Sun Devils host No. 7 Arizona on Jan. 19

The Sun Devil men's hoops team (14-3; 3-1) turns back the clock to the glory days of the old Pac-10 by playing two ranked teams in its next three tilts, including a matchup with state rival and seventh-ranked Arizona on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. MT in a FSN national telecast going to 70+ million homes with Steve Physioc and Corey Williams on the call. The last time ASU hosted a team ranked as high as seventh, it defeated seventh-ranked Stanford 72-68 in overtime on Feb. 14, 2008. Coach Sendek has 36 wins vs. ranked opponents in his 20 seasons as a head coach and has a 7-6 mark against Arizona.

THREE-DOT DEVIL DATA

ASU has 128 blocks in 17 games (7.5 per game, third in the nation) and opponents have taken 1,044 shots so that means every 8.2 field goal attempt gets blocked by a Sun Devil...junior Jordan Bachynski has 76 blocks (4.5 PG) more than last year's Pac-12 leader, Eric Moreland of Oregon State, had all season (69/1.9 bpg)...Carrick Felix (B.S., Communications 2012) is averaging 16.2 points and 8.6 rebounds in in past 12 games has scored in double digits 16 straight games (every game but the first), which is tied for the league lead with Brock Motum...ASU in the past nine games is averaging 11.2 turnovers per tilt. In the first six games they were at 15.5 turnovers per game...in the first 41 games of his career Jordan Bachynski shot 42-of-88 (.478) from field. In the past 30 games he is 113-181 (.624)...freshman Jahii Carsonis averaging a Pac-12 best 36.3 minutes per game, the best mark by a freshman in Sun Devil history. The dude with the Beard lighting up the NBA averaged 34.1 in 2007-08.

SUN DEVIL TEAM MOST BLOCKED SHOTS

1. 172 - 1997
2. 165 - 1995
2. 165 - 1979
4. 157 - 1980
5. 144 - 1981
6. 139 - 2003
7. 128 - 2013

JAHII DID SOMETHING NOT DONE BY A SUN DEVIL FRESHMAN SINCE 1984
Jahii Carson, with 20 points at Oregon State (Jan. 10) and at Oregon (Jan. 13), became the first Sun Devil freshman to get back-to-back 20-point games on a Pac-12 road trip since Steve Beck in the Bay Area on March 1-3, 1984. Beck had four 20-point games in Pac-12 road games that year, as did James Harden (2007-08), Ike Diogu(2002-03) and Jamal Faulkner (1990-91), but none of that trio did it on the same Pac-12 road weekend. Beck actually posted three straight 20-point games on the road as he followed that weekend up with a 20 at USC on March 6, as ASU played a single road game to close the season. The Oregon game was the 11th time Jahii had led or shared team lead in scoring on the year.

SUN DEVIL FRESHMAN 20-POINT GAMES (1972-73 to present)
James Harden, 2007-08, 16
Ike Diogu, 2002-03, 12
Jahii Carson, 2012-13, 7
Jamal Faulkner, 1990-91, 7

JAHII'S 20-POINT GAMES
30 vs. #14 Creighton @Las Vegas (11/24/12)
21 vs. Cal State Northridge (12/8/12)
21 vs. Cornell (11/20/12)
20 at Oregon (1/13/13)
20 at Oregon State (1/10/13)
20 vs. Hartford (12/5/12)
20 vs. Florida A&M (11/18/12)

MORE JAHII
With 20 points and four assists at Oregon and at Oregon State, freshman Jahii Carson is averaging 17.1 points and 5.2 assists per game. No freshman has averaged 17 points and five assists since Shaheen Holloway of Seton Hall in 1996-97 (17.3/6.3)...has led or shared the team lead in scoring in 11 games this season...has 89 assists, on pace for 150 which has been done by just 11 freshmen at Pac-12 schools...averaging 36.3 minutes per game, best mark by a Sun Devil freshman in history (the Beard averaged 34.1 in 2007-08)...17.1 points per game is second in ASU freshman history only to the Beard (17.8) and Ike Diogu (19.0 in 2002-03).

