COLUMN ARCHIVE Talking Baseball The Debate Tempe: A Hoops Hotbed? Heading into Exams Prepared Bruce's Call to Action It Doesn't Get Much Better than This Strange Scheduling Big Weekend in Sun Devil Athletics Saturday Afternoon Fever Frustration = Motivation? Attention Traveling Sun Devils! Blazing The Trail That's Okay, I'll Let Bruce Handle It

November 11, 1999

Thanks for stopping by the site, considering all of your web choices, I guess Tim and I have to kick our journalistic output up a level to keep you here. But it shouldn't be that hard, after all, you are a huge Sun Devil fan and we do pen our articles about the Maroon and Gold.

Atmospheric Conditions
In both his radio show and press conference this week, Bruce Snyder brought up his desire to see the Sun Devil crowd show up en masse with a lot of enthusiasm for this Saturday's game against Stanford. Obviously, Snyder could say this each week to the fans, but he chose this week to show his desires…with good reason.

It feels like the last home game the Sun Devils played was during the Bush Administration. This is a team that has been away from the cozy confines of Frank Kush field for five of the last seven games including four of the last five. During that time they have been to the venerable Notre Dame Stadium, Husky Stadium, and Autzen Stadium in Oregon, all places with great college football atmospheres and raucous crowds. For the Sun Devils to come back home to Tempe to a subdued, unenthusiastic crowd would be a major buzzkill.

There is no doubt that Sun Devil Stadium can be an intimidating place and 60,000+ fans wearing the maroon and gold can have a legitimate role in the game, otherwise Bruce would never bring up his hopes that the crowd will be loud. This is the Sun Devils' eighth game in a row, they have been through a trying, emotionally draining season, but I would be willing to bet that all that wouldn't make difference if a riled up crowd shows up on Saturday.

Optimism Abounds
In sports, the old adage is to live in the now, don't look ahead, take care of the present, yada, yada, yada. But if you quickly look into your Sparky Crystal Ball at Arizona State sports, you might like what you see. Let's begin with football.

Sure, you lose J.R. to the first or second round of the draft and he will be virtually impossible to replace. I mean really, who can step into the secondary and perform the way he did last week? All kidding aside, J.R. has done so much on the field for this program that there will be a hole when he graduates. However, after watching Delvon Flowers against Oregon and other teams throughout the season, it doesn't appear that the Snyder backfield will miss that much of a beat without J.R. Each time Delvon touches the ball something exciting happens and it wouldn't surprise me if he became an all-conference type running back next year.

Otherwise, most everyone else on offense returns for the first season in the new millennium. Todd Heap, Richard Williams, Ryan Kealy, Tariq MacDonald and most of the offensive line returns with one more year of experience under their belt. One can't help but like that core of players.

On the opposite side of the ball, the defensive line takes a massive hit with the graduation of Ryan Reilly, Eric Flowers and Junior Ioane. But Junior's injury showed that there is depth on the line with the likes of Mike Pinkard, Tommie Townsend and Elza Gennicks filling in for Ioane. They may need some time to gel, but next year's line should end up being equally as strong as the 1999 version.

The rest of the defense looks solid, if not spectacular. This year's entire standout linebacker corps returns and the secondary brings everyone back but J.R. (I tried to be funny again, sorry) and Courtney Jackson. Courtney's leadership will be missed, and he's played solidly all season, but Nijrell Eason and others should be able to fill in for him.

You add it all up and there is reason to believe that State's best football is yet to come.

Hoops Speak
From a basketball standpoint, it has been well documented how young and talented Rob Evans' team is. Not only has he assembled one of the best recruiting classes in the nation, but it was announced today that ASU has signed two more blue chippers for next season in Johnathan Howard and Darryl Issac. Howard is a heady player who can shoot the lights out, Issac is a 6-9 tree of a kid who can run the floor and block a lot of shots for the Devils. Add them to the freshmen on campus this year, and you have a quite a group of underclassmen for the 2000 season.

Rob Evans will win here and it will begin sooner than later. This season's team will experience growing pains, no doubt, but they will also scare and probably beat a lot of teams that they shouldn't. Look at it this way, Rob Evans won at Ole Miss, where no one had ever won before. He out-recruited SEC teams such as Kentucky, Auburn, Arkansas and made the Rebels one of the conference's best programs. Now he is at picturesque Arizona State where, safe to say, it is much easier to recruit to than the middle of Mississippi. Yes, Sun Devil Basketball fans, there will be a lot of W's at the Wells Fargo Arena in years to come.

The women's basketball program has equal reason to be optimistic. Charlie Turner-Thorne is entering her fourth year as the head coach of the team and her coaching and recruiting efforts are finally coming to fruition. Turner-Thorne will flat out tell you that this season's team has what it takes to go to the NCAA tournament, a dance they haven't been to since 1992. And, she has the evidence to back it up. This year's team returns four starters, including All-Pac 10 freshman Theresa Jantzen and seniors Rachel Holt, Kristine Sand and Kitch Kitchen. Add freshman point guard Brett Leonard to the mix when she gets healthy and you have reason to think this team may supercede the preseason prognostications of fifth in the conference.

Ah, but if you really want to light up Turner-Thorne's eyes, ask her about next year. Not only does Jantzen and Leonard return, but transfers Amanda Levens (ODU), Nikki Swaggert (Colorado) and Melody Johnson (Colorado) get to play after red shirting this year because of their transfer to Tempe. That team, the 2000-2001 squad, Turner-Thorne will flat out tell you, will be disappointed if the only thing they accomplish is an NCAA tournament birth.

But enough about the future, the present is here and that means one thing…bring your radio and your vocal cords to Sun Devil Stadium for the Saturday tilt with the Cardinal.

Robby Robinson is the Assistant Director of Broadcasting for the Sun Devil Sports Network. He is the host of "The Team Sparky Tailgate Show", ASU's pregame football show and Sun Devil Shakedown, ASU's Call-In Show. Robby can be reached at robby.robinson@asu.edu