ASU victory shows there's danger in the desert.(Basketball College)

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

Is Arizona State an indication of how difficult life is going to be in the Pac-10 this season?

Picked to finish ninth when the media cast votes a couple of months ago, the young Sun Devils looked like a contender Saturday night in routing 17th-ranked Xavier, 77-55.

"It says a lot of things," ASU's Jeff Pendergraph said. "It says ASU is going to be one of those teams where you've got to be ready for 40 minutes of a heavyweight fight."

Xavier found that out. It was the widest margin in a victory for ASU against a ranked team, surpassing the 87-67 triumph over No. 1 Oregon State (yes, it had to be a long time ago) to end the 1980 regular season.

The zone defense the Sun Devils went to in desperation last season because of their youthful defensive liabilities has turned into a strength, holding Xavier to .219 shooting in the second half.

"I really mean this," Xavier coach Sean Miller said. "We lost to a good team."

That swing through the desert, which is how Oregon and OSU open the Pac-10 schedule, is looking like a gantlet. Play the athletes of Arizona, who have been toughened up with their interim coach's emphasis on grit, and then comes the challenge of ASU's perseverance and deliberate style a couple days later.

It's in effect what Xavier faced, coming off an emotional win over cross-town rival Cincinnati on Wednesday and then playing at ASU.

"ASU was tough, especially with that turnaround," Miller said. "Pac-10 teams are going to find that out."

The startling factor in this is ASU's youth. Four freshmen started against Xavier, the first time in school history ASU has done that. Granted, sophomore Jerren Shipp, coming off some knee problems, played 31 minutes as the backup for freshman Rihards Kuksiks, but even then the regular lineup will be three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior.

And that group beat the 17th-ranked team in the nation by 22 points? Well, consider this: the freshmen starting this season mostly replaced freshmen who started last season. In the 30 games of the first season with Herb Sendek as the ASU head coach, freshmen accounted for 69 of the possible 150 starting assignments. Now, it's up to 97 of the possible 195 starts in 39 games since Sendek took over.

Yes, there's the Sendek factor, too. While ASU had gone 21 consecutive games without beating a ranked team, Sendek has won his last two games against ranked opponents as ASU beat USC late last season and now Xavier.

Sendek, ASU publicists quickly point out, has 31 total victories as a head coach against ranked teams.

There's also a Sendek impact on the free-throw shooting. The current Sun Devils shoot them well, as most Sendek teams do. In his 10 seasons as head coach at North Carolina State, Sendek's team four times led the ACC in percentage, and in 2004 led the nation and set an ACC record of .799.

If not NIT, there's a what?

In a season in which the Pac-10 might be hoping for six and dreaming of seven teams in the NCAA Tournament (as Joe Lunardi's recent bracket had it) what about a league team with a winning record that doesn't get in?

Well, there's always the NIT. But even that 32-team field shunned Washington last season when the Huskies were 19-13.

It wouldn't happen this year, with the advent of the College Basketball Invitational. It will take 16 teams after the NCAA and NIT fill their fields. The first two rounds and the semifinals of the CBI will be at campus sites, and then the two finalists will play a best-of-three series, with the higher-seeded team (they're going to seed teams that are basically 98 through 113?) at home for the first and, if necessary, third game.

Yes, consider this: Washington against Rutgers, as an example. The first game on one coast, the second on the other, and then possibly another cross-country trip to finish it.

This tournament, the consolation of consolation brackets, might last until mid-April. And then it might not last for another year.

The computer struggles

This early in the season, the computers must be struggling to figure out the relative merits of teams. How else to explain that last week, before its first defeat, Saint Mary's was No. 1 at collegerpi.com. Yeah, it was a good win over Oregon, but the Gaels at No. 1?

"That's just the nature of the data," explained Jerry Palm to the Oakland Tribune. "You can't get too excited about RPI numbers in December ... you'll see teams you know aren't going to be there at the end of the year."

But for now, which is the worst team in the nation in Division I? That would seem to be the New Jersey Institute of Technology, which is 0-13. And that's despite Tech having played only one team ranked in the top 161 ... which was Washington.

Well, at least the Huskies won the game. Oregon State just lost to a team ranked 331st of the 338 teams in Tennessee Tech.

Uh, would New Jersey Tech consider a home-and-home series with the Beavers?

Cougars play who?

Not that there aren't some questionable opponents on other schedules.

Unbeaten Washington State plays its annual nonleague game in Seattle on Saturday, and the opponent is The Citadel.

The what? WSU and the promoter were working on pairing the Cougars against a much more prestigious opponent - Alabama was first mentioned - but everything fell through. That left the Cougars, a top-10 program, playing the team ranked 326th recently.