CARRICK STUFF
Senior Carrick Felix earned Pac-12 Player of the Week after the home sweep of Utah (Jan. 2) and Colorado (Jan. 6), his second such honor of the year, as he has scored in double-digits in 16 straight games, tied for the league lead. Entering league play this week he ranks eighth in the league in scoring (15.1 ppg.), eighth in rebounding (8.1), sixth in field goal percentage (.546), fifth (tie) in steals (1.7), ninth in three-point percentage (.393) and tied for nith in blocks (1.35). He is the only player listed among top-10 in scoring and rebounding.

SHOOT THEN DEFEND
ASU has outshot the opponent in each of the past seven games, as it shot .473 from the field at Oregon (26-of-55) and held the Ducks to just .407 (24-of-59) on their home floor. ASU is 99-22 (.818) under Coach Sendek when it outshoots the opponent, with the Oregon game the first loss of the year (14-1). In those seven games ASU is holding opponents to .367 shooting (151-of-411).

THAT BLOCK STAT UPDATED
Opponents have taken 1,044 shots. ASU has 128 blocks. That means ASU blocks one of every 8.1 opponent shots...junior Jordan Bachynski, with 76 blocks, is 39 blocks short of the Pac-12 record of 115 set by Sun Devil Mario Bennett in 1994-95...Bachynski has 137 career blocks, tied for sixth in Sun Devil history...ASU's 127 blocks is already seventh in school history. Next up on the list is the sixth spot with 139 in 2003. The school record is a reachable 172 in 1996-97.

CARRICK STUFF
Carrick Felix has scored in double-digits in 16 straight games, tied for league lead with Brock Motum of Washington State...in the past 14 games Carrick is averaging 16.2 points, 8.6 rebounds, has 20 blocks and is shooting 88-of-157 (.561) from the field and 21-of-52 (.404) from the three-point stripe.

PAC-12 DOUBLE-DOUBLES (CAREER IN PARENTHESES)
Eric Moreland, OSU (9), 6
André Roberson, COLO (31), 6
Aziz N'Diaye, WASH (11), 6
Carrick Felix, ASU (5), 5
Kyle Anderson, UCLA (5), 5

BACK TO NORMAL
ASU has had less turnovers than its opponent in six of the past 10 games and in the past 11 games is averaging 11.2 turnovers per tilt. In the first six games they were at 15.5 turnovers per game.

1,000-POINT SCORER
With 17 points at Oregon on Jan. 14 Evan Gordon reached the 1,000-point mark in his college career. He averaged 14.4 points per game in 2010-11 (460 points) and 12.0 points in his freshman year of 2009-10 (372 points) and has 168 points this year (9.9 per game). He is averaging 12.5 points per game in 80 career games.

5 DAYS BEFORE GAME
Including a 3-0 mark this year, the Sun Devils are 19-8 (.703) in the past six years when Herb Sendekand his staff have at least five full days in between games, and seven of the wins have been against teams that would make the NCAA Tournament in that season. Last year's notable was an 87-80 win over NCAA-bubble worthy Arizona in the regular season finale on March 4. Wins in 2009-10 included MWC Tournament champion San Diego State (five-game win streak at the time), a home win over Pac-10 Tournament champ and No. 24 Washington and a win at Arizona. In 2008-09 the five-day layoff wins included ASU's first NCAA Tournament win since 2003 (over Temple), a win over Arizona (entered the game on seven-game win streak) and a neutral site win over a 10-0 BYU team that had a guy named Jimmer as a sophomore. In 2007-08, the wins included ASU's first win in Tucson in 13 seasons, an overtime win at California in which ASU was playing as a ranked team for the first time in 13 seasons and a 22-point win over #17 Xavier in December of 2007 that is ASU's largest victory margin over a ranked opponent.

UA SERIES
Coach Sendek is 7-6 vs. the Wildcats, including 3-3 marks in Tucson and Tempe...UA has won 28 of the past 36, ASU has won seven of the past 11...ASU swept UA in the regular season for the second straight time in 2008-09 and then topped the Wildcats in the Pac-10 Tournament for a five-game win streak for the first time since a nine-game streak from 1979-83 prior to the 77-58 loss in Tempe on Jan. 23, 2010...prior to the five-game Sun Devil streak, UA had won 24 of 25 over the Sun Devils, with two 12-game Wildcat win streaks sandwiched around a Jan. 23, 2002, Sun Devil win in Tempe...in its seven wins over UA under Herb SendekASU has trailed at the half in five of the games...ASU had won three straight in Tucson prior to the 2010-11 80-69 defeat on Jan. 15...ASU won four games over Arizona in Tempe in a 21-year period (4-17 from 1986-87 through 2006-07). It has won three in the series in Tempe in the past five years.

