Injuries matter. They make a difference.
Sure, you have to play with the guys that are healthy, but injuries can prevent a team from achieving its preseason goals.
ASU coach Herb Sendek used an example from this upcoming weekend’s Super Bowl, which features Sendek’s Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers.
“As coaches, as sports commentators, as writers, everybody always prefaces that injuries aren’t an excuse, we have to focus on the guys that are available,” Sendek said. “Everybody makes all of those comments, it is almost self-evident that if your team has poor health, it is not inconsequential.
“If this weekend we knew that Roethlisberger or Rodgers wasn’t able to play, that wouldn’t necessarily guarantee the outcome of the game, but most reasonable minds would expect that would be a factor.”
It appears as if the injury bug is finally leaving ASU’s system, as the Sun Devils had their full roster participate in practice for the first time since the preseason.
“It has killed us,” senior point guard Jamelle McMillan said. “It has really been the number one thing. Preparation is everything. If you have guys jerked in here, jerked in there and in and out, it is really hard to put together a rhythm, a rotation.”
With seven newcomers having to play such a prominent role and mesh with three experienced seniors, practice time together on the floor is more impactful.
Barring any more injuries, ASU will finally start to get that.
“Hopefully we can maintain it,” Sendek said. “To the extent that practice is important, and to have everybody there and working together most certainly seems to have great value.”
With the second half of conference play about to start, McMillan is encouraged that the team’s health is starting to turn around. Hopefully this will lead to an improvement in performance on the court.
“We have done the best with what we have been able to work with,” McMillan said. “Adversity hits every team, adversity has hit us pretty hard, I’m proud of the guys for the way the guys have responded to our practice situations.”
One player that has been nagged by injuries all season long is senior guard/forward Rihards Kuksiks.
Finally starting to get healthy, Kuksiks had what Sendek called his best week of practice prior to the USC and UCLA games. And it showed, as he averaged 18 points per game.
“He was engaged 100 percent of the time,” McMillan said of Kuksiks’ practice week last week. “Due to his injuries, he’s playing with some nagging things and hasn’t been able to get the repetitions he has been able to get in the past. He shot the ball phenomenal each and every day and defensively he did a lot better.
“We need him on the floor, he’s a big part of this team. Right now he’s playing really good basketball.”
Free throw woes
The Sun Devils are shooting a Pac-10 worst 63.9 percent from the foul line this season. Having a bad free throw shooting team is something that Sendek isn’t used to as a head coach.
Over the course of the past three seasons, ASU has been in the top five in the conference in free throw percentage. Sendek’s teams at North Carolina State led the Atlantic Coast Conference in that category four times, including leading the nation’s shooting with 79.9 percent in 2003-04.
So what has changed this year?
"I was once asked about that in another year when our team wasn't making free throws," Sendek said. "Someone even asked me if we practiced them. I would just take this opportunity to let you know that we do practice them. Our guys have goals they have to make every day and we most certainly consider it an important part of the game.
“I believe one of my teams led the nation in free-throw shooting one year. I guess we practiced them better that year."
Second half improvement
If history is any indicator of how the second half of Pac-10 play is going to go for ASU, the Sun Devils should find more success than they did in the first half.
Entering this season, ASU had gone 14-22 in the first half of Pac-10 play under Sendek and 20-16 in the second half.
In the past three seasons, ASU is 14-13 in the first half and 18-9 in the second half.
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
