Oregon St.-Arizona St. Preview
The opening weekend of Pac-10 play provided a glimpse of No. 20 Arizona State's strength and weakness.
The Sun Devils relied on hot shooting to rout Stanford 90-60 in Palo Alto. Then they watched California slice their matchup zone to ribbons in an 81-71 loss at Berkeley.
As Arizona State (12-2, 1-1 Pac-10) prepares to tip off the Pac-10 home season against lowly Oregon State (6-6, 1-1) on Thursday night, coach Herb Sendek wants his team to keep shooting well while shoring up some of the defensive flaws revealed by Cal.
"I think we have to be better, I really do,"
Sendek said Tuesday on the Pac-10 coaches teleconference. "Have we taken steps? I'm sure we have. But other teams have taken steps too. You've got to improve just to stay even in college basketball."
The Sun Devils may be short-handed against Oregon State. Sendek said starting forward Jeff Pendergraph has a sprained MCL in his right knee.
If Pendergraph, who also has a strained left foot, is limited, it could mean more minutes for 6-foot-10 junior Eric Boateng and 6-foot-8 freshman Taylor Rohde of Phoenix. Boateng averages 2.5 points in 9.5 minutes per game while Rohde has scored five baskets in 12 games and is averaging 5.3 minutes per game.
The Sun Devils hope they won't be without Pendergraph, their emotional senior leader.
After scoring a career-high 31 points with 11 rebounds against Stanford on Friday night, Pendergraph hurt his knee against the Bears but stayed the game. He scored 16 points with seven rebounds before fouling out.
Sunday's loss at Cal snapped an eight-game win streak for the Sun Devils, who had won 12 of their first 13 games to match their best start since 1974-75, when they opened 15-1.
Cal shot 58 percent from the floor against Arizona State, best by an ASU opponent this year. The Bears also hit 52.9 percent from beyond the 3-point arc, another season high for an opponent.
Cal's point guard, Jerome Randle, helped his team solve ASU's matchup zone defense, which had been limiting the opposition to the 40.2 percent shooting from the floor. The Bears' 81 points were the most allowed this year by the Sun Devils, who give up 59.8 points per game, third in the Pac-10.
Sendek said ASU's poor defensive showing was a combination of Randle's floor leadership and the Sun Devils' lapses.
"It was clearly both,"
Sendek said. "We did not execute our defensive game plan very well at all. From our standpoint, we did not feel very good about what we did defensively."
While Sendek wasn't happy with his defense at Berkeley, he had to be thrilled with his offense at Palo Alto. The Sun Devils shot 59 percent from the floor, 46.2 percent from beyond the arc.
ASU is the best-shooting team in the conference, averaging 51.0 percent from the floor. Only one other team -- UCLA, at 50.1 percent -- has made more than half its shots.
The Sun Devils hope they can fix their defensive problems against Oregon State, which averages 62.6 points per game, ninth in the conference.
Oregon State last season became the first team to go winless since the Pac-10 expanded to an 18-game conference schedule in 1978-79. But the Beavers already have a conference victory this year after upsetting Southern California 62-58 in overtime on Sunday in Corvallis.
"Certainly for the team, our guys and myself, to win a Pac-10 game this early, it does a couple of things,"
coach Craig Robinson said. "It gives us time to win another one, which is always a good thing. Second, it gets back to the confidence. It gives our team a feeling that, well, if we play the way we are capable of playing, we have a shot at beating some pretty good teams."
ASU plays host to Oregon (6-8, 0-2) on Saturday.
