With the hardwood as their canvas and their players as brushes, Tony Bennett and Herb Sendek are some of the finest artists the Pac-10 Conference has to offer.
Coaches of the Washington State and ASU basketball teams, respectively, Bennett and Sendek share striking similarities in their bodies of work.
Begin with a base coat of stingy defense and layer it with dozens of complex offensive sets, and you’ll start to get the picture.
When the two teams collide Thursday night at Wells Fargo Arena, a pair of the Pac-10’s premier game plans will be on display.
“They don’t let you get in the paint,” ASU sophomore guard James Harden said of WSU. “They’re very defensive-minded, they keep it real tight.
Guys are going to have to step up and knock down shots.”
Harden said the No. 14 Sun Devils (16-3, 5-2 Pac-10) spent plenty of time working on their shooting this week, in preparation for the Cougar defense.
Not to mention the Sun Devils’ 28.6 percent shooting performance – ASU’s worst in over a decade – they posted in last Wednesday’s 53-47 defeat of UA in Tucson.
With eight days in between games, Sendek said the team took the extra days off to recharge both mentally and physically.
However, one of his players told a different side of the story.
“As expected … this is the longest week of practice. Ever,” senior forward Jeff Pendergraph said. “It’s pretty good [having extra time in the week], but it’s also tough because you have to stay on guys and keep them working because it takes so long to get to the next game.”
WSU (11-8, 3-4) enters the game with the nation’s best scoring defense at 52.5 points allowed per game, and forces teams to live out on the perimeter with its tenacious man-to-man action.
Offensively, the Cougars are led by a pair of seniors, point guard Taylor Rochestie and center Aron Baynes.
Rochestie leads the team in scoring (12.2 points per game), while Baynes patrols the post with his averages of 11.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
“[Baynes] is definitely underrated,” Pendergraph said. “He’s like the biggest guy in the conference, and you don’t really hear his name anywhere. It’s kind of crazy. Now he’s kind of stepped into that star player role with the guys leaving from last year. [He] and Rochestie are carrying the team right now.”
Sendek also mentioned WSU freshman guard Klay Thompson, who averages 11.5 points per game and is a perfect 20-of-20 from the free-throw line this year.
For the Sun Devils to win, they may need to lean on sharpshooter Rihards Kuksiks more than usual. Despite his 1-for-10 outing against UA, Kuksiks still leads the nation in 3-point field-goal percentage (48.6 percent).
Sophomore guard Ty Abbott, too, may be called on from behind the arc aplenty. Hampered by an injured left thumb in recent weeks, Abbott has made just 1-of-20 3-point attempts since the beginning of Pac-10 play.
Reach the reporter at alex.espinoza@asu.edu.
