Quote :

"Sendek beginning to find his way at ASU Paola Boivin The Arizona Republic May. 31, 2007 12:00 AM I half expect to hear the sound of test tubes crashing and Bunsen burners exploding as I enter Herb Sendek's office. Instead, I get his feeble but humorous five-minute attempt to retell a scene from the previous night's Cheers episode. He is stumbling over the punch line, another confirmation that he is equal parts mad scientist and nutty professor, a basketball coach driven and distracted by the challenge of bringing a winning program to Arizona State. Fourteen months ago, Sendek was named head coach, but the only commonality is the lack of pictures on his office wall, an intentional decision as he awaits the construction of a basketball practice facility. Everything else has changed, from the makeup of his roster to his comfort level in the community. advertisement Last year at this time, Sendek was trying to remember whether he lived in the East Valley or West Valley. He figured he had seniors Kevin Kruger and Bryson Krueger as anchors for his first season, only to see them transfer and be kicked off, respectively. He was trying to make sense of a city that treated college basketball far differently than his old stamping grounds of Raleigh, N.C. For all the challenges that awaited him, Sendek, now 44, made the most of his first year. He rebounded from the loss of the two seniors with a well-respected recruiting class. He is about to run his first group of summer camps that will provide a valuable link to the high school community. And despite an 8-22 overall and 2-16 Pac-10 record in his debut season, he found a way to connect with ASU fans. "I think there's a tremor building under the surface right now where there's a curiosity to see what's going to happen next," Sendek said. It's true. He has made an effort to build relationships in the state by speaking at events and visiting cities as part of the Sun Devil Express, a nine-stop tour for fans to visit with coaches. Despite last season's record, few turned on Sendek, in part because expectations were low but also because the team's effort was obvious. If anything, the players overachieved, if one can say such a thing about an eight-victory group. More than anything, Sendek secured our attention with impressive newcomers, including recruits James Harden and Jamelle McMillan, and Eric Boateng, a transfer from Duke. Sendek is building momentum and has two oral commitments locked in for the fall of 2008. Don't take his recruiting lightly. He is one of just three coaches to have a first-round NBA draft pick in each of the past two seasons (Julius Hodge and Cedric Simmons) along with Connecticut's Jim Calhoun and Washington's Lorenzo Romar. Add the veteran leadership and talent that junior Jeff Pendergraph can provide, not to mention a group of players who were thrust into starting roles as freshmen last season, and there is plenty of intrigue with this group. "I don't know if I've ever had a younger team," Sendek said. "I don't know if it's mathematically possible." Sendek is adept at getting the most out of his players. He spends nearly every morning poring through video of other teams in search of information that will benefit his. The past few days, he has been watching this season's Utah Jazz. The man is always diagramming, always creating. His version of the cocktail napkin is a magnetic board with magnetic circles to diagram plays. It is always within reach so Sendek can test different scenarios. "Actually, I think it's to drive myself insane," he said. "That's really more accurate." For all of ASU's struggles last season, its defense ranked 29th in the nation by allowing a respectable 61.8 points per game. That's fewer points than Ohio State, Duke, Florida and Memphis allowed. It is a promising result for ASU's athletic department, but Sendek will need to continue to build fan interest. ASU had the highest percentage of empty seats at home among conference teams last season. Look for the Sun Devils to bring back Midnight Madness and capitalize on several home football games in October with intrasquad basketball games. It is a good way to attract fan attention. Because Sendek's joke-telling surely won't. "

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/sports/articles/0531boivin0531.html

i got a couple lolz from this and the comments following. thought some others on this board might enjoy it.

6/4/2007 12:25:04 AM

I really liked Sendek but we're rolling with Lowe now.

6/4/2007 1:02:55 AM

we scare, because we care

6/4/2007 1:09:35 AM

At what point can we just leave the guy alone and let him do his thing?

6/4/2007 8:58:14 AM

Quote :

"For all of ASU's struggles last season, its defense ranked 29th in the nation by allowing a respectable 61.8 points per game. That's fewer points than Ohio State, Duke, Florida and Memphis allowed."

Why Arizona sportswriters have no clue about the game of basketball.

6/4/2007 9:02:17 AM

i enjoy reading about what Coach Sendek is doing...whats wrong with posting that article.

it is not a fucking open invitation to bash him

but one or some of you faggots are going to open this thread just to post some bullshit, trolling crap.

have a little self control and dont come in here bashing herb or trying to stir up the pot

6/4/2007 9:30:03 AM

^^ actually they have it dead on. Thats what you have to do when you dont have a high talent level.

You slow the game down. Thats the reason for those 'good' numbers. He did the same thing here to pull us out of the shitter, and I dont see why he cant have similar success there.

It will be interesting to see if he adjusts to how he deals with talent in comparison to being here. He probably wont be able to get the level of talent that he got here, but who knows.

6/4/2007 9:34:36 AM

^he has a pretty damn good class coming in this year

I wouldn't be surprised to see him continue to pull in good classes.

6/4/2007 9:39:52 AM

^^That article says nothing about slowing the game down. It uses points allowed as a useless fact to claim ASU is better defensively than four teams that play a much more up tempo style. You must believe Princeton and Air Force are the two toughest defenses in the country.

[Edited on June 4, 2007 at 9:54 AM. Reason : .]