The Citadel is 4-5, but the wins are over Daniel Webster, Webber College, Charleston Southern and Atlanta Christian.

Stanford plays exhibition

Then there's Stanford, which Sunday night played College of Idaho. At least the Cardinal won't count the game, calling the 81-53 mismatch one of their allowed two exhibition games.

Most college teams start the season with two exhibition games. So why play one now?

Stanford is coming off a two-week break for final examinations, and in the past three seasons has gone 0-3 in the first game after tests were concluded, losing by an average of 16 points to Michigan State, Virginia Tech and Santa Clara.

"Basketball is a game of rhythm, and since I've been here (three seasons) we haven't played that well" off finals, Stanford coach Trent Johnson explained. "This year, we tried to look at doing something differently."

The proof of it will come later this week, with the Cardinal playing Santa Clara on Wednesday and Texas Tech, in Dallas, on Saturday.

Paying while gone

Arizona will pay Lute Olson virtually his entire salary this season, and that could include some of the bonuses in his contract that take it over $1 million. The key is that in the contract wording, Olson is on a "paid leave of absence," and the wording later in his contract says he receives certain other incentives if he is employed by the university, not whether he's actually on the court.

"Lute Olson is still our head coach," university spokesman Rocky LaRose said.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats keep winning with interim coach Kevin O'Neill, who will pass on all the praise he's been receiving, even from other coaches.

"I've always figured in coaching, if they tell you you're doing a great job to your face, behind you're back, they're killing you," O'Neill said. "Guys I won't hear from at all for years, and then all of a sudden they want to tell you what a great job you're doing. I'm like, `who the (expletive) are you?' I take all that with a grain of salt."

RATING THE PAC-10

Basketball

1. UCLA: Love this: backup center Keefe decides to redshirt

2. WSU: Two of next four in Seattle: The Citadel, then UW later

3. Arizona: Sharing the ball well: 21 assists, 27 FGs in last win

4. ASU: Young team best in league at FTs with .773 accuracy

5. Oregon: Still stayed 23rd; 21 straight weeks ranked by AP

6. USC: Taj Gibson's day: three final exams, then Delaware State

7. Stanford: Brook Lopez (and coaches) await posting of grades

8. California: Braun says it's sure: 7-2 Max Zhang redshirting

9. Washington: In nine games, four different starting units

10. OSU: The Giles update: 22 minutes, 10 fouls, nine points

ASU victory shows there's danger in the desert.(Basketball College)

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

Is Arizona State an indication of how difficult life is going to be in the Pac-10 this season?

Picked to finish ninth when the media cast votes a couple of months ago, the young Sun Devils looked like a contender Saturday night in routing 17th-ranked Xavier, 77-55.

"It says a lot of things," ASU's Jeff Pendergraph said. "It says ASU is going to be one of those teams where you've got to be ready for 40 minutes of a heavyweight fight."

Xavier found that out. It was the widest margin in a victory for ASU against a ranked team, surpassing the 87-67 triumph over No. 1 Oregon State (yes, it had to be a long time ago) to end the 1980 regular season.

The zone defense the Sun Devils went to in desperation last season because of their youthful defensive liabilities has turned into a strength, holding Xavier to .219 shooting in the second half.

"I really mean this," Xavier coach Sean Miller said. "We lost to a good team."

That swing through the desert, which is how Oregon and OSU open the Pac-10 schedule, is looking like a gantlet. Play the athletes of Arizona, who have been toughened up with their interim coach's emphasis on grit, and then comes the challenge of ASU's perseverance and deliberate style a couple days later.

It's in effect what Xavier faced, coming off an emotional win over cross-town rival Cincinnati on Wednesday and then playing at ASU.

"ASU was tough, especially with that turnaround," Miller said. "Pac-10 teams are going to find that out."

The startling factor in this is ASU's youth. Four freshmen started against Xavier, the first time in school history ASU has done that. Granted, sophomore Jerren Shipp, coming off some knee problems, played 31 minutes as the backup for freshman Rihards Kuksiks, but even then the regular lineup will be three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior.

And that group beat the 17th-ranked team in the nation by 22 points? Well, consider this: the freshmen starting this season mostly replaced freshmen who started last season. In the 30 games of the first season with Herb Sendek as the ASU head coach, freshmen accounted for 69 of the possible 150 starting assignments. Now, it's up to 97 of the possible 195 starts in 39 games since Sendek took over.

Yes, there's the Sendek factor, too. While ASU had gone 21 consecutive games without beating a ranked team, Sendek has won his last two games against ranked opponents as ASU beat USC late last season and now Xavier.

Sendek, ASU publicists quickly point out, has 31 total victories as a head coach against ranked teams.

