ARIZONA STATE BASKETBALL

Sendek working through tournament, preparing for next year

Mar 15, 2012, 9:10 PM | Updated: 10:23 pm

ASU mens basketball coach Herb Sendek is utilizing his time not being in the NCAA Tournament to get a head start making changes for next season.

Sendek told Arizona Sports 620’s Burns and Gambo that he’s already been on the road recruiting this week and started working out some problems as a coach.

“I love this time of season because it gives me the opportunity to canvas my profession and get better, to learn, to pick up new ideas, to stretch myself, and then apply that as it best relates to our team for next year,” Sendek said. “So, I’ll always really enjoy that process as well. And then most importantly, we’ll continue to attend to our guys, have a strong finish academically and use that as a springboard into the offseason.”

Sendek and his staff have their work cut out for them as the Sun Devils ended their season 10-21 and suffered an 85-65 loss to Stanford in the first round of the Pac-12 men’s tournament.

The Sun Devils also struggled with personnel problems throughout the season, having to suspend several players and dismiss leading scorer Keala King for “unacceptable conduct.”

Sendek hopes to leave all the problems behind and focus on playing this time next year.

“We would love to be a part of March Madness next season. We’re really excited about the future of our program,” Sendek said. “It’s going to take certainly a tremendous amount of hard work and some good fortune along the way. But things change quickly.”

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