Men's hoops off to Alaska for three games


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The Arizona State Sun Devils (1-1 after going 22-11 last year) hit the road again to play in the Great Alaska Shootout beginning Thursday (Nov. 25) at 5 p.m. in Anchorage (7 p.m. in Phoenix) against Houston Baptist, a game that will be televised by FOX Sports Arizona and broadcast by KTAR 620 AM. ASU, who plays just one of its first six games at home and has only one home game in November after having five last year, lost at New Mexico in its opener on Tuesday (Nov. 16) 76-62 before beating UAB 69-66 in Tempe on Saturday afternoon. ASU is 69-35 (.663) in the past three seasons under 2009-10 Pac-10 Coach of the Year Herb Sendek and is the only Pac-10 team to post 20 wins in each of the past three seasons.

This Guy Has Been Good
Sophomore Trent Lockett, a native of Golden Valley, Minn., comes from one of the top high school programs in the country (Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, Minn.) and made a solid first impression as he earned a spot on the five-man Pac-10 All-Freshman Team in 2009-10. He already is turning heads this year, as he had a career-high 22 points in the season-opening loss at New Mexico, including two highlight reel dunks that put him at No. 2 on SportsCenter Top 10 for Tuesday. He followed that up with 19 points, seven boards and five assists in the 69-66 UAB win on Saturday. He had nine double-figure scoring games last year, including a 17-point, six-rebound and eight assist effort against Stanford on Jan. 30 and a 13-point game vs. eventual NCAA champion Duke at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 25. He played in all 33 games, just one off the freshman school record of 34 held by four players.

Sun Devil Quick Hitters
Herb Sendek is 62-14 (.816) in November in his 18-year career...ASU's loss at New Mexico was its first season opening game on the road since the 1992-93 season...senior Ty Abbott, who earned first-team All-Pac-10 last year, now has 994 career points. When he scores in double digits, ASU is 38-12 (.760) including 26-9 (.743) in the past three seasons.

No Homesickness
ASU is 19-14 (.575) in games away from Tempe in the past two seasons.

Using the 20-Win Theory
ASU will play at least six teams that won at least 20 games last year in its non-conference schedule. New Mexico (30-5), UAB (25-9), Baylor (28-8), Richmond (26-9), Nevada (21-13) and Tulsa (23-12) all won 20, while Weber State, a possible second-round opponent in the Great Alaska Shootout, was 20-11.

I Can't Believe We Are Using These Three Letters
Six of ASU's 10 known non-conference opponents posted final RPIs in the top 100. Baylor (9), New Mexico (10) and Richmond (25) finished in the top-25, while UAB (45), Tulsa (68) and Nevada (73) also were in the top 100.

Head Coach
Herb Sendek, 77-57 (.575) at ASU, is in his 18th season as a head coach in 2010-2011 and has averaged 19.4 wins per season. He led the NC State Wolfpack to five straight NCAA appearances from 2002-06 and is now 331-215 (.606) and was 191-132 (.591) at NC State. The 47-year-old (born Feb. 22, 1963) Pittsburgh, Pa., native remains the third-youngest coach in the Pac-10 despite seven coaching changes in the league in the past three seasons. Only Duke posted more ACC wins (regular season and ACC Tournament) than NC State's 53 from 2002-2006. An overlooked note is his 10-year stay at NC State. To compare it to the Pac-10, since the league expanded to 10 teams in 1978-79, only five coaches have coached at their schools for at least a decade: Lute Olson (24/Arizona), Ralph Miller (19/Oregon State), Mike Montgomery (18/Stanford), Ernie Kent (13/Oregon) and Ben Braun (12/California).