There's also a Sendek impact on the free-throw shooting. The current Sun Devils shoot them well, as most Sendek teams do. In his 10 seasons as head coach at North Carolina State, Sendek's team four times led the ACC in percentage, and in 2004 led the nation and set an ACC record of .799.

If not NIT, there's a what?

In a season in which the Pac-10 might be hoping for six and dreaming of seven teams in the NCAA Tournament (as Joe Lunardi's recent bracket had it) what about a league team with a winning record that doesn't get in?

Well, there's always the NIT. But even that 32-team field shunned Washington last season when the Huskies were 19-13.

It wouldn't happen this year, with the advent of the College Basketball Invitational. It will take 16 teams after the NCAA and NIT fill their fields. The first two rounds and the semifinals of the CBI will be at campus sites, and then the two finalists will play a best-of-three series, with the higher-seeded team (they're going to seed teams that are basically 98 through 113?) at home for the first and, if necessary, third game.

Yes, consider this: Washington against Rutgers, as an example. The first game on one coast, the second on the other, and then possibly another cross-country trip to finish it.

This tournament, the consolation of consolation brackets, might last until mid-April. And then it might not last for another year.

The computer struggles

This early in the season, the computers must be struggling to figure out the relative merits of teams. How else to explain that last week, before its first defeat, Saint Mary's was No. 1 at collegerpi.com. Yeah, it was a good win over Oregon, but the Gaels at No. 1?

"That's just the nature of the data," explained Jerry Palm to the Oakland Tribune. "You can't get too excited about RPI numbers in December ... you'll see teams you know aren't going to be there at the end of the year."

But for now, which is the worst team in the nation in Division I? That would seem to be the New Jersey Institute of Technology, which is 0-13. And that's despite Tech having played only one team ranked in the top 161 ... which was Washington.

Well, at least the Huskies won the game. Oregon State just lost to a team ranked 331st of the 338 teams in Tennessee Tech.

Uh, would New Jersey Tech consider a home-and-home series with the Beavers?

Cougars play who?

Not that there aren't some questionable opponents on other schedules.

Unbeaten Washington State plays its annual nonleague game in Seattle on Saturday, and the opponent is The Citadel.

The what? WSU and the promoter were working on pairing the Cougars against a much more prestigious opponent - Alabama was first mentioned - but everything fell through. That left the Cougars, a top-10 program, playing the team ranked 326th recently.

The Citadel is 4-5, but the wins are over Daniel Webster, Webber College, Charleston Southern and Atlanta Christian.

Stanford plays exhibition

Then there's Stanford, which Sunday night played College of Idaho. At least the Cardinal won't count the game, calling the 81-53 mismatch one of their allowed two exhibition games.

Most college teams start the season with two exhibition games. So why play one now?

Stanford is coming off a two-week break for final examinations, and in the past three seasons has gone 0-3 in the first game after tests were concluded, losing by an average of 16 points to Michigan State, Virginia Tech and Santa Clara.

"Basketball is a game of rhythm, and since I've been here (three seasons) we haven't played that well" off finals, Stanford coach Trent Johnson explained. "This year, we tried to look at doing something differently."

The proof of it will come later this week, with the Cardinal playing Santa Clara on Wednesday and Texas Tech, in Dallas, on Saturday.

Paying while gone

Arizona will pay Lute Olson virtually his entire salary this season, and that could include some of the bonuses in his contract that take it over $1 million. The key is that in the contract wording, Olson is on a "paid leave of absence," and the wording later in his contract says he receives certain other incentives if he is employed by the university, not whether he's actually on the court.

"Lute Olson is still our head coach," university spokesman Rocky LaRose said.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats keep winning with interim coach Kevin O'Neill, who will pass on all the praise he's been receiving, even from other coaches.

"I've always figured in coaching, if they tell you you're doing a great job to your face, behind you're back, they're killing you," O'Neill said. "Guys I won't hear from at all for years, and then all of a sudden they want to tell you what a great job you're doing. I'm like, `who the (expletive) are you?' I take all that with a grain of salt."

RATING THE PAC-10

Basketball

1. UCLA: Love this: backup center Keefe decides to redshirt

2. WSU: Two of next four in Seattle: The Citadel, then UW later

3. Arizona: Sharing the ball well: 21 assists, 27 FGs in last win

4. ASU: Young team best in league at FTs with .773 accuracy

5. Oregon: Still stayed 23rd; 21 straight weeks ranked by AP

6. USC: Taj Gibson's day: three final exams, then Delaware State

7. Stanford: Brook Lopez (and coaches) await posting of grades

8. California: Braun says it's sure: 7-2 Max Zhang redshirting

9. Washington: In nine games, four different starting units

10. OSU: The Giles update: 22 minutes, 10 fouls, nine points