MODEST SUCCESS AGAINST A PROVEN PROGRAM
ASU has won three of the past five against Arizona in Tempe (wins in 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2011-12) and no program has more than the seven wins it has in the previous five seasons (2007-08 through 2011-12). ASU and Washington are both 7-4 against the Wildcats, who only have 23 total losses to the 10 other teams in the league in that five-year window.

DON'T MISS THIS ONE
Jordan Bachynski (.613) is third in the Pac-12 and Carrick Felix (.546) ranks sixth in field goal percentage. It makes for a nice note as it stands, but then digest these next two nuggets from the big and small department. In the case of Jordan, a big man being efficient in the post is not man-bites-dog news for a Coach Sendek Sun Devil squad. In 2008-09, Jeff Pendergraph led the nation in field goal percentage making .660 of his shots (198-of-300). One year later, Eric Boateng led the Pac-12 at .665 (117-of-176) despite playing 8.2 minutes per game the year prior. In the case of Carrick, a peek at the top-10 shows a lot of big men making layups in small, but efficient doses (nothing against that Jordan). Then there is Carrick, who has taken 30 more shots than anyone else in the top-10, and also has taken 61 three-pointers. The five players ahead of him have taken a total of 10 three-pointers.

PAC-12 TOP FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE/3-POINT SHOOTING
1. Aziz N'Diaye (WASH) 73-113 (.646)/0-0
2. Eric Moreland (OSU) 59-95 (.621)/3-9
3. Jordan Bachynski (ASU) 68-111 (.613)/0-0
4. Jason Washburn (UTAH) 74-123 (.602)/1-1
5. Tony Woods (ORE) 69-126 (.548)/0-0
6. Carrick Felix (ASU) 101-185 (.546)/24-64

JORDAN BLOCK-SHYNSKI
ASU is tied for third in the nation in blocks per game (8.0), trailing only St. John's (8.6) and Kansas (8.1), led by juniorJordan Bachynski's76 (4.5 per game) as he also ranks third. Jordan has as many blocks as 284 schools entering this week...in the first six seasons (197 games) of Coach Sendek's ASU tenure, ASU had nine blocks in a game four times. It has had at least nine blocks eight times this season..an overlooked block statistic for Jordan is keeping it in play. Of his 76 blocks, more than 60 percent (46) have resulted in direct possessions for ASU. He has now 137 career blocks, seventh in Sun Devil history. The Sun Devil career record is 191 (Mario Bennett from 1991-95).

PAC-12 SINGLE SEASON BLOCKED SHOTS LEADERS
1. 115 - Mario Bennett, Arizona State, 1994-95
2. 113 - Rodger Farrington, Arizona State, 1996-97
3. 102 - Jelani McCoy, UCLA, 1995-96
3. 102 - Loren Woods, Arizona, 1999-2000
5. 100 - Taj Gibson, USC, 2008-09
6. 85 - Channing Frye, Arizona, 2004-05
7. 84 - Taj Gibson, USC, 2007-08
7. 84 -Loren Woods, Arizona, 2000-01
7. 84 - Anthony Cook, Arizona, 1988-89
10. 83 - Robin Lopez, Stanford, 2007-08
10. 83 - Curtis Borchardt, Stanford, 2001-02
-- 76 - Jordan Bachynski, Arizona State, 2012-13

WORTH NOTING
One sneaky note to keep an eye on in case he isn't doing much in the first half -- Jahii Carson is averaging 10.2 points in the second half including 59-of-75 (.787) from the free throw line. He leads the Pac-12 in minutes per game at 36.3 (third in the nation for a freshman) while sophomore Jonathan Gillingis third at 35.1.

