ASU 74-UCLA 67. Quoth Jeff Pendergraph: “Yeah, What You Going to Say Now?”
For the first time this season, the Sun Devil men’s basketball team looks capable of advancing to the Sweet 16 and beyond. What’s the difference between the ASU team that swept UCLA and the ASU team that Jeff Pendergraph thought was “weak-minded”?
It was just two weeks ago that Jeff Pendergraph wondered aloud if the ASU basketball team was “weak-minded”.
After Thursday night’s sweep-securing 74-67 home win over fifth-ranked UCLA, the Sun Devils seem to be just fine, thank you. For the first time this season, they looked like a team that would not just make the tournament but could also thrive in postseason play.
- Five players scored in double figures as Ty Abbott and Rihards Kuksiks broke out of slumps that seemed determined to plague ASU’s season. The Sun Devils were 11-for-18 on 3s and 24-for 40 overall.
- Despite some fanciness that cost the team eight turnovers, James Harden played Superman again—scoring 15 points, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out a career-high 11 assists.
- And Derek Glasser rebounded from getting killed by UCLA’s Darren Collison to bury the biggest clutch 3 of his career—or at least the biggest clutch 3 since he buried Arizona a couple weeks ago.
When the Sun Devils survived that three-game road trip from hell, they slogged their way to ugly wins and had too much go right for them to truly look impressive. That was not the story last night.
Last night’s UCLA win had Jeff Pendergraph riding high and looking forward to his next meeting with high school classmate Collison. As he told the State Press: “Now I can walk into a room with my chest out like ‘Yeah, what you going to say now?’”
All Sun Devils have that right today.
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great game fellas! keep it up, Ty and Rihards- way to step up last nite. Nice to see Derek hitting some shots, let’s ride this wave all the way into the tourney– believe you can do it, cause you already have!
Glasser does not get enough credit I’m, amazed by how clutch he’s been!
@Jake, definitely gotta give Glasser some dap. He’s developed into an average (perhaps above average) Pac-10 point guard. I really like his intangibles. He’s super tough and he’s obviously very clutch as evidenced by shots against Arizona and UCLA.
Here’s a nice writeup on Glasser’s growth from the AP last week …
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/10/sports/BKC-T25-Arizona-St-Glasser.php
[...] We’re still coming down from the high that was ASU’s stunning season sweep of UCLA. If you weren’t there, you can watch ASU-UCLA highlights at the bottom of this page. [...]
Parental obligations kept me from tuning in until midway through the 2nd half, but WOW what a game. It’s so nice to see these guys when they are playing to their full capabilities. And the crowd was great — loved the “stripe out” in the student section, though there didn’t seem to be nearly enough gold in the rest of the building. (I don’t like that I could see the sponsor’s name on the students’ shirts but no ASU references other than the U being shaped like a pitchfork…but that’s probably what they intended.) All in all, a great night to be a Devil, and really took me back to games from my freshman year, which was probably the best team until now.
[...] scored 15 points in ASU’s 74-67 upset of UCLA on Thursday and then dropped a career-high 18 in last night’s 65-53 win over [...]