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Schedule stays tough for men’s hoops in home opener

ROUGH ROAD: Freshman forward Kyle Cain dribbles into the lane as New Mexico senior guard Dairese Gary defends Tuesday night's Lobos win in Albuquerque. The Sun Devils open at home Saturday against Alabama-Birmingham, a team that has averaged 21.8 wins over the last seven seasons. (Photo Courtesy of the Daily Lobo)
ROUGH ROAD: Freshman forward Kyle Cain dribbles into the lane as New Mexico senior guard Dairese Gary defends Tuesday night's Lobos win in Albuquerque. The Sun Devils open at home Saturday against Alabama-Birmingham, a team that has averaged 21.8 wins over the last seven seasons. (Photo Courtesy of the Daily Lobo)

ASU men's basketball coach Herb Sendek knew the early season schedule wasn’t going to be easy.

The Sun Devils were just one of six teams from a major conference to open up on the road, but even though they return home, it doesn’t mean the path to success is going to get any easier.

Awaiting ASU on Saturday afternoon is an Alabama-Birmingham (2-0) program that has averaged 21.8 wins in the past seven seasons and has been a top-50 RPI team in five of the past seven seasons.

With six newcomers seeing action in Tuesday’s road loss to New Mexico, it was only natural for the Sun Devils to struggle at times in one of the toughest road environments in the country.

“That’s who we are going to be right now,” Sendek said of his inexperienced team. “We have to focus on the things we can do right now and hold ourselves to those standards. It’s early in the year for all teams, not just us.”

The same holds true for UAB, as the Blazers return just two starters from last year’s team that went 25-9 and played in the NIT.

However, it hasn’t been one of the returning starters that has helped UAB to its 2-0 start. The Blazers’ 6-foot-10-inch junior forward Cameron Moore, who averaged just 3.1 points per game in nearly 13 minutes of action per game last season, has jumped into the starting lineup and has increased his scoring average to 17.5.

Early on, the Blazers — who are coached by former Indiana head coach Mike Davis — have shown scoring balance and have five guys averaging double figures.

On the other side of things, only sophomore guard Trent Lockett scored in double figures for ASU on Tuesday.

“We had one guy that played really well,” Sendek said. “I thought Trent was really, really good. He was aggressive and attacked the basket. Our older guys didn’t have their best game.”

The three seniors in ASU’s starting lineup struggled with their shots and went a combined 6-for-22 from the field.

“Especially early, we need our veteran players to play our best and the other guys have to play their roles,” Sendek said. “I just don’t know how many games we are going to win when you only have one guy that stands out. Our defense would have to be pretty good.”

There certainly were encouraging signs to come out of Tuesday’s loss. On the glass, ASU, who was one of the worst rebounding teams in the Pac-10 last season, outrebounded New Mexico, who was one of the Mountain West’s best rebounding teams a year ago.

Even with struggles at times against UNM, ASU still had a chance to win the game down the stretch and trailed by just five in the second half.

“All that being said, we had a couple of sequences where if we make a couple of plays we give ourselves a chance,” Sendek said. “We didn’t do that and it went right back up in a blink.”

The trip inside The Pit in Albuquerque may have resulted in a loss, but will more than likely be much more beneficial to the Sun Devils down the stretch than the usual small conference team on the schedule for the home opener.

“It is a great experience for us,” Sendek said. “We have a really tough schedule with a group that is going to get better every step of the way. If we want to learn from it, the opportunity will be there.”

But because the second game of the season is against a talented opponent, Lockett knows there must be improvements to avoid falling to 0-2.

“We have to play better defensively and work harder on the glass,” Lockett said. “Just play tougher overall and hopefully we’ll come out with a win.”

Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu


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