ASU’s ‘bright light’ expected to be turned on this week

In a season full of negatives, there may be one huge
positive coming for the ASU basketball team: leading
scorer and top rebounder Trent Lockett appears ready to
return.

He took a significant step Monday when he practiced—
albeit without contact, for the first time since spraining
his ankle three weeks ago against Oregon State.

“It’s been tough,” Lockett said about missing the Sun
Devils last six games. “But there’s nothing I can do
about it so I’m not going to get frustrated over it. All
I can do is try to help my teammates the best I can.”

Over the last three weeks, the junior playmaker has been
reduced to a spectator, forced to watch either practice or
games from the sideline.

“It’s definitely a different perspective watching and
watching games from the bench and sitting next to the
coaches.”

Said head coach Herb Sendek, “We’re going to have to take
it one step at a time and just see how he feels. What is
his conditioning like? As you know riding the stationary
bike is a far cry from playing Pac-12 basketball.

“He was really in a good place and playing outstanding
basketball when he injured his ankle,” continued Sendek.
“In every statistical category he was a bright light for
us.”

Lockett leads the team with 13.9 points per game and has
the most rebounds and steals of anyone on the roster.
Without that on the floor, ASU won just once during
Lockett’s absence.

“I was planning on going to get a shot and coming back
into the game,” he explained about the injury suffered on
January 14. “But when we took the tape off it kind of
ballooned up and that X’d out that opportunity. It was
obviously longer than I expected.”

The Sun Devils (7-16, 3-8) host Utah Thursday night at
Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.

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