ASU Basketball: Herb Sendek’s Challenge

: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

ASU head men’s basketball coach, Herb Sendek, has got a challenge before him. He must keep the wheels turning for his basketball team.
Right now, it is probably accurate to say that his Sun Devil squad has lost some of it’s confidence. Hopefully, the players are mature enough to see that two consecutive road losses to UCLA and Arizona is not the end of the world. Both of those teams are ranked. Arizona is ranked #1 in the nation. It’s not a huge letdown to drop those games.

But it isn’t good, either.

It’s probably not so much that ASU came away from those games with a loss, but rather that they never really challenged to win either one. The ASU faithful, as well as the players and the staff, would have preferred to see the Sun Devils at least make a game of it; to be competitive. It didn’t happen. However, the season is not lost.

The beauty of college basketball is that there are lots of games to play. Moreover, no team is ever really out of the race until the bitter end. The Sun Devils still have a good record. And they still have a good team. They just need to have a short memory, learn from the last two games, then forget about them. They need to regroup, get back to being who they are and get on a hot streak. No easy task, but certainly within their capabilities. There aren’t very many pushovers in the PAC-12, but every game left on the schedule is winnable.
Confidence is huge in basketball, especially at the college level. Deep down inside, many players can easily start to doubt themselves if they are not having a good game. And it can snowball out of control in a hurry. Simply having an “off-night” shooting can turn into ineptitude in every aspect of the game.

This is where Coach Sendek comes in. He must push all the right buttons to get this team to play with confidence once again. He’ll have to do it with his words, his body language, how he runs practices, his film work with the team and with what he emphasizes and how he emphasizes it. They do have some things to fix on the floor; their man to man offense, their rebounding and their transition game. But most of all, Coach Sendek needs to mend their psyches and get them to believe that they are PAC-12 contenders again.

It could happen in one weekend. This coming weekend, perhaps, when they take on Utah and Colorado. If they were to play lights out and go 2-0 in those games, they might be able to get their swagger back and play with confidence. ASU fans are hoping that coach Sendek indeed pushes those buttons and the Sun Devils come out swinging on Thursday night.