It started in Tempe, ended in Miami and darted up and down the west coast in between.

The ASU men’s basketball team had one crazy season.

But to fully grasp its anatomy, one must look back to events nearly four years gone.

It was Jeff Pendergraph’s senior year of high school. Together with good friend Darren Collison, Pendergraph helped turn Etiwanda High in California into one of the nation’s powerhouse programs.

Pendergraph knew he would be playing basketball at the next level, but the question was where. After UCLA stopped recruiting him, Pendergraph had whittled his choices down to Pepperdine and ASU.

Either way, he was going to enjoy himself. The prospect of going to college in Malibu and playing for then-coach Paul Westphal at Pepperdine wasn’t a shabby option. But Pendergraph needed something bigger.

Rob Evans was still the ASU coach then, and he offered Pendergraph a spot on the team.

He bit.

Together with close friend Sylvester Seay, Pendergraph pledged allegiance to the maroon and gold during an official visit to Tempe.

His freshman year came and went, and ASU made a first-round exit in the Pac-10 Conference tournament. By his own admission, he didn’t really know what was going on that first year of college ball.

It ended on a sad note, though, as Evans was fired just two days after season’s end. Pendergraph found out via the ESPN bottom line no less. Terrible way to start off spring break.

About three weeks passed before ASU athletic director Lisa Love lured Herb Sendek from North Carolina State to replace Evans.

During those three weeks when he had no coach, Pendergraph considered
transferring schools. Even when he heard Sendek was the replacement, Pendergraph didn’t know what to think, saying he didn’t know “jack-diddly squat” about Sendek.

But Pendergraph gave him a chance and was instantly impressed with Sendek’s knowledge and overall smarts. So Pendergraph stayed, while Sendek busied himself with recruiting.

Pretty much every other team in the country had a head start on Sendek in the recruiting department, but he signed Jerren Shipp, Derek Glasser and brought Glasser’s high school coach, Scott Pera, to his staff.

Glasser’s high school teammate James Harden — though fresh off completing his junior year of high school — was actually the one responsible for getting Glasser to go to ASU.

After recanting his initial commitment to USC, Glasser called Harden for advice.

“I called [Harden] the day I said I wasn’t going to go to USC anymore,” Glasser said. “He said, ‘Go to ASU.’ I was like ‘All right, are you going to go?’ He’s like, ‘I’m going [to ASU], but I’m just keeping everybody on their toes.’”

With Harden still playing prep ball, Sendek’s first year at ASU was abysmal. The Sun Devils went 8-22 and won two conference games.

One good thing did come out of that year, however. Sendek, who had exclusively employed a man-to-man defense at N.C. State, worked tirelessly with his staff to develop a matchup zone defense.

“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.”

Still, everyone knew they would be better with Sendek’s getting a full year to recruit and Harden on the way.

ASU was certainly better in 2007-2008, but still couldn’t make the Big Dance. Whether a controversial whistle in the Pac-10 tournament was at fault is still debatable, but that’s another story in itself.

At season’s end, Pendergraph turned down the possibility of the NBA draft and stayed. Harden didn’t keep anyone in suspense and declared early on that he would be coming back to Tempe.

Phew.

So the stage was set for this season, and boy, was it exciting.

The Sun Devils ripped through their nonconference schedule, earning an 11-1 mark. That’s not to say it wasn’t interesting, though.

ASU nearly lost its second game of the season at San Diego State on Nov. 18, 2008, but rallied to win it late. The Aztecs jumped out to a 15-2 lead in the contest’s initial 7-plus minutes and led by as many as eight in the second half. But a late flurry of 3-pointers won the game for ASU.

The Sun Devils got their first taste of defeat 10 days later, as they lost to Baylor in the semifinal of the 76 Classic in Anaheim.

Three more easy victories passed before ASU experienced back-to-back thrillers. The first was a come-from-behind 59-58 overtime victory against IUPUI. The Sun Devils kicked off 2009 by beating Stanford 90-60 on Jan. 2 in Palo Alto, Calif. in what was arguably their best game of the regular season conference schedule.

Pendergraph dropped a career-high 31 points in a game where everything went right. Two days later, though, ASU was leveled by Cal in Berkeley 81-71.

The Cal game served as the first testament to the overall depth of this year’s conference.

After dismantling the Oregon schools at home, ASU went on an eventful trip to Southern California. The Sun Devils split the two contests against USC and UCLA, which wasn’t surprising. The fact that they got embarrassed by the Trojans before staging an epic comeback against the Bruins was.

“Wow,” Sendek told reporters after his team knocked off UCLA in overtime. “That’s all you need to write for your story right there.”

The Sun Devils followed up that effort with a victory in Tucson before losing back-to-back home contests to the Washington schools.

After Washington’s starting backcourt dropped 55 points on ASU, Pendergraph unleashed on his teammates.

“People are kind of weak-minded,” he said. “They get down on themselves for no reason. … we’ve got to get over that real quick.”

