SBNation.com User Blog: K-Bomb44

ASU Men's Basketball Announce Scrimmage Date

K-Bomb44 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:57:46 -0000

Just wanted to drop in that the ASU Men's Basketball team will be holding a scrimmage on October 20th at 10 am. It is free and open to the public and will be held at Wells Fargo Arena. It'll be the first opportunity that fans have to catch a glimpse of highly touted first year starting guard Jahii Carson.

In addition to Carson the Devils also have two new potential starters: Evan Gordon, the younger brother of New Orleans Hornets shooting guard Eric Gordon, and former Hawaii Warrior and deep threat Bo Barnes. Should be an interesting season for the Devils as Herb Sendek's job may very well be in the balance. I believe that this team will be the cinderella of the Pac-12 and that Jahii Carson has the potential to earn First Team Pac-12 honors.

Graham Driving ASU

K-Bomb44 — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 19:56:44 -0000

I can't believe the job that Todd Graham is doing. It really is amazing that last season Arizona State ranked dead last in the nation for penalty yards per game at 79.77 and this season the Devils are averaging 17.5 per game. Last season Head Coach Dennis Erickson had a coaching philosophy of allowing the players to be loose and confident, ready to put some hurt into an opponent.

The problem with that is that when things start going bad during a game there is no base for a player to rely on. They start to get upset and lose some confidence that what they are doing isn't good enough and they over do it and play with too much emotion. The culture change that Graham has instilled is one of trust and accountability. The players are disciplined and they trust that a teammate will get the job done. No need to fly off the handle and effect change solo.

As you can tell I am now a big Todd Graham fan. I believe in this guy, even if we finish 6-6 the kind of ball these Devils are playing is inspiring. The fact that an undisciplined, mistake making, out of shape playing, suspension ridden, underachieving mess that was the Sun Devil football program is now efficient, dynamic, electric and worth putting your faith into. I really believe that this program is on the express lane to relevance and Graham is behind the wheel. Let's hope he stays in Tempe for more than 10 months.

Sendek is Going Down Swinging

K-Bomb44 — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:09:28 -0000

There is no denying that the Sun Devil men's basketball program has been less then exciting recently. However, with his job hanging in the balance head coach Herb Sendek isn't going down without a fight. The recent additions of Eric Musselman and Larry Greer prove that Sendek still has clout within the annals of basketball.

Musselman has NBA experience, as he was a head coach at Golden State and Sacramento and last season he was the NBADL Coach of the Year. Jeremy Lin, who for about 3 weeks in the middle of the NBA season set the world on fire, credits Musselman for a lot of his success as he was coached my him in the Developmental Legue. Greer was an assistant on former Sun Devil Jamelle Mcmillan's father Nate's Portland Trailblazers staff.

Bringing in two NBA seasoned assistants really shows that Sendek is still invested in turning the program around and that he is still regarded as a good basketball man. I really hope that he gets the opportunity to have some recruiting classes with these two assistants on board.