Sun, Jul 05, 2009
 Making the NCAA tournament and winning more than 20 games were among the goals second-year coach Herb Sendek set for ASU, which was 8-22 last season.
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Devils on cloud nine after surprising startPlayers believe ASU can reach Sendek's goals
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.09.2008
TEMPE — Before the basketball season started at the Maui Invitational, coach Herb Sendek gathered the Sun Devils and wrote down a list of goals for the season.
Jeff Pendergraph, the team's second-leading scorer and leading rebounder, remembered Tuesday what he thought of his coach's expectations.
"We can do that," he said, going down the metaphorical list. "We can do that. That's gonna be tough. That's gonna be tough. That one, hmm."
After all, the Sun Devils went 8-22 last season.
"They kind of seemed a little bit far for us in the beginning," Pendergraph said. "But that's because I don't think we knew what we were capable of."
The list included holding serve in Pac-10 home games, finishing conference road trips on a positive note, making the NCAA tournament and winning more than 20 games.
"Some of the goals, coming off last year, we didn't know what to expect," starting point guard Derek Glasser said. "We didn't know how good some of the freshmen were going to be or how well we'd come together. …
"One of the things was 20-plus wins. You've got to be a really good team to get 20 wins, especially in the Pac-10. We're at 12, so we'll see what happens."
Entering the most relevant UA-ASU basketball matchup in years, an air of confidence has permeated the Sun Devils. ASU (12-2) is 2-0 in Pac-10 play for the third time in 30 years. The Sun Devils are in the midst of an eight-game win streak for the second time since 1983.
"It doesn't seem like it's really going to be a landslide victory with them," Pendergraph said.
Maybe that's the point. The Sun Devils have won more games already this season than they did all last year, and have matched their conference victory total from the 2006-07 season.
Pendergraph is getting stopped at the grocery store by fans — and not just the usual hard-core alumni who were the only ones to recognize him his first two years on campus.
"Man this is crazy," he remembers thinking. "It's everywhere."
Sendek, rarely speaking above a whisper Tuesday, wasn't ready to declare full-blown hoops mania. He joked he had not noticed much of change because he doesn't go to the grocery store, and that the only stops he makes between home and work might come because of a traffic ticket.
"I think there's been an escalation in buzz for some time," said the professorial coach. "I don't think that's like this week or last week. I think there's been a gradual excitement building around the basketball program."
It's easy to see.
The Sun Devils won six of their first eight games before defeating No. 17 Xavier on Dec. 15 by 22 points, the largest victory against a ranked team in school history.
Guard James Harden, the Pac-10's Player of the Week, has emerged as the team's leading scorer with 17.6 points per game despite being the youngest competitor in the conference.
The Sun Devils defeated Oregon and Oregon State last week by a combined 27 points.
But a win against the Wildcats — who have defeated ASU in 24 of the past 25 meetings — would send ASU fans from a simmer to a rolling boil.
Pendergraph has tried to explain the rivalry to Harden and other newcomers. His most vivid memory came last season at McKale Center, when a fan spit on his head before warm-ups.
"We try to tell them that it's no joke, that these guys are coming in to try to blow us out the gym," he said. "You can prepare them so much, but they have to take the test."
Buzz and excitement and expectations are new to the ASU program. The team is close to selling out Wells Fargo Arena for the first time since the UA game in 2005.
But once the game starts, the Sun Devils will try to justify the attention — and the expectations written by their coach at the beginning of the year.
"You can say anything you want," Sendek said. "You can believe anything you want. You can think what you want. But then it has to be backed up with a lot of hard work and improvement and you have to overcome adversities.
"You have to do it. Saying it's one thing; doing it's another."
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