Mornin Mates...
Today's Topic = March Madness
So far in the tournament the PAC is looking good with three teams advancing to the Sweet 16 as UCLA, Utah and AU are all moving on to next week and Oregon can do the same with a win today...
ASU beat both UCLA and AU and almost beat Oregon a couple of times, which is pretty amazing, especially when you saw how the Cats just dominated a good Ohio St team yesterday...
You have to wonder, after watching former ASU commit Octavius Ellis, who ended up at Cincinnati, and who is 6' 10" 230 and was very productive for the Bearcats this year, where he averaged about 10 pts a game and was a presence in the middle for them, how the fortunes of the Sun Devils would have been different with him on the team...
You also have to wonder why Sendek is pursuing a JC guy like Andrew Zelis who is 7' 0" and 240 and hasn't done anything in college so far...he didn't play in every game and only played a couple of minutes in the games he played and only averaged about 4 pts per game, which is hardly encouraging for a Sun Devil team that needs more than a practice body on its roster, one would think...
I ask myself if this it the type of player that Graham would be recruiting for his football team...he gets together with his staff and they need a third string center for the OL and decide that they will pursue some guy as a backup in case the first two guys playing center get hurt...
It seems to me that is about what Erickson and his OL coach were doing at ASU during his tenure here far too often and is why his teams never really amounted to much after he had won big his first season with Koetter's players...
Graham knows that is not the way to elevate your program at ASU and this just makes me wonder even more about the efficacy of keeping Herb around, especially since he lost a recent commitment from Markus Howard...
Yes, he has some pretty good players coming in and some others lined up in another year, but do we really want to use a valuable scholarship on a player that would appear to be marginal at best, unless there is something we're all missing in this recruiting story...
In any event, I wish the Devils well today in the NIT when they meet Richmond later...
In other news this week, we found out that Davon Durant had been arrested for domestic violence (assault) but the case isn't a slam dunk against him since the girlfriend has recanted her story and much of the case appears to be based on "hearsay"...
We also found out that Cam Smith had season ending surgery on a knee which weakened the wide receiving corps to one degree or another...
Unfortunately, in college, there is no such thing as free agency, unless you're talking about a transfer, to help mitigate the loss of a very good receiver like C Smith or a LB who has the potential of Durant...
However, unbowed, Graham keeps talking about championships and how the Devils were only practicing like a 10 win team yesterday, which wasn't good enough to be a 12 win team that could win a national championship...
I'm looking forward to the Kansas - Wichita St game today as the Jayhawks won't play the Shockers because there isn't any upside to playing them, kind of like why ASU wouldn't play Grand Canyon and you just have to hope that the Lopes don't pass the Devils on the basketball court in the coming years, as that would be highly embarrassing...
I thought it was interesting that NC State shot down #1 seed Villanova yesterday which would never have happened if Herb was still coaching there, at least in my opinion...
Finally, congrats to the Lady Devils for beating Ohio yesterday in their first NCAA tournament game and Charli's 10th appearance at the Spring Prom...
It's going to be interesting to see how RA handles the basketball situation at ASU in the coming days as he didn't sound all that enthusiastic about how Herb was running things recently...
G'day Mates...Championships or Bust...Go Devils!!!
Today's Topic = March Madness
So far in the tournament the PAC is looking good with three teams advancing to the Sweet 16 as UCLA, Utah and AU are all moving on to next week and Oregon can do the same with a win today...
ASU beat both UCLA and AU and almost beat Oregon a couple of times, which is pretty amazing, especially when you saw how the Cats just dominated a good Ohio St team yesterday...
You have to wonder, after watching former ASU commit Octavius Ellis, who ended up at Cincinnati, and who is 6' 10" 230 and was very productive for the Bearcats this year, where he averaged about 10 pts a game and was a presence in the middle for them, how the fortunes of the Sun Devils would have been different with him on the team...
You also have to wonder why Sendek is pursuing a JC guy like Andrew Zelis who is 7' 0" and 240 and hasn't done anything in college so far...he didn't play in every game and only played a couple of minutes in the games he played and only averaged about 4 pts per game, which is hardly encouraging for a Sun Devil team that needs more than a practice body on its roster, one would think...
I ask myself if this it the type of player that Graham would be recruiting for his football team...he gets together with his staff and they need a third string center for the OL and decide that they will pursue some guy as a backup in case the first two guys playing center get hurt...
It seems to me that is about what Erickson and his OL coach were doing at ASU during his tenure here far too often and is why his teams never really amounted to much after he had won big his first season with Koetter's players...
Graham knows that is not the way to elevate your program at ASU and this just makes me wonder even more about the efficacy of keeping Herb around, especially since he lost a recent commitment from Markus Howard...
Yes, he has some pretty good players coming in and some others lined up in another year, but do we really want to use a valuable scholarship on a player that would appear to be marginal at best, unless there is something we're all missing in this recruiting story...
In any event, I wish the Devils well today in the NIT when they meet Richmond later...
In other news this week, we found out that Davon Durant had been arrested for domestic violence (assault) but the case isn't a slam dunk against him since the girlfriend has recanted her story and much of the case appears to be based on "hearsay"...
We also found out that Cam Smith had season ending surgery on a knee which weakened the wide receiving corps to one degree or another...
Unfortunately, in college, there is no such thing as free agency, unless you're talking about a transfer, to help mitigate the loss of a very good receiver like C Smith or a LB who has the potential of Durant...
However, unbowed, Graham keeps talking about championships and how the Devils were only practicing like a 10 win team yesterday, which wasn't good enough to be a 12 win team that could win a national championship...
I'm looking forward to the Kansas - Wichita St game today as the Jayhawks won't play the Shockers because there isn't any upside to playing them, kind of like why ASU wouldn't play Grand Canyon and you just have to hope that the Lopes don't pass the Devils on the basketball court in the coming years, as that would be highly embarrassing...
I thought it was interesting that NC State shot down #1 seed Villanova yesterday which would never have happened if Herb was still coaching there, at least in my opinion...
Finally, congrats to the Lady Devils for beating Ohio yesterday in their first NCAA tournament game and Charli's 10th appearance at the Spring Prom...
It's going to be interesting to see how RA handles the basketball situation at ASU in the coming days as he didn't sound all that enthusiastic about how Herb was running things recently...
G'day Mates...Championships or Bust...Go Devils!!!
