If you know the personality of ASU coach Herb Sendek, you knew that Monday was going to be just another day of practice and preparation, even after he was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year earlier that day.
If it were up to Sendek, the award would be shared with everybody involved with the program.
“I’m certainly flattered,” Sendek said. “It is obviously a team reward in many respects. Our coaching staff is so heavily relied on and our players play the game. It is flattering, but most certainly shared.”
In his fourth season at the helm of ASU, Sendek led the Sun Devils to a second-place finish in the conference after being projected by the media at the beginning of the season to finish seventh.
Sendek is the first ASU men’s basketball coach to win the honor since Ned Wulk took home the award after the 1979-80 season. While the award is rare for ASU, it isn’t for Sendek. This is his third time winning the Coach of the Year of the conferenc as a Division I head coach, winning at Miami (OH) and at North Carolina State.
He was business as usual at practice on Monday, but his players knew that he was proud of the award.
“I could tell,” junior guard Ty Abbott said. “He tries to act like it is just another day, but I went up to him and shook his hand and he had a little smirk on his face. You can tell he is proud of what he has done and what we have done.”
Abbott was also honored by the Pac-10 on Monday, as he was named First Team All-Pac-10
“It is an honor to be mentioned with all the great guys that are in this league right now,” Abbott said. “It has been a long journey and I am excited about it.”
From where he was at this time last season, becoming a first-team all-league player is a tremendous accomplishment.
Despite the struggles Abbott has gone through, he said he always had the goal of being named to the first team and never let that slip from the back of his mind.
“It is hard to say that you want to play and not be mentioned with the best guys in the conference,” Abbott said. “It was a goal for me, especially coming off of last year. It is good to be able to achieve it.”
Abbott gave credit to Sendek and used his honor as an example as to why Sendek was named Coach of the Year. “He does a great job working with us players — I am an example of that,” Abbott said. “Coach Sendek does a great job with development and it has paid off. That is a testament to him.”
Freshman guard Trent Lockett was named to the Pac-10’s All-Freshman team.
“He had a tremendous first year for us,” Sendek said. “Playing on a team that had some success helped, but he played a really big part on our team and his efforts were recognized.”
Lockett and Sendek set achieving Pac-10 First-Team All-Freshman honors as a goal right after Lockett committed to ASU.
“That was our goal before I came here, and it feels good to meet that goal,” Lockett said. “It was exciting to work hard to try and obtain that goal, and now that I have that goal, it is a good feeling.”
It seems that Sendek’s “all about business” attitude has already worn off on Lockett. While humbled by the honor, his focus was still on the task at hand.
“I heard about it today, called my mom and moved on,” Lockett said. “We have Stanford coming up. We need to win these games so we can maybe make the NCAA [Tournament].”
Senior guard Derek Glasser was named Honorable Mention all-conference team, while senior center Eric Boateng was named Honorable Mention all-defensive team.
Cal senior guard Jerome Randle was named Pac-10 Player of the Year, Oregon State senior guard Seth Tarver was named Defensive Player of the Year, UA freshman forward Derrick Williams was the Freshman of the Year and USC sophomore forward Nikola Vucevic was named Most Improved Player of the Year.
All-Pac 10 First Team
Jr. Ty Abbott, ASU
Sr. Patrick Christopher, Cal
Sr. Landry Fields, Stanford
Sr. Quincy Pondexter, UW
Sr. Jerome Randle, Cal
Sr. Michael Roll, UCLA
So. Isaiah Thomas, UW
So. Klay Thompson, WSU
Fr. Derrick Williams, UA
Sr. Nic Wise, UA
All-Pac 10 Second Team
Sr. Jamal Boykin, Cal
So. Jeremy Green, Stanford
Jr. Calvin Haynes, Oregon St.
Sr. Theo Robertson, Cal
So. Nikola Vucevic, USC
Honorable Mention
So. DeAngelo Casto, WSU
Sr. Derek Glasser, ASU
Sr. Dwight Lewis, USC
Sr. Roeland Schaftenaar, OSU
Sr. Seth Tarver, OSU
All-Freshman Team
Tyler Honeycutt, UCLA
Trent Lockett, ASU
Reggie Moore, WSU
Reeves Nelson, UCLA
Derrick Williams, UA
All-Defensive Team
DeAngelo Casto, WSU
Jorge Gutierrez, Cal
Justin Holliday, Washington
Venoy Overton, Washington
Seth Tarver, OSU
Honorable Mention All-Defensive Team
Sr. Eric Boateng, ASU
Sr. Patrick Christopher, Cal
Sr. Marcus Johnson, USC
So. Nikola Vucevic, USC
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
