993-96 and led ASU to the Pac-10 title in 1996. On average, only once every three years does the same guy start every game.

ASU baseball head coach Tim Esmay earned his 100th win as the Sun Devils' skipper on Sunday, beating UC Riverside, 11-2.  Esmay is in his third year at the helm of the Devils and reached the century mark with a 100-29 record, giving him the second-highest winning percentage at that point among ASU baseball coaches. And with five national championships, 22 College World Series appearances and 21 conference titles between the four of them, that's not a bad group to be in the upper half of.

 

Check below for a chart of ASU's baseball coaches:

Jim Brock (1972-1994)

Record at 100 wins: 100-12 (.893)

Overall record: 1,099-441-1 (.713)

Two national titles, 13 College World Series appearances, 11 conference titles

 

Tim Esmay (2010-present)

Record at 100 wins: 100-29 (.775)

Overall record: 100-29 (.775)

One College World Series appearance, one conference title

 

Bobby Winkles (1959-71) 

Record at 100 wins: 100-46 (.685)

Overall record: 524-173-1 (.751)

Three national titles, four College World Series appearances, five conference titles

 

Pat Murphy (1995-2009)

Record at 100 wins: 100-59 (.629)

Overall record: 629-283-1 (.689)

Four College World Series appearances, four conference titles

 

A couple of notes on Jordan Bachynski's improvement over the course of the year...

Sophomore Jordan Bachynski scored a career-high 20 in Feb. 2 game at Stanford and had 19 vs. USC on Feb. 26, and if you take a look at the past 11 games his improvement is solid as all of his stats compared to the first 18 games are off-the-chart good. One area of improvement is free throw shooting. He entered the Stanford Feb. 2 game 20-of-50 (.400) for the season and 40-of-90 (.444) in his career, but was 10-of-12 (.833) in that game. He has five double figure scoring games in those 11 games. Another good note on his free throws is that in his past eight games, he is 27-of-39 (.692) at the charity stripe, in the first 21 games he was 20-of-50 (.400).

PAST 11 GAMES/FIRST 18 GAMES FOR JORDAN

POINTS PER GAME: 9.9/2.8

FIELD GOAL PCT: 37-57 (.649)/18-39 (.462)

FREE THROW SHOOTING: 35-55 (.636)/12-34 (.353)

REBOUNDS PER GAME: 6.5/2.5 

Couple more notes on Todd Graham making the rounds lately...

No one is happy with the turnovers this year for men's hoops, but there is no question it is not something that Arizona State is used to. Here are two nuggets that show this hasn't been an issue in the past, and hopefully won't be next year...

MORE PROOF THIS IS UNUSUAL: It has been said that this year's turnovers for Arizona State is an anomaly based on its place in the Pac-10 and nationally the past few years with Derek Glasser and Jamelle McMillan handling the ball. Here is more proof...in the previous two seasons combined, ASU has averaged 12.05 turnovers in 64 total games, the best mark in the league. Oregon is second in that time frame at 12.47 per game.

PAC-10 TURNOVERS PER GAME PREVIOUS TWO SEASONS (2009-2011)
Arizona State 12.05/64
Oregon 12.47/71
Stanford 12.74/63
California 12.78/68
Washington 12.50/71  
USC 12.91/64
Washington State  13.26/66
Arizona 13.33/69
UCLA 14.61/66  
Oregon State 15.10/63

THIS ISN'T NORMAL: ASU is averaging a Pac-12 high 16.6 turnovers per game, and that is unusual for a Coach Sendek team. ASU finished tied for second in the Pac-10 in fewest turnovers per game at 12.2 last year (USC was best at 11.4) and averaged 11.6 turnovers in final 15 games. It averaged 11.9 in 2009-10 (first in the league). ASU took a step vs. Tulsa as it had just 14 for the victory. It had a season-low 10 vs. Fresno State, but Fresno committed just nine. The Sun Devils forced a season-high 18 turnovers vs. Washington State on Jan. 28, and also had less turnovers than their opponent for the only time this season, as it had had 16 turnovers.

SUN DEVIL TURNOVERS PER GAME UNDER COACH SENDEK
2011-12: 16.6
2010-11: 12.2 (t2nd for fewest in Pac-10)
2009-10: 11.9 (1st in Pac-10)
2008-09: 11.5 (2nd in Pac-10/15th in nation)
2007-08: 12.6 (t3rd in Pac-10)
2006-07: 14.5 (7th in Pac-10)

Have had some Sun Devils make the Jonathan Gilling/Rihards Kuksiks comparison based on an overseas player who can shoot. And both can. Figured it might be worth it to take a look at the freshman season statistics for Rik and Jonathan side-by-side, keeping in mind Gilling still has at least five more games to play.

More from the KTAR 620 AM Newsmakers interview here with Coach Todd Graham

Stumbled upon a decent nugget while looking through some Todd Graham statistics. 

Back in 2007 and 2008, Coach Graham's Tulsa squad led the nation in total offense, the first time a school had led the nation in total offense in back-to-back seasons since 1995-96. Those Tulsa teams joined some famous ball-tossing squads like Nevada, Houston (under both David Klinger and Andre Ware), BYU (Steve Young, Jim McMahon)...and Arizona State and Danny White.

Yes, our own Danny White can jump in this conversation. Back in 1972-73 ASU led the nation in total offense and he quarterbacked both teams.

BACK-TO-BACK TOTAL OFFENSE TEAM LEADERS/QB NOTED

2008, Tulsa, 569.9, David Johnson

There is no question the Sun Devil hoops men's basketball team has struggled in the last two weeks after Trent Lockett went down with an injury. Buckets have been hard to come by, especially on the road. But one guy who has really stepped up physically and mentally is sophomore Jordan Bachynski.

FOX Sports Arizona's Jack Magruder talked with Jordan about it after the Washington State win last Saturday, and had this neat story heading into this weekend.

He then scored a career-high 20 last night (Feb. 2) in the loss to Stanford, and if you take a look at the past four games his improvement is as good as one can hope for. His 12.5 points per game leads the team in the past four games, and all of his stats compared to the first 18 games are off the chart good.

A huge area of improvement last night was free throw shooting. He entered the game 20-of-50 (.400) for the season and 40-of-90 (.444) in his career. Against Stanford, he was 10-of-12.