If the ASU men’s basketball team has hopes of reaching the Final Four, the likely road would include wins over perennial powers Kansas, Duke and rival University of Arizona. And that would only happen if the Sun Devils are able to get by Memphis on Thursday in Oklahoma City in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
To put it nicely, chances are that won’t happen.
But considering the course of events over the past eight years for the ASU hoops program, just making the NCAA Tournament is an accomplishment in itself.
It was back in 1995 when ASU last made the NCAA Tournament. Coached by Bill Frieder, the Sun Devils reached the round of 16 that season before ducking out against Kentucky.
ASU finished the 1994-95 season at 24-9 and held a ranking in the top 20 from the fourth game of the season all the way to the end.
Things went down hill the next year when the team went just 11-16. The following year wasn’t any better as the Sun Devils posted a 10-20 record in the 1996-97 season.
In December of 1997, news broke that a former ASU basketball players Stevin “Headache” Smith and Isaac Burton had shaved points from several Sun Devil games during the 1993-94 campaign. Frieder eventually resigned during the 1997-98 season because of the scandal.
Smith had gotten himself into a gambling debt with a bookie at ASU and agreed to “shave” points as opposed to paying off the debt.
It was Smith’s job to make sure that ASU never covered the betting spread. A cable movie was eventually made about the ordeal.
Smith is one of ASU’s all-time leading scorers and probably the most prolific three-point shooter in school history.
Don Newman took over the head coach duties in 1997 and ASU finished with a respectable 18-14 record. But the wins and losses were insignificant to the negative publicity the basketball program received because of Smith and the point shaving scandal.
Current head coach Rob Evans was brought to Tempe that off-season to rebuild both the record and the reputation of ASU basketball.
“I’ve always said that the Mississippi job is the toughest I’ve ever had,” Evans said. “I don’t believe that anymore.”
While at Mississippi, Evans took the Runnin’ Rebels to two-straight NCAA Tournaments in 1997 and 1998 before leaving for Tempe. Mississippi basketball had been nearly non-existent before Evans arrived.
In his first year in 1998-99, ASU went 14-16, but not much was expected of the team.
Following the 1998-99 season, Evans brought in a respectable recruiting class that included current Sun Devil seniors Tommy Smith, Donnell Knight, Kyle Dodd and Shawn Redhage. Combine those players with former Sun Devil and current Miami Heat guard Eddie House, and ASU was right in the mix for an NCAA Tournament bid.
That team finished 18-12 during the regular season and just missed out on the tournament, but earned a spot in the NIT Tournament.
The next two years saw ASU go combined 27-31, far from any opportunity at reaching the Big Dance. The team did reach the NIT again last season.
With all of the above said, that brings us to this season. The rebuilding phase was supposed to be over and the Pac-10 media picked ASU to finish fourth in the conference, which is exactly what happened.
Now with just one day until ASU’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1995, the current team realizes just how significant it is to make it this far despite the past troubles of the team.
“It was kind of hard to sleep last night,” Dodd said Monday. “[Selection Sunday] was an exciting day.”
Reach the reporter at andrew.bernick@asu.edu.</<em>
