It's time for the Herb Garden to see full bloom.
This Sunday, when the men's basketball team takes on Arizona, let's pack Wells Fargo Arena until it overflows.
Let's come in a stream of gold shirts, energetic and hopeful that our men's basketball team will pull a major upset of a top conference team for the second week in a row after last week's win over the University of Southern California.
Fill the stands with Sun Devil pride, drown out the cheers of the Arizona fans that make the trip up from Tucson.
This week, this year, it's Arizona's turn to lose.
Not since 1995, when the Devils went down to Tucson and upset a ranked Arizona squad on the last day of the regular season, have the Sun Devils beat the Cats.
Still, the timing is just right.
Arizona's struggles have left them in a bit of a funk right now, with the team dropping out of the national college rankings for the first time this year.
It was swept by the Southern California teams last weekend and desperately seeks an easy win this Sunday to pad its March Madness tournament resume.
A win won't be easy. Thus far, the season has been somewhat of a disappointment. The Devils sit at the cellar of the Pacific-10 Conference standings.
Before last week, we were winless in the conference, threatening the record books as the only team to ever go through Pac-10 play without a victory. But last Sunday, we turned the corner, and our student section stormed the court.
With a dominating second-half performance, led by the tenacious play of junior guard Antwi Atuahene, the Devils finally closed out a tight game with clutch free-throw shooting and tough defense to coast to a win over the Trojans.
The Sun Devils, (7-19, 1-14 Pac-10) are better than the record shows. ASU has been in 12 games decided by five points or less through its first 26 contests. With a few breaks here or there, and maybe a few extra thousand fans at home games, the Devils could well be a .500 team.
The defense is already there. After last week's performance, the Sun Devils rank third in the league in conference play in scoring defense at 63.0 points per game and fifth in field goal percentage defense (.440) in league games.
The stats are especially telling in a conference where seven teams have been ranked in the Associated Press polls this season.
To every student with even an inkling of school pride, realize how important a win in this game could be for the basketball program.
Right now, we're at the cusp of becoming a top program.
We brought in Herb Sendek, a high-quality coach with a die-hard, winning attitude. He was even willing to be thrown out of the Washington game in January, hoping to incite an unenthusiastic crowd.
Our players are doing things the right ways. The men's hoops team notched a 2.88 grade point average last fall and its team cumulative GPA is 2.83, its highest in the past six years. The four highly touted freshmen combined for a 3.33 GPA, and 90 percent of the team had at least a 2.5.
The only thing missing is the fans.
In this, my and every other senior's last rivalry game between Arizona and Arizona State basketball before we graduate, I would love nothing more than to see the Devils take down the Cats.
For the team, for your school and for the future of the men's basketball team, at least put yourself in a position to see one of the greatest upsets in Sun Devil history.
Just make sure it's in the Herb Garden, where spring is in the air and so is a Sun Devil's victory.
Reach the reporter at: tyler.w.thompson@asu.edu.
