@SunDevilHoops Non-Conference Tickets on Sale Now
A visit from Big East favorite Marquette on Nov. 25 and a NCAA champion coach on Dec. 21 highlight the eight non-conference home games on the Sun Devil men’s basketball schedule, as tickets are available to the public now.
On Monday, Nov. 25 ASU will face Marquette, who enters the year with a No. 17 preseason ranking with the game tipping in Tempe at 7 p.m. MT. Marquette is one of the best teams in the nation the past eight seasons and the Golden Eagles have been a consistent member of summer top-25 for this season. ASU will return the trip to Milwaukee in 2014-15. Marquette has been a top-30 RPI team in six of the past eight seasons, including No. 12 in 2012-13 when it reached the Elite Eight, and has advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in each of the past three seasons. It has made made eight straight NCAA Tournaments, the sixth-best current streak in the nation. Only Kansas (24), Duke (18), Michigan State (16), Gonzaga (15) and Wisconsin (15) have better current marks. The Golden Eagles also have posted eight straight 20-win seasons.
MARQUETTE PAST 8 SEASONS: RPI/OVERALL RECORD
2012-13: 12/26-9
2011-12: 17/27-8
2010-11: 30/22-15
2009-01: 40/22-12
2008-09: 48/25-10
2007-08: 21/25-10
2006-07: 17/24-10
2005-06: 22/20-11
SUN DEVIL MEN'S HOOPS 2013-14 NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Fri., Nov. 8 vs. Maryland-Baltimore County, 6 p.m., P12N
Tues., Nov. 12 vs. Miami (Ohio), 7 p.m., P12N
Fri., Nov. 15 vs. Idaho State, 7 p.m., P12N
Fri., Nov. 22 vs. Bradley, 7 p.m., P12N
Mon., Nov. 25 vs. Marquette, 7 p.m., FS1
Sat., Dec. 14 vs. Grambling, Noon, P12N
Sat., Dec. 21 vs. Texas Tech, 4:30 p.m., P12N
Sat., Dec. 28 vs. UC-Irvine, Noon, P12N
VISIT FROM TUBBY AND FINALS WEEK CHATTER: After playing its first nine games in a 23-day span, ASU takes some time off for final exams and plays just once in the next 13 days, facing Grambling in Tempe on Dec. 14 at noon, before it hosts former NCAA champion Tubby Smith and his Texas Tech Red Raiders on Dec. 21 at 4:30. Smith and Coach Sendek were on the same staff at Kentucky under Rick Pitino which also included Billy Donovan in the early 1990s.
EARLY OPENER: The Sun Devils will open the season against Maryland-Baltimore County on Friday, Nov. 8, at 6 p.m. on Pac-12 Network in what will be the earliest start date in school history. Twice the Sun Devils have opened on Nov. 10, but Nov. 8 will be the earliest the school has opened a season and also the earliest Coach Sendek has opened a season. How much has the college basketball calendar changed? In Coach Sendek's first season at Miami of Ohio in 1993-94, his opener was on Nov. 27. ASU will have played six games by Nov. 27. His Miami squad didn't play its second game until Dec. 3. ASU will have played nine games by Dec. 3 in 2013-14.
DEC. 28 A SLEEPY-GOOD GAME: ASU will host UC Irvine in its final non-conference game on Saturday, Dec. 28 at noon. UC Irvine's 2012-13 season included a 21-16 record (11-7 Big West) and the program's first postseason appearance in 11 years as the 'Eaters advanced to the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT). The 21 wins were the most for the program in the last 11 years and tied for third-most in a season in the 48-year history of the university. The 11 conference victories were the most in 10 years for UCI. The 'Eaters advanced to the championship game of the Big West Conference Tournament for the fourth time in history and the first time in the last five years. UCI topped Hawai'i and No. 1 seed Long Beach State before falling to Pacific in the final.
BRIEFLY ON ASU LAST YEAR: The Sun Devils (22-13 and 9-9, tied for sixth in Pac-12) notched their fourth 20-win season under Coach Sendek in his seven years in 2012-13, something that ASU did just three times in the prior 25 seasons to his arrival in spring of 2006. Jahii Carson, the Pac-12's co-Freshman of the Year in 2012-13, returns in 2013-14 and his play in the final six games had heads turning with these numbers: 22.5 ppg., 6.0 rpg., 5.0 apg., .551 from the field, .500 from the three-point stripe and .800 from the free throw line. Jahii is one of only three All-Pac-12 first-team players returning this season (Dwight Powell of Stanford and Spencer Dinwiddie of Colorado are the others).
ABOUT THAT MIAMI OF OHIO GAME: ASU will welcome Miami of Ohio on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. on Pac-12 Network, the school where Herb Sendek earned his first head coaching position. From 1993-96 he compiled a 63-26 (.708) mark and three postseason appearances, including a NCAA second-round appearance in 1995 when Miami upset Arizona in the first round in Dayton. ASU then welcomes Idaho State on Nov. 15.