SPORTS

Next season an important one for ASU coach Herb Sendek

Doug Haller
azcentral sports
March 19, 2014 - Arizona State head coach Herb Sendek during practice before the second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament at BMO Harris Bradley Center.

Notes off the Arizona State basketball beat …

Since 1912, ASU has had just three basketball coaches — Rudy Lavik, Bill Kajikawa and Ned Wulk — stay in place for nine seasons. Next fall, Herb Sendek joins this group.

It'll be a big season for Sendek. The Sun Devils are coming off their first NCAA Tournament appearance in five years, but fans look at next season's roster and see more questions than answers. Jahii Carson, Jordan Bachynski and Jermaine Marshall — last season's top scorers — are gone. And with three transfers, the Sun Devils will be forced to break in seven newcomers.

ASU hasn't earned consecutive March Madness bids since 1981. In eight years under Sendek, the Sun Devils have danced just twice. Next season likely will go a long way toward determining Sendek's future in Tempe. The coach is under contract through the 2016 season.

Another transfer player?

ASU's 2014-15 roster could get a boost Thursday. Willie Atwood, a 6-foot-8 forward at Connors State College in Warner, Okla., is expected to decide between ASU, Iowa and Florida State. He visited Tempe last week, stopping by the football spring game at Sun Devil Stadium.

Atwood last season averaged 21 points and nine rebounds, earning NJCAA third-team All-America honors. The West Memphis, Ark., native had just a handful of scholarship offers coming out of high school — Arkansas-Little Rock, Louisiana Tech and Murray State — but he elevated his game at Connors State. Last month, Louisville coach Rick Pitino reportedly traveled to Oklahoma to check him out. Wichita State's Gregg Marshall and SMU's Larry Brown did the same.

Atwood's coach — Bill Muse — said he thinks Atwood one day will play professionally. Maybe not in the U.S., but somewhere.

"Willie's game has improved 200 percent, and he's done a lot of that on his own," Muse told the Muskogee (Okla.) Phoenix.

If Atwood sides with ASU, the Sun Devils could put a lineup of four junior-college transfers on the court next season. In addition to Atwood, wing Roosevelt Scott, forward Savon Goodman and guard Gerry Blakes all join the program. (Goodman, who started his career at UNLV, attended Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, last season but didn't play.)

All are expected to compete for starting positions with rising senior Jonathan Gilling, junior Eric Jacobsen and forward Shaquielle McKissic, another junior-college transfer who joined the program two years ago.

Roster construction

Some teams lose players to graduation, some lose them to the NBA and others, with transfers at an historic rate, lose them to other teams.

Of the 16 teams that participated in last season's NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, nine featured starting lineups of five players who entered the program out of high school.

But then there was Baylor, which started two high school players, two four-year transfers and a junior-college transfer. Iowa State featured a lineup of three junior-college transfers, and San Diego State featured three four-year transfers.

The point: Although bringing in — and developing — high school talent is ideal, it's possible to succeed in other ways. Maybe not for the long run, but definitely for a season or two.

Visits planned

Sendek and assistant coach Stan Johnson are visiting several top 2015 recruits this week, a group that includes five-star prospect Chance Comanche, a 6-10 center from View Park Preparatory School in Los Angeles. Comanche has a scholarship list of eight Pac-12 schools, along with Connecticut, Kansas and Louisville.

ASU also has visited or plans to visit six other Rivals Top 100 recruits in California. They are forward Cameron Walker of Santa Maria Righetti; guard Nu Williams of Santa Monica High, guard Stephen Thompson of Gardena Bishop Montgomery; forward Bennie Boatwright of Sun Valley Village Christian High; Chimezie Metu of Lawndale High; and guard Jeremy Hemsley of LaVerne Damien High.

Contact Doug Haller at doug.haller@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-444-4949. Follow him at Twitter.com/DougHaller.