His team responded by winning five straight, including exhilarating home wins against UCLA and UA. Then came the bone-crushing visit to Washington, where ASU dropped back-to-back overtime games to UW and Washington State.

To make it worse, the Sun Devils came out flat in their next game against Stanford. Once again, Pendergraph felt the need to rip into his teammates.

“I just told them this is my last year and right now y’all are letting me down,” Pendergraph said. “After three loses in a row [I said], ‘Yo, you guys cost me a Pac-10 Conference championship; You guys got me another loss at home; This is my senior weekend and you guys are tricking it off for me. I thought you were my bros.’”

Without fail, his teammates responded again to the tune of three straight victories. After dominating Cal in the regular-season finale, the Sun Devils ran through UA and UW to reach the Pac-10 Tournament title game.

The Sun Devils nearly escaped the Staples Center in Los Angeles with the tournament crown, but fell apart in the second half to lose 66-63 to USC.

In reality, all the game probably did was drop ASU from a No. 5 seed in the tourney to a No. 6 seed, but Pendergraph was visibly peeved after the game.

“I can’t really describe [my emotions] right now,” he said. “It’s a lot of stuff. I don’t want to say something crazy because I’m really upset right now.”

His sadness was replaced by sheer pleasure the next day, as ASU heard its name called on Selection Sunday. The Sun Devils were going to Miami to play No. 11 seed Temple in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

At long last.

“All the buzz of the tournament and seeing banners everywhere and finally knowing that we made it to the tournament — it’s a really good feeling to have,” Pendergraph said upon arriving in Miami.

The sixth-seed Sun Devils never trailed in the first round against Temple and won 66-57. It was another landmark along Sendek’s path of reclamation.

Glasser was nearly automatic from behind the arc in the first half while Pendergraph was a consistent force in the paint. They both scored 22 while Harden struggled to score nine points on 1-of-8 shooting while Temple’s Dionte Christmas scored 29 points.

The storied season came to an end on Sunday though.

Two nights removed from having dinner with the enemy on Ocean Drive in South Beach, the Sun Devils fell to No. 3 Syracuse 78-67.

Pendergraph fouled out with 10:19 left in the game, in the final game of his collegiate career.

The Sun Devils had a nearly impossible time breaking Syracuse’s 2-3 zone in the first half. The Orange shot 64.3 percent in the first half and outscored ASU in the paint 25-2 before the break.

Twenty of the Sun Devils’ 26 first-half field-goal attempts came from behind the arc.

“They do a great job of protecting the paint,” Sendek said. “Given our personnel and the way we matched up against Syracuse, [the 3-pointer] was probably the best card we had to play today.”

ASU sophomore guard Ty Abbott hit a three with 6:37 left in the game to cut his team’s deficit to 61-57 before Syracuse sealed the game with a 9-2 run.

All of the Orange’s points came from behind the arc. Syracuse junior guard Eric Devendorf finished off the run by hitting two 3-pointers.

Once again, Harden struggled from the floor. He went 2-of-10 for 10 points and was scoreless in the first half.

“Harden did nothing,” Boeheim said. “He was really passive. And tonight when he was on the perimeter, we weren’t concerned. If anything, we were going to let him shoot the three over [Glasser, Ty Abbott and sophomore Rihards Kuksiks].”

Despite being the Pac-10 Player of the Year, Harden went a combined 3-of-18 for 19 points in the tournament.

Though he is probably still going to be a top 5 pick, Harden played consecutive poor games on the biggest stage.

He is still keeping reporters in the dark as to whether he’ll leave for the NBA draft, but it is widely speculated he will enter.

Pendergraph is also looking forward to the NBA. While he didn’t have the most memorable ending to his college career, Pendergraph said was very grateful to have played at ASU.

“It’s going to suck [leaving my teammates],” Pendergraph said. “I’m going to miss them; they’re my boys. They’ve been with me my whole time. But it’s all right, I’ll be able to come back sometime and kick it — let ‘em know that I run things.”

It is unknown whether Sendek already is looking at tape in preparation of next year, but he has firmly inserted his name into the ASU history books.

It will be interesting to see how next year plays out.

Glasser, Jerren Shipp and Eric Boateng will be the seniors on the team while juniors Jamelle McMillan, Abbott and Kuksiks will see heavy playing time again.

All three of the incoming freshmen could have a legitimate shot at making the starting lineup.

Local product Demetrius Walker of Phoenix Saint Mary’s is a 6-foot-4-inch guard who could compete with 6-foot-5-inch guard Trent Lockett for playing time.

Sendek also signed 7-foot center Ruslan Pateev from Florida.

Sunday marked the end of an era, assuming the Sun Devils lose their two best players. Glasser seems like the most likely candidate to take the proverbial leader role while McMillan could see the greatest spike in minutes.

In a fitting gesture of humility, Sendek on Sunday offered a poignant reflection on the season.

“I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity that I had to coach these guys this year,” he said. “It was a great journey. Today, I think we tip our hats to an outstanding Syracuse team.”

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