Jan. 27, 2012

--Danish import Gilling a pleasant find for ASU (by Jack Magruder, FOX Sports Arizona/Jan. 25, 2012)

UPDATE FOR SATURDAY
Sixth-year Sun Devil coach Herb Sendek and the Arizona State men's hoops team (6-14; 2-6 in Pac-12) the Washington State Cougars at 3 p.m. on Saturday (Jan. 28). The Sun Devil Network (KTAR 620 AM locally) provides the audio and FOX Sports Arizona has the TV broadcast. After posting just three 20-win seasons in the previous 25 seasons, ASU posted three 20-win seasons under Herb Sendek in his first five years. ASU was 8-22 in Coach Sendek's first year (2006-2007), but is 86-67 (.562) in past five and giving up just 62.0 ppg. in his 183 games as Sun Devil head coach. Six lettermen from last year are on the squad including 2010-11 All-Pac-10 second-team and first-team Pac-10 All-Academic performer Trent Lockett, who is battling an ankle injury suffered in the 76-66 win against Oregon State on Jan. 14 and has missed past three games. ASU has seven of its final 11 games at home after starting Pac-12 play with five of its first seven on the road for the third time in four seasons.

VS. WASHINGTON THURSDAY
ASU led 24-22 at halftime but could not keep up the pace with Trent Lockett sitting in street clothes in a 60-54 loss to Washington. Freshman Jonathan Gilling had a career-high 20 points including five three-pointers, while sophomore Jordan Bachynski had a career-high 13 rebounds off the bench in 23 minutes. Chris Colvin added 10 points and seven assists in 39 minutes.

GILLING'S CAREER-HIGHS
We will talk about him later on in these notes, but freshman Jonathan Gilling posted career-highs in points (20), field goals made (six), field goals attempted (16), three-pointers made (five), three-pointers attempted (12), rebounds (five) and minutes (39).

HOW IMPORTANT IS LOCKETT?
Statistically, junior Trent Lockett leads the Sun Devils in scoring (13.9), minutes per game (35.0), field goals made (81) and three-point percentage (.424)....and don't stop reading I am not done yet. He also has made (60) and attempted (83) more free throws than any other Sun Devil, has best rebounding average (6.4), second-most assists (37), most steals (26) and is the only Sun Devil with more than 35 career starts (61) and more than 70 games played (79).

WSU SERIES
ASU leads the series 35-34 after splitting last year and sweeping in 2009-10 for the first time since 2002-03, ending a six-game Cougar win streak...ASU's 71-46 Tempe win over WSU on Jan. 10, 2010, was WSU's worst loss since a 67-37 defeat to Oregon on Feb. 18, 2006, as ASU held WSU to .298 (17-of-57) shooting on that day...ASU is 20-13 vs. WSU in Tempe (.606) in Pac-10 play.

NO SENIORS
Of the 338 Division I schools, ASU is one of just nine without a senior (per NCAA stats czar Gary Johnson). The other eight: Albany (N.Y.), Binghamton, UC Irvine, Illinois St., St. John's (NY), St. Joseph's, Savannah State and Toledo.

GETTING OLD
A computer spits out the league slate annually, and it obviously likes Sparky on the road. For the fourth straight season, ASU opened league play on the road with its 68-51 loss in Tucson on New Year's Eve. ASU played five of its first seven Pac-12 games on the road for the third time in four years, and the other year in that span (2009-10) it played four of first seven on the road. So that means in its first seven games in four conference seasons counting this year, ASU played 19 of its first 28 on the road in conference play (.679 of the time).

BUT CAN'T SHOW IT YET
The Sun Devils have two players who have shown the ability to make three-pointers on the D-I level, but unfortunately both of them have to watch the game in a polo shirt this year. Evan Gordon, a 6-3 guard, averaged 14.4 points per game as a sophomore at Liberty last year and made 112 three-pointers in his two-year Flames career. Bo Barnes, a 6-4 wing from Scottsdale Christian in Arizona, averaged 6.9 points per game at Hawaii in 2010-11 and was one of only two players to appear in all 32 games. He made more three-point field goals (57) than any freshman in school history and buried at least five three pointers in a game on four separate occasions. Both will be ready to go in 2012-13, along with top recruit Jahii Carson, a top-50 signee and top-10 point guard from nearby Mesa, Ariz., who has to sit this year.

