MIAMI – When the sixth-seeded Sun Devils take the floor on Sunday, they’ll be trying to bring the program to somewhere it hasn’t been in 14 years: the Sweet 16.

But there’s a big obstacle in the way of their goal: the No. 3 seed Syracuse Orange.

Keyword big.

“It's probably the biggest challenge I've had all year,” ASU senior Jeff Pendergraph said. “It's not like one [big man] goes out and another one comes in. It's like two go out and three more come in … It's going to be kind of a war down there in the post.”

The Syracuse front line features some behemoths. There’s no other way to say it. The biggest and baddest is Arinze Onuaku, all 6-feet-9-inches and 275 pounds of him.

Onuaku, who was among the nation’s best with his 66.3 field-goal percentage, will present a challenge on defense for Pendergraph as well. Pendergraph won’t be able to muscle around the paint like he did against Temple’s Sergio Olmos in the first round. He will have to get creative inside and likely rely on his jumper a little more than usual.

Joining Onuaku in the starting front court will be junior forward Paul Harris. Though he’s only 6-feet-4-inches tall, Harris is a load at 240 pounds and the team’s leading rebounder (8.1 per game).

Then there’s the Syracuse backcourt. To put it bluntly, it’s really good too.

It all starts with sophomore guard Jonny Flynn, one of the most talented point guards in the land. One of the hottest topics of discussion during the media session Saturday was his friendship with ASU sophomore guard James Harden.

Turns out, Flynn and a couple of his teammates met up with Harden and a couple other Sun Devils on South Beach for dinner on Friday.

Both players said it will be all business once the ball goes up on Sunday, though.

“You don't want to lose to him and have him call you up and rub it in your face how he beat you five years, 10 years, 15 years from now,” Flynn said.

Not only does Flynn lead the team in scoring (17.5 points per game) and assists (6.7 per game) but he is as quick as they come. Much of Syracuse’s offense relies on Flynn penetrating the lane and finding open teammates. ASU junior guard Derek Glasser said keeping Flynn out of the paint will be his primary defensive focus.

Flynn certainly has a couple of deadly shooters on the perimeter to dish the ball to in Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins. The junior guards make up one of the premier 3-point shooting swingmen combos in the nation.

“[Syracuse is] in the mix of teams from the beginning who people could legitimately point to and say hey, they're a contender for the national championship,” ASU coach Herb Sendek said. “Their talent quotient is tremendous.”

Sunday’s contest will also pit two quality zone defenses against each other. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim likes to employ a 2-3 zone, while Sendek uses a matchup zone.

”It's a difficult defense to play against,” Boeheim said. “It's a difficult defense to coach. Not many people try it. A few people do. Arizona State plays it the best of anybody right now in college basketball.”

That’s pretty high praise from a fellow who knows a thing or two about college basketball. It’s also a comment that Sendek never expected hear a couple of years ago. That’s because he never thought ASU would be playing a zone after his first year at the helm.

“Our first team at Arizona State found itself in a situation where we had to do something to try to be somewhat competitive,” Sendek said. “We thought it was a stopgap, something we thought we had to do that year to keep games as close as we could just to be different … Over time it has just evolved, and now it's something that we've decided to stick with and play.”

The stopgap has proven to be very effective over the past couple of seasons and has become a staple of Sendek’s ASU teams. Funny thing, because his teams at North Carolina State strictly played man-to-man defense.

Boeheim, one the wittiest coaches you could meet, also offered up a personal challenge to his good friend of many years.

“If we were playing, I think I could handle [Sendek] even at my age,” Boeheim said. “I've known Herb for a long time, going back to days when he was living in his car up in Providence working 14 hours a day for some crazy coach [named Rick Pitino]. He's a great basketball coach. Got a great feel for the game. He's a lot smarter than all of us, and he's just a good guy.”

Sendek rebutted with, “Well, if he can take me one on one, that's really not saying a lot … I didn't exactly have a stellar career at Carnegie Mellon. However, just taking a look at it and sizing it up, I don't know that I wouldn't have a chance against him at this point.”

Reach the reporter at
Alex.espinoza@asu.edu