Mornin Mates...

Today's Topic = Some Like It Hot

That was some game last night where Houston came back from the brink against Duke and ended up beating the Blue Devils at the buzzer...

Kelvin Sampson (69) has done it all during his stellar career at several schools that include the Montana Tech Orediggers where he started his illustrative career...

He then went to Wazzu where he did enough to convince Oklahoma to give him a chance, whereas at ASU we never would've considered him just like we passed on Mike Candrea and any number of capable coaches in favor of coaches that turned out to be duds...

Anyway, Sampson has been to Sweet 16s, Elite Eights and Final Fours but never won a national championship but I'll be pulling for him to do so on Monday night...

Maybe, our AD, Graham Rossini, will prove that he can make better coaching choices than his predecessors at ASU...

Hopefully, he will be able to navigate the new NCAA settlement that will allow us to share around $21M dollars amongst our 26 sports so that we don't lose further ground in the Big-12 in a sport like basketball...

Football will have a cap of 105 roster spots and Dilly will fill all of those slots with scholarships and basketball will be up to 15 scholarships, while baseball will be up to 34 scholarships...

I don't know if additional scholarship availability will help with either basketball or baseball if we don't have the right coaches in place...

It will also be interesting to see how NIL money will now be used within a school's discretion since they will now have oversight into that fake deal as things now stand...

I see where the Cats are going to extend Tommy Lloyd's BB contract in order to give him more say-so in how all of this settlement and NIL money is used at AU moving forward...

I trust that our AD is going to listen to what Dilly needs to keep our football program at a championship level but won't listen to what a coach on the way out like Bobby needs to be more successful...

Willie is counting on having his 34 man baseball roster on full scholarships next season and he feels that will be a game changer for his baseball program but we'll see...

Part of the game changing dynamic that will evolve, along with the NCAA settlement at ASU, will be when we finally aren't having to pay Ray and Herm for their awful efforts on our behalf in the recent past...

For they will finally be off the Sun Devil athletic dept books in the summer of 2026...

Bobby will also be off the books and it will be up to Rossini to earn his new $950K salary by getting a more competent coach in place for our basketball program...

I hope he doesn't pass over any coaches that will be future Kelvin Sampson or Bruce Pearl type coaches for another coach that doesn't have the "IT" factor needed to elevate our mediocre BB program...

Of course, hope, as we all know, is not a viable strategy to be successful in any thing...

Well, here's hoping we can do something against the Cats later today in baseball...

I also hope that Rossini likes it hot as there will be many hot issues to deal with in the Sun Devils athletic dept in the coming days, weeks, months and years...

Some like it hot like the recently deceased former Cats AD Ced Dempsey who hired Lute Olson in a very tough fiscal and NCAA environment at the school...

Will Rossini have the similar chops to take on difficult situations and thrive in a heat wave the way real leadership does in difficult situations..??

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!

On the night of the week and at the venue that welcomes the Sun Devil faithful, ASU held its first spring practice this at Mountain America. This allowed the fans a beautiful opportunity to watch the team perform and, more importantly, gave the team a more game-like environment under the lights of their home turf.

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Talented Nickel DB target out of Georgia

Arizona State is trending at the top here and we don’t think it’ll be long before he joins the class. Has his OV locked in

ASU has now lost 5 straight games to UofA in baseball. 3 of those losses coming this season. The 2 most recent losses have come in conference play in front of massive crowds at Phoenix Muni causing many fans believe the "same old Devils" are dropping the ball. It feels like we are watching Deja Vu

Not so fast

It can be easy to think ASUs schedule in the Big 12 is similar to last season in the Pac-12 but it isn't.

In 2024 ASU was
Q1: 2-7
Q2: 2-5
Q3: 20-10
Q4: 8-4

2025
Q1: 5-6
Q2: 3-1
Q3: 2-3
Q4: 10-1

As you can see, the Sun Devils are much better in Q1 and Q2 games this season. The schedule remains difficult and includes 7 more Q1 games as well as several Q2 games.

The results may feel the same, but the competition is MUCH better, at least on paper. We are in a much better spot to make a regional. Even if we have the same record as last season, it will be a big step forward.

“I think it's with this lineup. You've seen what we're capable of, so I don't think we ever really get down. But we just kept following the same trap over and over, and it bit us today.” With the winning run at the plate in the ninth, ASU couldn't complete the two-out rally

Welcome to the best series of the season. Huge crowd at Muni.

After 5 it is 5-5 and one heck of an atmosphere.

For someone who has recently doubted Bloomquist has "it", I'm back tracking on that comment.