CHRIS SHOWED SOMETHING
Junior guard Chris Colvin's last four games have been a step in the right direction considering he is playing tons of minutes due to injury and a player leaving the program. Against Oregon State on Jan. 14 after Trent Lockett went down with an ankle injury, Colvin played 13 minutes (10 in the second-half). In those 10 minutes he was 6-of-8 from the free throw line (sealing the win) and had five assists and just one turnover to go with two rebounds. Thursday (Jan. 19) at Colorado in his first start since Nov. 27 Colvin was 6-of-11 from the floor and had a season-high 15 points in 31 minutes. He had six assists in 32 minutes on Saturday at Utah (Jan. 21). He played a career-high 39 minutes on Jan. 26 vs. Washington and had 10 points and seven assists.

RUSLAN UPDATE
Junior Ruslan Pateev matched a career-high with 31 minutes vs. Oregon on Jan. 12 (also had 31 minutes vs. California on Jan. 8, 2011) and matched season-bests with six rebounds and three assists. Pateev, who entered the season 23-of-42 (.548) from the free throw line, is 18-of-22 (.818) from the charity stripe this year. In the past five games he is shooting 19-of-29 (.655) from the field.

GILLLING AND ABLE
Freshman Jonathan Gilling continues to impress. He had a career-high 20 points in a career-high 39 minutes vs. Washington on Jan. 26. He posted five assists and just one turnover in 26 minutes vs. Oregon on Jan. 12 and in the past eight games has 25 assists and just 14 turnovers), In those eight games he is averaging 31.5 minutes, 9.1 points and is 21-of-50 (.420) from the three-point stripe in that time. He averaged 14.5 points on the USC/UCLA road trip and also had 12 at Colorado on Jan. 19. He was very good at UCLA on Jan. 7, notching 17 points, including 5-of-6 from the three-point stripe, in a career-high 34 minutes. He had 12 points in 33 minutes along with four assists in the Jan. 5 win at USC.

CHANSE FOR MORE MINUTES
Sophomore Chanse Creekmur played career-high 39 minutes vs. Oregon State, 36 vs. Oregon, a career-high 39 at UCLA (Jan. 7) and 37 at USC (Jan. 5). He had averaged 19.1 minutes in his first 12 games of the season. After starting season 4-of-21 (.190) from the three-point stripe in his first seven games he is 22-of-52 (.423) in the past 11. He had a career-high 24 in the Jan. 21 Oregon State win and also had 15 vs. Northern Arizona on Dec. 17.

SOME GOOD SHOOTING NUMBERS
Coach Sendek has coached in 98 Pac-10/12 games as Sun Devil coach and has mentored the third-pick in the 2009 NBA Draft (James Harden), the nation's field goal percentage leader in 2009 (Jeff Pendergraph) and the first player in Sun Devil history with 1,000 points and 500 assists (Derek Glasser). With none of those players on this roster, ASU has managed to chalk up the second- and fourth-best shooting nights in his Pac-10/12 tenure recently. It shot .611 from the floor against USC on Jan. 5 and then shot .592 vs. Oregon State on Jan. 14.

BEST SHOOTING NIGHTS BY ASU IN PAC-10/12 GAME UNDER COACH SENDEK
.651/28-43 vs. Oregon State (Jan. 8, 2009)
.611/22-36 at USC (Jan. 5, 2012)
.600/24-40 vs. UCLA (Feb.12, 2009)
.592/29-49 vs. Oregon State (Jan. 14, 2012)

THIS ISN'T NORMAL
ASU is averaging a Pac-12 high 16.4 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 game and just five in the second half. It had a season-low 10 vs. Fresno State, but with Fresno committing just nine ASU has yet to have a game with less turnovers than its opponent.

SUN DEVIL TURNOVERS PER GAME UNDER COACH SENDEK
2011-12: 16.4
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)

HERB PAC-10 NOTE
ASU's second-place Pac-10 finish in 2009-10 matched ASU's best in its three-plus decades of Pac-10 play and its 12 wins were the most since 1994-95. ASU has notched at least 11 Pac-10 wins eight times, Herb Sendek has done it in two of the past three seasons.

MOST SUN DEVIL WINS IN PAC-10 PLAY
1980-81, 16-2/2nd/Ned Wulk
1979-80, 15-3/2nd/Ned Wulk
2009-10, 12-6/2nd/Herb Sendek
1994-95, 12-6/3rd/Bill Frieder
1982-83, 12-6/T-3rd/Bob Weinhauer
2008-09, 11-7/T-3rd/Herb Sendek
2002-03, 11-7/4th/Rob Evans
1992-93, 11-7/T-3rd/Bill Frieder