With all this March Madness going on around everybody and with the NCAA Tournament set to take off on Tuesday night, there are some fans that are obviously left out in the cold. Some of those fans reside in the Valley of the Sun. More specifically, at Arizona State University. This is a school that is one of the biggest in the country, a football program starting to be more of a force in the Pac-12, but a basketball program that has been stuck in neutral or not even getting off the line. Why? That's always been a question I have had with Arizona State.
First of all, relevancy plays a part in how successful a program can be. ASU is not really relevant in the college basketball world. It's not for a lack of trying though, but they just have not won on a consistent basis for an extended period of time. In recent history they have had a few players of note come through Wells Fargo arena, but not enough to keep those types of players coming through all the time. James Harden, Ike Diogu,and Jahii Carson, and Eddie House (a stretch for me there) have made names for themselves at Arizona State. I'm talking recently because high school kids now don't know necessarily the history of the program, what they see is what they see on television. Back in the day, there were players that have made some names for themselves and for the university, but they are not remembered by modern high school kids. If you said, Fat Lever, Lionel Hollins, Byron Scott, or Alton Lister to high school kids these days you probably would be met with some weird looks. If you were to have kids list players that came from the Devils rival to south in Tucson, many high school players would be able to rattle off names of former players because the consistency of winning has been there in the recent past and the way back past when Lute Olson took the program to the next level and Sean Miller has continued that dominance. Now some Sun Devil fans may say that they have beat the Wildcats a couple times in the past, but who's program would they want? Rhetorical question there.
Recruiting. Recruiting. Recruiting. It's the backbone of any kind of college program. When you have talent, you win more. It's as simple as that. How can this program not get kids to come here? When you are young kid, especially in Phoenix, you already know where you would want to play Division One basketball and it's not in Tempe. Games at Wells Fargo are rarely sold out. Rarely. Sometimes you can hear the echo in the building because of the very few fans that show up. That shows any recruit that the fan base is not supporting the program and who would want to show up and play for an empty arena? Not many big time recruits, and not having these big time recruits show up on campus has certainly hurt the winning at ASU. How do they get over this hurdle? It's going to be tough. Coach Sendek has to get recruits in there and those recruits have to translate into wins. After getting those wins, Sendek has to show the consistency in getting big recruits to keep coming to Tempe to keep the winning going. Once the winning happens, the fickle fan base will return to Wells Fargo Arena to make things difficult on the opponent. They won't have to rely on a shower curtain with a freakishly dressed person behind it trying to distract free throw shooters.
Herb Sendek. I'm not sure what to think of him as a major college basketball coach. He came from North Carolina State with a record that really wasn't that impressive, but he got the job. He hasn't done enough to keep the job at ASU, but he's done enough obviously to keep the fan base and alumni off his back. However, the issue I have with him is the ability to recruit players to Tempe. As previously stated, if you can't recruit well, you are not going to win as consistently. If I was an alumni or the AD I may want to explore other options in terms of coaching at Arizona State.
I'm not sure who would come here to coach, but that coach would have to be able to sell a program and a university to them. There are so many good things to sell the program on. The weather, a world class school, a big city, and lets just say some real nice "surroundings" on campus. I want ASU to get a program that can get to the NCAA tournament every year and challenge for the Pac-12 Conference as well. Lets see what happens in the next year or two with Herb Sendek and how long administration keep him on the payroll. Sun Devil fans want a winner, some say deserve a winner... Forks Up!
No comments:
Post a Comment