Herb Sendek’s Act of Desperation: “It was Either Derek Glasser or Nothing”
Sun Devil point guard Derek Glasser didn’t have a scholarship lined up when ASU coach Herb Sendek got desperate in the summer of 2006 and picked up the phone. So, how’s that whole thing worked out?
An act of desperation landed Derek Glasser at ASU back in 2006. Herb Sendek didn’t have a point guard after Kevin Kruger left to play for his dad at UNLV. And Glasser didn’t have a scholarship but planned to walk on at hometown USC.
At times during a campaign in which the Sun Devils lost 15 straight games with the freshman leading the offense, the act of desperation seemed foolhardy.
As Sendek told the Associated Press: “It was either him or nothing […] I can remember his freshman year, being at Xavier, and I didn’t know if we were going to, a few times, get the ball up the court.”
Getting the ball up the court isn’t much of a problem these days – games against Darren Collison excluded. Here’s a taste of what Glasser has contributed over the last month:
- He 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 USC.
- He’s knocked down the two biggest shots of the season—go-ahead 3s with 1:39 to play at Arizona and 1:12 to play Thursday against UCLA.
- Oh, and for the second straight season he’s averaging twice as many assists (4.9) as turnovers (2.3). He didn’t lose the ball once against USC.
Maybe USC coach Tim Floyd turned into a raving lunatic at the end of last night’s game because he realized he should’ve made a scholarship available to keep Glasser at home.
Glasser will not often dazzle with streetball dribbling and And One passes – although he’s getting pretty good at finding Jeff Pendergraph at the rim. Instead he’ll slowly bleed an opponent by working the clock, avoiding mistakes and hitting big shots when he’s open.
As high school teammate James Harden told the AP: “He wasn’t a flashy point guard who could make all the great plays, but he was just solid. He’s just a solid point guard who doesn’t turn the ball over and can make the open shot. He can run a team.”
This year, Glasser is doing even more than that.
What’s Your Take, Sun Devils?
We’ve had an admittedly glass-half-empty opinion of Glasser throughout most of his career at ASU. Have you changed your opinion of our point guard or have you always been on the bandwagon?
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Finally the EftB is giving Glasser the credit he deserves! I think Harden said it best- Glasser isn’t flashy and he isn’t gonna be the main play maker, but I feel like in the past he has helped set up the big plays and this season he has proved to be integral to the big plays. He sets them up and Pendergraph knocks them down!
With the pick-n-roll working as well as it did last night, and with James Harden being able to do whatever he wants with the ball when he needs too, ASU is looking really dangerous. If Kuks or Abbott can start making 3s like Kuks did the beginning of this year and Ty like last year, a deep run will almost be certain in the tourney. Not to mention the zone d that teams cant figure otu. Wow, this is almost a perfect team
A perfect team? Wow, how quickly things change — 2 weeks ago and people were feeling like we were on the bubble. I don’t know that I’d go that far quite yet, but it was good to see the Devils put back-to-back good games together and come out with a pair of W’s, especially after the debacle against the Washington schools last month. Hopefully they can finish well and be in position to make some noise in the dance.
One, i never said we were a bubble team, the so called experts did. ASU had one bad week and everyone said ASU was showing their true colors. Fact is, we lost to WSU because 1 player was on fire for them and couldnt miss a shot. We lost to UW because of the refs.
What i ment was we have a perfect team when we are playing our style of basketball… a good offense with a good defense.
Glasser’s play has been worth at least one or two wins this year, all-in-all. He has been superb of late, helping beat some tough teams in some really close games.
The way I see, Harden and Pendergraph are both terrific and extremely consistent (JP’s foul trouble aside). The addition of a point guard who’s a plus (even McMillan’s looked good in his stead) has made us at least as good as any other PAC-10 team. If Abbott or Kuksiks can become a reliable outside shooter, this team is on to the Regionals, possibly further.
Unless, of course, a hot-shooting team from a minor conference keeps hitting from 21′ and the team refuses to switch to man defense, but let’s not go there…
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