Bloomquist called for a hit and run that pulled the SS out of the hole and Jackson went oppo with a grounder through to get the RBI. The commotion caused the UofA LF to bobble the ball allowing a Sun Devil time to score.

Later that same inning, Vu pulled a bunt past the pitcher and into the 2B territory where the 2B had vacated to cover first. Fantastic job by Bloomquist to PRESSURE the defense. This is a perfect example of his evolvement into a college coach instead of a professional instructor.

I assume a lot of you are at the game. Couldn't be more impressed with the crowd.

Let's hope we can pull this one out.

We have our first group in town this weekend. Any commits on the horizon?

"Hopefully, these next three weeks we find 6 to 12 more guys that we're like, ‘Man, we can count on you to help us.’" Increased depth and overall player improvement can only take place when underclassmen, even on the veteran team, make an impact

So on April 7 a U.S. District Judge will hold a final-approval hearing concerning the Revenue Sharing and NIL agreements

More here on the hire of Molly Miller with analysis from veteran women's basketball beat writer Jeff Metcalfe: "I think she could come in here and capture the imagination of the fans and the public, in general, a little bit like Kenny Dillingham has done. "

Another ABOR April 10th agenda item is expected to be approved, giving Rossibi a $300K raise this year and $100K each year thereafter, along with the usual academic bonuses. Keep in mind that this salary matches what Ray Ansderson is still making as a quasi-law professor or whatever the hell he's doing these days. Once his salary comes off the books, Rossini's salary kicks in.

"As I’m getting to learn more about Coach Carrington, I can tell that he’s very analytic and detail-oriented in what he does." 2026 four-star DB Jalen Williams couldn't see any of his other suitors matching what ASU had to offer and pledged to the Sun Devils

My brother-in-law went to the San Antonio Spurs game tonight and shared this picture during a time-out skit featuring the Spurs's Coyote.



Gotta love it! Mad props to the ASU social media team for generating this kind of buzz! Extra points to the Spurs for calling us "ASU". We are THE ASU

“We didn’t play poorly tonight. We left a couple of pitches over the plate that they didn’t miss. The really only glaring thing is the two-out focus there in the fifth." Mid-game struggles on the mound and at the plate result in ASU's Friday night loss to Arizona

"He's a Swiss Army knife; He's a connector, too, and he makes everyone around him better." More here on 6-foot-7 Jaion Pitt, ASU basketball's latest 2025 pledge, a Canadian native who represented his country in various tournaments

“Guys have done a good job. We've thrown a lot at them. They've done a really good job of understanding the intensity and deliberateness." Harsh words on the offense's Tuesday display were followed by a much stronger session by the players in maroon

I will try to Lighten Snake River's load on B12 Baseball updates moving forward ......... as of last Sunday, March 2, ncaa rankings only had 1 B12 team ranked - Okie St @ #25......and as Snake R pointed out, they lost 2 games this wk to what look to be pretty average group of 5 schools, so does NOT look like they will be standing come tomorrow's new ncaa poll....they actually sit @ #13 in B12 non conf record, just ahead of tx tech

Link below to B12 standings 1 wk prior to conference play starting - Devils open up @ tcu Friday night
* https://big12sports.com/standings.aspx?path=baseball

Couple brief highlights.......W Virginia sitting @ top @ 13-0; Kansas 12-1; Baylor 10-3, C Florida, Utah @ 10-3.....Devils 10-4, tucson tech @ 9-4, which is not bad knowing they have played some decent nationally ranked teams..........now the current rankings which are based solely on Non Conf games are haphazard @ best, not knowing how tough their schedules have been.......outside of Minnesota (who i think will finish in top half of B10) and ucla (who i know has talent), do not think we have played above avg compeition either .....but starting friday things will start to settle into place

Other thoughts would be surprised @ Tx Tech being 3-9, as they usually have decent teams.......

Conf Stats
* Team batting - Devils @ #7 @ .285......leaders include C Florida, W Virginia, Kansas, utah, baylor all @ .310+....so room for improvement here
Other - lead B12 in St Bases @ 39 .........5th in on base %...........10th in # strikeouts, so bad........and 4th in walks, good........3rd in H Runs, 3rd in Doubles

* TEam Pitching - Devils #9 @ 4.71 ERA.......leaders include C florida, W Virg, baylor all @ sub 3 ERA..........kansas, utah, tcu @ sub 4 ERA......so gain room for improvement
*** Pitching stats other - Walks given up we are 8th, so bel avg..........Batting Avg against #7 @ .237, so right in middle........Strikeouts #1, so more K's by our pitchers than any team

* Def - - Devils tops in DEF based on # errors per chances, so we do have that going for us


More coming prior to TCU series