Fundamentals are focus for Sun Devils

It’s been a long and winding road for ASU’s mens basketball team, and with only five regular season games left, there’s not much time to make vast improvements. So, the team is taking it back to basics.

“We’ve really sold out to the fundamentals, and it’s just a great reminder for all of us that that’s what the game ultimately comes down to,” head coach Herb Sendek told Arizona Sports 620’s Burns and Gambo.

Sendek said they’ll cover jump stops, triple threats, cutting to the basket and setting good screens, but the primary focus will be on passing.

“I think a lot of times, that’s maybe the most undervalued commodity in offensive basketball, to be able to see and to pass,” Sendek said. “And unfortunately, we’re still missing some open cutters.”

The Sun Devils are averaging 17 turnovers per game and have a .455 field goal percentage per game.

Those numbers may increase with the return of leading scorer Trent Lockett, who missed six games because of an ankle injury.

“It was great to get Trent back, and I was amazed that he was able to play this past weekend, and more significantly as many minutes as he was able to play this past weekend,” Sendek said. “That’s a real tribute to his diligence and trying to stay with conditioning the best he could.”

Even though he’s been out a month, Lockett still leads the team in rebounds and minutes per game. But, he probably won’t be the go-to guy for shooting late in the shot clock, though Sendek said “even with his injury, he still may be our best guy in doing that.”

Sendek said he hasn’t been able to do everything in practice, and he won’t have his explosiveness before the end of the season. They just want to work with him slowly to get him back to full-health.

“All things being said, it’s really good to have him back,” Sendek said.

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