Herb Sendek and Charli Turner Thorne Reload ASU Hoops for 2009-10
Yesterday was the first day high school seniors could sign letters of intent to play college basketball, and Arizona State coaches Herb Sendek and Charli Turner Thorne reloaded their Sun Devil programs as expected.
The Class of 2009 would seem an important one for Arizona State’s basketball programs. The men’s team will almost certainly lose Jeff Pendergraph and James Harden after this season, and the women’s team will lose six seniors including returning starters Briann January, Lauren Lacey and Sybil Dosty.
Herb Sendek took a stab at reloading yesterday when he signed Top 20 shooting guard Trent Lockett of Minneapolis and secured a verbal commitment from 6-foot-11 235-pound Russian man-beast Ruslan Pateev.
We already knew the 6-foot-5 Lockett was Tempe-bound. He averaged 15 points per game as a junior and committed to the Sun Devils long ago.
Pateev, a Russian averaging 10 points and 10 rebounds per game playing in Florida, was a nice surprise as he didn’t announce his intentions until yesterday. As with Rihards Kuksiks two years ago, ASU is waiting for Pateev’s letter of intent to arrive from his folks in Eastern Europe.
The recruiting class did get a tad lighter in recent days as Top 20 point guard Jared Cunningham and ASU decided to part ways, reportedly due to academic concerns. (Check out our post on future ASU classes here.)
Meanwhile, Charli Turner Thorne did what she could to replace nearly half her roster by signing three hoopsters to letters of intent. Here’s the rundown:
- Joy Burke. The 6-foot-5 post averaged 19.8 points, 14.5 rebounds and 5.5 blocks per game last season for Tempe Marcos de Niza. She’s ranked among the top 30 post players nationally.
- Deja Mann. The 5-foot-8 combo guard from Merced, Calif., averaged 16 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals per game as sophomore. She sat out her junior season with an injury.
- Markisha Patterson. The 5-foot-8 guard helped lead Central Arizona College to the NJCAA championship game last year. She prepped at Tolleson.
We look forward to all these players arriving in Tempe. However, we’re currently focused on the season-opening women’s-men’s hoops doubleheader on Friday. Who’s comin’ with us?
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Reload? So you’re content with the men not making the final four of the NIT and the women getting bounced in the second round? If yes then ASU definitely reloaded. The recruits signed yesterday will not take ASU to the next level.
It is indeed frightening to think about ASU hoops post-Harden and post-Pendergraph. Best guess: PG Nate McMillan, SG Ty Abbott, SF Johnny Coy, PF Rihards Kuksiks, C Eric Boateng. That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, but who knows which of these guys will take a step forward this season. I’m just excited to watch!
I’ll be there.
Mississippi Valley State (which brought us Jerry Rice) are the Delta Devils.
Surely someone will make a witty sign referencing the Sun Devils and Delta Devils with the message inferring one school is superior than the other.
The devils are in the Demetrius Walker sweepstakes. Yes, he has fallen from the grace of basketball hype machine, but the kid is still really good.
It will be hard to fill the shoes of Harden, but they have a good chance by brining in solid players. I just hope they can bring in a true power forward in for down low with the Pateev kid. Hope he is not Eric Boateng type of stiff.
[...] appeared that Herb Sendek had tied a bow on the Class of 2009 when Minneapolis shooting guard Trent Lockett and Russian big man Ruslan Pateev agreed to play for the Su… late last [...]