6/4/2007 9:52:15 AM

I see your point

but you could also argue dictating tempo is good defense

6/4/2007 9:53:47 AM

Slowing the game down to limit the number of possessions is a strategy for an outmanned team, but that is not defense.

6/4/2007 9:56:58 AM

lol i thought this was "Sendek finding his way out"

haha

6/4/2007 10:08:31 AM

sendek had one of the best defenses in the country last year...thats why they went 1-15 in conference play

by the way, chuck amato is going to bring discipline back to florida state

6/4/2007 10:20:13 AM

Do you ever present anything but trolling and smartass comments TreeTwista10???

It was pretty obvious that defense was never a problem when Herb was here.

6/4/2007 10:24:28 AM

yeah thats why our defense was so great at preventing 25 point blowouts from UNC or Texas

its not like a slow offensive tempo had anything to do with the illusion of defense

my favorite displays of terrific defense by sendek was when we'd have massive leads against Maryland or Wisconsin or whoever and then not only could we not score, but we couldnt stop them either...unless you consider waiting 30-32 seconds into the shot clock to shoot so the other team "only" gets two FG attempts per minute "playing good defense"

6/4/2007 10:39:36 AM

Well if you have the lead and are struggling to score....Im not a genius but making the game shorter sounds like the best way to win....much like in football when you have the lead you run the clock.

6/4/2007 10:45:30 AM

Quote :

"^^That article says nothing about slowing the game down. It uses points allowed as a useless fact to claim ASU is better defensively than four teams that play a much more up tempo style. You must believe Princeton and Air Force are the two toughest defenses in the country."

I thought that bit was a bit silly too. They are not necessarily defending more shots, but allowing fewer opportunity for shots because they use up twice as much time on their possessions than some of the other teams. Its not necessarily a bad strategy in some games, but the article is drawing a bit of an unfair comparison.

6/4/2007 10:52:49 AM

^^i agree with that but that doesnt = great defense

we generally had a lower number of turnovers per game (relative to other ACC teams) as well but that was again a product of a slow paced offense moreso than having great ball handlers...although we usually were a pretty good passing team

6/4/2007 10:55:13 AM

Blowouts to far althletically superior teams happen when you dont have the talent to keep up with them. No amount of game control can stop that unless you catch them on an off night.

Slowing down the game does, in part, translate to good defense. It takes the other team out of their game plan and makes them adjust to how you want to play.

If a team normally scores in the 80s but your team averages in the 60s, you need to change the game to keep their score down in the 60s too to give you a shot.

6/4/2007 11:04:47 AM

I just look at good defense as not simply limiting the number of possessions the other team gets, but limiting what they do on those possessions...I see # of turnovers forced / possession and defensive FG% a much better indicator of defense than # of points per game allowed

6/4/2007 11:10:22 AM

wasnt sendeks opponents FG% always pretty good?

[Edited on June 4, 2007 at 11:12 AM. Reason : as in we held them to low % most of the time.]

6/4/2007 11:11:50 AM

Sendek only played guys who were solid on defense, and he made sure that they worked together as a team.

I had a lot of gripes with Sendek, but defense wasn't one of them.

6/4/2007 11:13:53 AM

We were generally pretty good defensively with Herbert, except for the inability to adjust to solid players that were lighting us up (remember the Battier and Dunleavy games?).

However, I encourage you to look at Pomeroy's Offensive and Defensive Efficiency rankings, which is basically points scored per 100 possessions.

http://kenpom.com/stats.php?y=2007&s=10
Last season, Arizona State allowed 102.7 points per 100 possessions, making them the 185th ranked defense in Division I. On offense, they were 272nd.

Other teams the article compares them to:

Ohio State 94.6 (25th in nation)
Duke 92.4 (9th in nation)
Florida 93.0 (14th in nation)
Memphis 89.4 (2nd in nation)



But Arizona State has a better defense...

6/4/2007 11:30:44 AM

Battier and Dunleavy lit up damn near everyone in '01. Of course we sucked ass that year too. Last year pre-Hodge.

6/4/2007 11:55:20 AM

^^ nice find... i've never heard of those Pomeroy stats

6/4/2007 12:06:03 PM

^^^ /thread.

6/4/2007 12:08:38 PM

^How is that the end of the thread? That has nothing to do with the actual topic.

The thread was just about Herb and ASU and him improving things there.

6/4/2007 12:11:26 PM

props to markgoal

I will have to start paying more attention to that stat...

6/4/2007 12:12:18 PM

State was 234; Interesting UConn was 3. If only they could score.

6/4/2007 12:46:17 PM

^^^I guess the article cites more than just the "improvement" in defense?


[Edited on June 4, 2007 at 12:51 PM. Reason : ^]

6/4/2007 12:51:19 PM

Quote :

"If anything, the players overachieved, if one can say such a thing about an eight-victory group."

lawlz

6/4/2007 12:53:15 PM

makes me wonder where this "Paola Boivin" went to school.... talk about a huge stretch....

6/4/2007 2:34:53 PM

i also like reading about sendek

and i am one of the few who like him and wish him well


that said, seems like all sendek stuff could stay in one thread, like that asu thread, b/c these threads will only end up starting stupid arguments

6/4/2007 7:09:38 PM