Herb Sendek: ASU basketball must be a team ‘in every sense of the concept’

Arizona State’s men’s basketball team is much less star-studded than last year. No Jahii Carson. No Jordan “Block-chynski” Bachynski.

In order to counter that lack of star power, head coach Herb Sendek said the team must rely on each other all the time in order to be successful.

“We don’t have any NBA draft picks right now on our roster,” Sendek said Monday in a press conference. “We have good players who have to make each other better on offense, and are going to have to really play great team defense. I think that’s as much a key as anything for us.”

Last year’s squad finished fifth in the Pac-12 and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Texas. The offensively-minded team was led in scoring by guards Jahii Carson and Jermaine Marshall, both of whom left after the season.

However, Sendek believes this year’s group has the potential to be a “very good” defensive team in the half court.

“Over the course of the last week or so, we’ve taken a step back and we’ve really broken a lot of things down,” he said. “We’ve put the spotlight on our technique and on fundamentals, and I thought over the course of the last week, we’ve made some real progress defensively…

We’ve just got to honor the process and stay with it, but this team is going to have to do that to be successful.”

Another big difference coming into this season will be the rotations. As clear-cut as they were last year, they will be just as fluid this year.

“We all basically knew that Jordan was going to be our center and Jahii was our point guard and Jermaine was going to be our shooter, our scorer on the wing,” Sendek said. “This year, there’s not a lot of separation between guys as of yet. It’s really much more difficult to define roles here early in the season.”

Even with the challenges Arizona State may face this season, Sendek said he believes his players have the personality and drive to improve.

“The one thing I love about this team is their character. They’re really good guys. They have a sense of humility. I think they’re very hungry. The young guys are eager to listen to the older guys and learn. Everybody on the team right now has been exceptionally coachable.

“So from that standpoint, it’s been a fun group to be in the gym with because they work really hard, they have great energy, and they want to be coached. If you have that combination, that typically leads to improvement.”

The Sun Devils’ first game will be Friday at home against Chicago State.

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