It hit him Monday night.
Hard.
Probably thanks to some 13-year-old kid playing Playstation.
For weeks, ASU senior Jeff Pendergraph has been answering questions about how it feels to be reaching the end of his college career.
Well, now it’s here.
When the No. 21 ASU men’s basketball team (21-7, 10-5 Pac-10) welcomes the Bay Area schools later this week, the contests will mark Pendergraph’s final home games in the maroon and gold.
But instead of looking at a nostalgic slideshow or highlight video, a bad round of Call of Duty — the popular video game — led to Pendergraph’s realization of the finality of his ASU career.
After getting killed by some gamer online, he had to take a time out. He put the controller down and gathered his thoughts.
Then boom.
“Next thing you know, I was like, ‘I’m about to be done with school,’” Pendergraph said. “I’m a senior but it hasn’t hit me yet. Now it’s starting to come around. I’m about to be done with college. There’s no coming back to college. College basketball is over. There’s only a couple games left, and it’s like, man. Man … [Monday] night was crazy.”
Pendergraph’s press conference on Tuesday lasted about a half hour, about three times the normal length. It was filled with laughter as both reporters and Pendergraph recounted his highs and lows of a tumultuous college career.
There was the time when he found out via the ESPN bottom line that his coach Rob Evans had been fired. The times people wouldn’t recognize him on campus. The time he unexpectedly woke up with a
surgically-repaired knee. The time backup center Eric Boateng threatened to kill him in practice. The time he felt like he had an “out-of-body experience” in Pauley Pavilion, coughing up blood and ripping on his teammates in a huddle.
Ah, the life and times of Jeff Pendergraph.
He said he arrived in Tempe as a freshman looking like a “toothpick.” But with a big grin, he was sure to note how he had grown physically. However, his greatest development came on the mental side of things.
At the end of last season, Pendergraph was debating whether to bolt for the NBA. He held a meeting with his mother, ASU coach Herb Sendek and Doug Collins, Pendergraph’s friend who is currently an NBA TV analyst, to discuss his future.
Sendek told Pendergraph he should stay not only to improve his draft stock, but to mature as a person. Pendergraph said it was the best decision he made besides choosing to play at ASU in the first place.
When the Sun Devils hold court for senior night on Saturday before hosting Cal, only one name will be called. Pendergraph is the lone senior of the team, and the only holdover from the pre-Sendek era.
He said he will probably be crying, but “whatever.”
Reach the reporter at alex.espinoza@asu.edu.
