Usually a reserved, careful speaker, ASU men’s basketball coach Herb Sendek gave reporters a glimpse of his more philosophical side during Tuesday’s press conference.

With his team reeling from back-to-back home losses after a promising start to Pac-10 conference play, the Sun Devils have experienced the entire spectrum of emotion in the past two weeks.

“The season is certainly filled with some great highs and challenging lows,” Sendek said. “All of your heart, your mind and your soul get vested in this. It is an emptying experience, and sometimes you are fortunate to have some exuberance and other times to feel stripped, with nothing left to give.”

Thursday night, No. 24 ASU (16-5, 5-4 Pac-10) will square off against Oregon in the not-so-comfy confines of McArthur Court.

“It’s like this big,” said senior forward Jeff Pendergraph, with his hands about 6 inches apart.

Though he called it a tough place to play, Sendek said he loves taking the annual road trip up to Eugene.

“I’m partial to those kinds of places,” Sendek said. “They smell of popcorn and the court is all close. It’s not sterile; it’s just a gym. I’m sure there are seats that have terrible sight-lines, too small for someone who just ate two hot dogs. It has that ambience.”

Despite reaching the NCAA Tournament last season, the Ducks (6-15, 0-9) have taken over the title of Pac-10 cellar-dweller.

They’ve gone winless throughout the first round of conference play and rank dead last in both team field-goal percentage and team scoring defense.

UO coach Ernie Kent can hardly be blamed though.

Kent has lost five seniors and three-fifths of his starting rotation from last year.

The lone returning starters are juniors Tajuan Porter and Joevan Catron. Porter is the team’s leading scorer at 14.3 average points per game, while Catron leads Oregon in rebounding (he averages 8.1 points and seven rebounds per game).

Given UO’s struggles and ASU’s capabilities, the Sun Devils might be playing themselves more than their opponents.

That might be quite a task given ASU’s recent stretch of games, in which Pendergraph said his team has let bad plays “snowball” into more bad plays.

Still, don’t expect Sendek to make any drastic changes.

“I’m not going to change the bandage on my leg because my arm is hurting,” Sendek said. “I have to change something that is directed at the issue at hand. When you get to this level, the differences are negligible. In the end, in all humility, certain guys in certain instances are going to step up and make plays.

“Usually it comes down to these amazingly talented people doing extraordinary things.”

Reach the reporter at alex.espinoza@asu.edu.