As the ASU men’s basketball team prepares to face Pepperdine Tuesday at Wells Fargo Arena, overall improvement is the theme following Friday’s season opening victory over Montana State.
Coach Herb Sendek said he was very honest with his team after the game, particularly by the way the Sun Devils (1-0) finished the game.
When asked if he felt differently about the win Monday, his perspective didn’t change.
“Not really, but the great thing about film is it really doesn’t lie,” Sendek said. “It tells you the truth.”
Sophomore guard Keala King couldn’t agree more following Sunday’s film session.
Even though King had a career-high 16 points against the Bobcats, he brushed the accolade aside, describing his offensive night as “all right”.
“I’m not really too satisfied by my performance,” King said.
King said the Sun Devils have to cut down on turnovers and do a better job rebounding, two things Sendek emphasized in the post-game press conference.
ASU had 22 turnovers Friday, the most during the Sendek era.
“But the good news I think when you look at them, they’re so correctable,” Sendek said. “I don’t know how many of them that happened on Friday will happen again.”
Sendek said the unforced turnovers are still on his mind, giving examples of in-game situations. Junior forward Ruslan Pateev watched the ball go through his hands following a successful pick and roll. Junior guard Chris Colvin dribbled the ball of his foot and out of bounds in transition.
“Just some crazy things that happened, so I think we can take the top off of that number immediately just by taking care of business a little more cleanly,” Sendek said.
The Sun Devils allowed 17 second chance opportunities, which Sendek credits to a poor job boxing out in the paint and pursing the ball.
Pepperdine grabbed 14 offensive rebounds in its season opener against Pomona-Pitzer. Freshman forward Ramon Eaton had four offensive boards coming off the bench.
“Since we’re sometimes small out there, rebounding is everything basically, defensive and offensive,” King said.
King was not pleased by his defensive performance or the team’s overall effort. The Sun Devils allowed 51 points in the second half Friday to Montana State. That’s nearly what Pepperdine (1-0) scored during its win, 59-50.
“That was probably the worst part of film (Sunday),” King said. “It was a lot of things I saw we could’ve done. Not just (about) the win, not the good things, but I saw a lot of bad things.”
The Waves are seeking to replace their three top scorers last season, two of which are in the top 20 in school history.
Forward Mychel Thompson graduated 14th all-time on Pepperdine’s scoring list, appearing in a school-record 128 games. Guard Keion Bell is 17th on the list, but transferred to Missouri after he was suspended last season for conduct detrimental to the team.
The team’s top returning scorer, senior guard Lorne Jackson, tore his ACL and underwent surgery in the summer. Without Jackson, Pepperdine returns retains 34.4 percent of its scoring from last season.
Just don’t tell Sendek.
“It truly is about us,” Sendek said. “Whether it’s Montana State, Pepperdine or anybody else right now, we have to focus on doing the things that we’re supposed to do, controlling the things that we’re capable of controlling.”
With Pepperdine’s lack of experienced scorers, Tuesday will be a good opportunity for a young ASU team to get better defensively.
“(The defense is) in need of a great deal of work,” Sendek said. “We’re very much an early work in progress right now,” Sendek said.
Reach the reporter at master.tesfatsion@asu.edu
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