TEMPE – Herb Sendek wants to see his Arizona State players learn to Tebow.
No, not like that.
Like staying within themselves, as Tim Tebow did in leading the Denver Broncos into the NFL playoffs.
Among the 337 schools playing major college basketball, only Towson and Grambling entered the week with a higher turnover ratio than ASU's negative-5.6 a game. While the lack of a true point guard is the most critical factor, the Sun Devils have complicated the issue by also attempting too many plays that have too high a degree of difficulty, Sendek said.
“One of his (Tebow’s) great attributes was, he didn’t try to make a lot of plays that were outside of his box. He didn’t try to play like Brett Favre. It’s OK not to be able to do certain things, as long as you know that and don’t try to do them anyway. Sometimes your success is a function of the plays you don’t make,” Sendek said.
“Sometimes it’s good to know what you can’t do. And that’s OK. Nobody can do everything. That is part of our message right now.”
Sendek’s home town Pittsburgh Steelers were upset in the NFL playoffs by the Broncos in January, but Sendek did not wince when drawing the comparison.
ASU (8-17, 4-9) will make its final road trip of the Pac-12 regular season to Washington and Washington State this weekend, and will lug with it an average of 16.6 turnovers per game, a number that has stayed constant through three point guards and two offenses this season. Freshman forward Jonathan Gilling, who joined the starting lineup when point guard No. 2 Keala King was dismissed from the team in January, is only ASU player with more assists than turnovers.
The Sun Devils are in the middle of the Pac-12 in shooting percentage (44.6) and three-point shooting percentage (35.0), but Sendek believes both numbers could be higher.
“One of the ways to be a better shot-making team is to be a better passing team, and I think that has hurt us as much as anything. It is reflected in our turnovers. It is reflected in the missed open cutters that we have. I could show you any number of clips where we have guys who are open that we’re not hitting on time,” Sendek said.
“It’s not because our guys are playing selfishly, or they don’t have a willingness to do it. But we have to become better at seeing and better at passing, things that haven’t been our strengths this year. In some instances, we are making plays that we shouldn’t make. We’re trying to thread the needle. We’re trying to make too difficult a play.
“We kind of have both forces working against us. On one hand, we are failing to capitalize on some openings because of our vision and our passing. And the because of our decision-making we’re trying to make some plays that we have no business making.”
ASU will be as close to full strength in Washington as it has been on the road the entire Pac-12 season since junior Trent Lockett rejoined the team for the Utah/Colorado split last weekend after missing six games with a severe right ankle sprain that continues to hamper his movement.
“I don’t know that he will have his normal explosiveness at any time the remainder of the season,” Sendek said.
Lockett, who has dutifully accepted playing out of position at point guard in the best interests of the team since King left, believes ASU is that close to turning its record around. Like Sendek, he points to empty possessions.
“We have to pay more attention and don’t try to make the home run plays,” Lockett said.
“Obviously we don't have a true point guard and that may hurt us at times. To tell you the truth, I feel like every game we've played this season we could have won. We really hinder ourselves at times.
“You can call it killer instinct or handling adversity, but there's something that we need to find as a team and when we do I think we'll have a better season and different outcomes in a lot of games that we play."
Playing spoiler has no intrigue, the Sun Devils said, as they prepared to meet upper division teams Washington, UCLA and Arizona in the final three weeks.
“For us, it is not about Washington. It’s about Arizona State. It’s always about us. We are tremendously motivated. Regardless. Especially,” Sendek said.
The goal the rest of the season is "to get every bit of juice out of the peach that we can. To enjoy the process. To be consumed with the process. To instinctively and desperately find every way to get better, and to have fun in the process and give everything that we have.
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