The Sun Devils gather in the center of the room and clasp hands.
"Family!" they say as one, then rush back onto the court.
Emily Piraino
Emily Piraino
IKE DIOGU
THE BEAST
68 FRESHMAN
GARLAND, TEXAS
My family makeup has a lot to do with who I am now. I have a great family. My mom is an elementary-school teacher and my dad teaches languages English, French and Ibo. I understand Ibo myself. My folks taught me to be polite and to be myself at the same time. Its not hard to say, Yes, sir.
I played tight end at a big-time Texas football school when I was a freshman and sophomore, but then it was just basketball for me. My parents definitely left it up to me where I wanted to go to college they just wanted to make sure I didnt end up regretting it. My mom said, I dont want a phone call from you saying you want to come home. Not that they would have let me come home, anyway.
The coaches here know what theyre doing, and they care about you as a person. They know its very important for me to get my degree. Id rather talk to someone than read a book, but you really got to tune your social life down, or youll get behind.
As for basketball, I try to be aggressive feel the game and go. I soak up a lot of stuff studying film, and I also have a little bit of instinct about what I have to do before I do it. Im used to getting triple-teamed it happened in high school. I just dont let anything on the court frustrate me for long.
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The second half is filled with great basketball. ASU plays perhaps its finest 20 minutes of the year (up there with the second half of the first Arizona game), on its way to a 91-77 win.
Luke Ridnour scores only six points in the second half, as Dodd and Braxton play maniacal defense on the star player. And Tommy Smith has come through with the biggest game of his life, scoring 24 points and collecting 11 rebounds. Curtis Millage and Shawn Redhage also have shined, as has Ike Diogu.
Kenny Crandall comes bounding into the locker room after the game whooping it up.
"We're almost there!" yells Crandall, who hardly played because his bad ankle just won't allow him to move well enough on defense.
"Listen," says Coach Evans, "you guys went out and busted your butts tonight. This was a team win. Everything is team with us, has to be. You older guys came through like I knew you would because of the focus you've been showing in practice. You win Saturday [against Oregon State], we get our [NCAA]invite. Now, keep your focus, get some sleep, and don't let anybody start kissing up to you."
The team lets out a big cheer.
On Saturday afternoon, March 8, the Sun Devils seal the deal with a taxing 74-64 Senior Day win over the Oregon State Beavers.
"This is a game we wouldn't have been able to handle last year or the year before that," he tells his team right after the game. "When they made that run at us, we stood tall, like you have to do if you want to get anywhere. What are we, 19-10 right now, and 11-7 in the A league? This is how we needed to finish our regular season. But our work isn't done yet."
ASU loses to Oregon in the first-round of the Pac-10 tournament on a last-second hoop by Luke Ridnour, the league's player of the year. Still, the Devils seem assured of a berth in the Big Dance, that is, until a rash of upsets in league tourneys around the nation shove them back onto the proverbial bubble.
Back in the Valley, after the abbreviated trip to L.A., the team practices hard and anxiously awaits Sunday's nationally televised NCAA selection show.
On Sunday, March 16, the moment that the men's basketball program has been awaiting for five years is at hand. Late on the rainy afternoon, the Devils settle into soft leather couches that have been moved to the floor of Wells Fargo Arena. About 200 fans show up to watch the show with their team on the scoreboard screen, which has been lowered to eye level.
After an agonizingly long wait (59 of the tournament's 65 teams are announced before the announcers get to ASU), the Sun Devils' name finally flashes on the big screen: ASU is to play the Memphis Tigers on Thursday, March 20, in Oklahoma City.
After the screaming and hugging die down, Coach Evans and team co-captain Kyle Dodd say a few words to the happy gathering. Marvelously, Dodd sums up this winning season and how ASU men's basketball got back on track.
"The selection show went the same as a lot of our careers," Dodd says. "We just slowly made it through, slowly made it through."
