The House Of Heat: Basketball!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Basketball!

It looks like Texas isn't the only Holiday Bowl participant that is "now a basketball school" as ASU hoops gets a quality win over a ranked nonconference opponent. Xavier is seen as one of the top mid-majors and they're a sexy pick to go deep into the tournament in March, but it all came crashing down in Tempe this afternoon as the Sun Devils walk away with a 77-55 victory in an echo-filled Wells Fargo Arena. Arizona State played their best start-to-finish game in a very long time, easily since Ike left town and probably longer than that.

I fucking love love love Ty Abbott. He rebounds like a starving man fighting for a buffet ticket and he chucks threes with reckless abandon. He's a little fella too, straight scrappy. Plays tough defense, and isn't afraid to use his body. Marques Johnson pointed out that Abbott "hip-checked" a Muskateer while scrambling for a loose ball. James Harden is getting a lot of the attention this season, but Ty is my boy early on. He has a lot of Jason Braxton/Alton Mason in him, and if you know who either of those guys are I'll give you a shiny nickel because you, sir, are a true fan. Nineteen points is a prett good total for somebody who's "that other local guy" among this year's freshmen.

I was going to post a pic of Scrappy Doo, but Abbott is more like the chickenhawk. Besides, I never liked Scrappy anyway and the chickenhawk is a badass.

The one-three-one defense! Xavier is a tremendously talented team, at least physically, and the 1-3-1 gave them fits for most of the day. ASU has enough hustle and raw speed on defense that using this cover package can negate obvious physical mismatches, but no one is saying we're going to roll UCLA, Arizona, or the rest of the conference; ASU got a ton of bounces and had a staggering field goal percentage today. Add to that, Xavier looks like they went out to Mill Avenue last night. Maybe it's because it's right after finals and maybe it's jet lag, but I kept waiting for them to turn it on and they simply couldn't.

Good job on not rushing the court. Way to act like you've been there before.

That's right, two posts in one day after months of silence. I do what I can. I'll gladly accept auditions for a second contributor to the blog, preferably one that lives in/near Tempe and can actually watch/go to the basketball games. Just email me something that includes 1) a story about ASU athletics and 2) an anecdote about something stupid you and your friends did while under the influence- we're obviously running a tight ship here. Zap them to me via the intertubes at houseofheat of the gmail variety.

Labels: hoops, the new era