LINEUP
With ASU using the same starting lineup in every game this year, here are some good notes on how different that has been this season...with its injuries and illnesses ASU used 11 starting lineups and 11 players made a start in 2010-11 and those numbers finished at 12 and eight in 2011-12...no player played in every game in 2011-12...12 lineups last year was most by the Sun Devils since 2003-04 team started 13 and tied for second-most in 19 seasons...1995-96 team under Bill Frieder also tried 12 options...each of ASU's top four scorers missed at least two games due to injury in 2011-12...ASU had its full compliment of players in just 10 of 18 Pac-10 tilts in 2010-11 and for just 10 of 18 in 2011-12.

CLOSE GAME STATS
ASU is now 7-4 in overtime under Coach Sendek after its 55-54 win over Utah on Jan. 2. Many say that a two-possession game (six points) is a close game, and if you go by that ASU is 29-23 (.558) in those contests in the past six seasons.

SUN DEVIL FRESHMEN TOP POINTS PER GAME
1. 19.0 - Ike Diogu, 2002-03
2. 17.8 - James Harden, 2007-08
3. 17.1 - Jahii Carson, 2012-13
4. 15.4 - Jamal Faulkner, 1990-91

SUN DEVIL FRESHMEN TOP MINUTES PER GAME
1. 36.3 - Jahii Carson, 2012-13 (leads Pac-12 in minutes per game)
2. 34.1 - James Harden, 2007-08
3. 32.7 - Ty Abbott, 2007-08
4. 32.3 - Byron Scott, 1979-80
5. 32.2 - Ike Diogu, 2002-03

SUN DEVIL FRESHMEN WITH 100 ASSISTS
114 - Bobby Thompson, 1984
110 - James Harden, 2008
108 - Eddie House, 1997
89 - Jahii Carson, 2012-13

MOST POINTS BY A SUN DEVIL FRESHMAN
35, Mario Bennett vs. #5 Arizona, Feb. 20, 1992
31, Byron Scott vs. #18 Arizona, Feb. 23, 1980
30, Jahii Carson vs. #14 Creighton @Las Vegas, Nov. 24, 2012
30, Ty Abbott vs. California, Feb. 16, 2008

SUN DEVIL FRESHMEN 20-POINT GAMES (1972-73 to present)
James Harden, 2007-08, 16
Ike Diogu, 2002-03, 12
Jamal Faulkner, 1990-91, 7
Jahii Carson, 2012-13, 7

WINS VS. THE TOP GUYS
We are not sure how many current coaches are able be able to say they got a W over the top two coaches in terms of wins in in college basketball history, but Coach Sendek is one of them. Coach Sendek topped Coach K while at NC State on three occasions. NC State beat top-ranked Duke 78-74 in Raleigh on Feb. 15, 2004 and the year prior beat third-ranked Duke 80-71 on Jan. 22, 2003. His other win was in the 1997 ACC Tournament on March 7 when the Wolfpack shocked seventh-ranked Duke on the way to the ACC title game in his first season. The win over Jim Boeheim's Syracuse squad was an 82-68 win over the ninth-ranked Orangemen in the Carrier Dome on Dec. 8, 2001. Among other top-10 coaches, Coach Sendek posted single wins over Jim Calhoun (873 career wins) which was a win to get NC State to the Sweet Sixteen, Jim Phelan of Mt. St. Mary's (830 career wins) and one win over Lute Olson (780 wins), which was a 1995 NCAA Tournament victory in Dayton. Coach Sendek was 0-1 vs. Bob Knight, as his Miami (Ohio) squad lost at Indiana 92-77 on Dec. 10, 1994.

TOUGH TO SCORE
In his 20-year head coaching career, only three teams have scored 100 points against Herb Sendek The last team to do it was top-ranked Duke on Feb. 14, 2002 (108-71 at Cameron).

ASU FRESHMEN MINUTES PER GAME COACH SENDEK
-- Jahii Carson, 2012-13, 36.3
1. James Harden, 2007-08 34.4
2. Ty Abbott, 2007-08, 32.7
3. Jerren Shipp, 2006-07, 30.0
4. Christian Polk, 2006-07, 29.4
5. Derek Glasser, 2006-07, 27.9
6. Jonathan Gilling, 2011-12, 24.3