ASU men’s basketball coach Herb Sendek is a scholarly gentleman.

Despite being a high-school valedictorian and a summa cum laude college grad, Sendek received a geography lesson upon joining the Pac-10 Conference.

“[The University of] Arizona and Arizona State are kind of close, so you think, well ‘Washington-Washington State must be kind of close,’” he said. “And then you get a better appreciation of how big the world is, because you’re still in Washington, but they’re really far apart.

“It’s a 6-hour drive [between schools]. You’re almost in Idaho [when traveling to play WSU in Pullman]. What a big country we have.”

Though the team will make a cross-state flight in between games, there are many variables that make the Washington road trip tough.

Sendek was quick to note, however, the two greatest obstacles exist in the form of the UW and WSU basketball teams.

The Sun Devils are very aware of this, as the Washington schools swept them at home nearly a month ago. The losses remain the only back-to-back defeats ASU has suffered all season.

When No. 14 ASU (21-5, 10-4) squares off against No. 21 UW (20-7, 11-4) Thursday night in Seattle, it will be for temporary control of the Pac-10 lead.

“We taste [the Pac-10 title] a little bit,” ASU sophomore guard James Harden said. “But we have a lot of people in front of [us on] our way.”

The last time these two teams met, UW’s backcourt tandem of Isaiah
Thomas and Justin Dentmon torched ASU for 55 points.

Whether it was off the dribble or from behind the arc, Thomas and Dentmon pretty much had their way with the ASU defense.

Sendek had high praise for the duo. He even compared it to the Jameer Nelson-Delonte West combo that led St. Joseph’s to a 30-2 record and Elite Eight appearance in 2004.

“They both can do everything,” Sendek said of Thomas and Dentmon. “They can get to the rim, they can stop and have a midrange game, they shoot the three, they push tempo, they can attract second defenders and make assists, they can create pressure on defense. Both of those guys are total-package guards.”

With Thomas and Dentmon controlling the perimeter, UW senior forward Jon Brockman wasn’t called on to be his usual dominant self in the paint. He quietly scored 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds.

“[Before the game I was thinking Brockman and I] were both about to bloody; [we] can’t walk off the court, just dying,” ASU senior forward Jeff Pendergraph said. “And at the end of the game we were just sitting there like, ‘Woah, what just happened?’”

Pendergraph knows he can’t sleep on Brockman, though, something he called “suicidal.”

Both Harden and Sendek also noted UW’s depth this year.

With the freshman Thomas taking over the point guard position, Dentmon has been freed up to become more of a scorer. Dentmon has been prolific in conference play, notching eight 20-point games.

The Huskies have four players who average double-digit points, and one of the Pac-10’s best bench players in forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning.

After ASU’s assessment of UW, it’s easy to see why the Huskies sit atop the conference standings.

But Sendek said his team just needs to focus on itself, offering up an animated three stooges analogy. He referred to the classic sketch in which the stooges try to plug up a leaking hole in the wall, only to have water spout out of another hole as a result.

“That’s what you deal with sometimes when you play a good team,” he said.

Reach the reporter atalex.espinoza@asu.edu.