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Arizona State Sun Devils (2001: 13-16)

The following team preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the nation's most comprehensive look at this and all Division I teams, be sure to order the 2001-02 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518.

Program overview

Arizona State made a spring trip to Australia, where the players attended an Aussie Rules football game, snorkeled at the Great Barrier Reef and climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Sun Devils also won all five of their games on the tour, equaling the number of victories they totaled during the entire Pac-10 season a year ago. This year, they're expecting more.

ASU's performance dip from 19-13 in 2000 to 13-16 last season is not hard to explain. First of all, the Sun Devils had to adjust without conference scoring champ Eddie House, who had taken his game to the NBA.

Then there was injury and illness, the likes of which no one could anticipate. Sophomore wing Tanner Shell, who might have been the team's top perimeter shooter, played a total of 12 minutes all season, shelved by back and hand injuries. And sophomore forward Justin Allen sat out the year after being diagnosed in September with Hodgkin's disease.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Devils' promising sophomore class progressed unevenly, never truly meshing after a misleading 8-3 non-conference effort against overmatched competition. In his fourth season at ASU, coach Rob Evans believes most of what ailed the Sun Devils will be fixed this season.

"If we stay healthy, we should have quite a bit of depth. We should have balance and be a pretty versatile basketball team," Evans said. "We'll be a better shooting team, but we also have guys who can get it to them in position to score. We've added some pieces we had to have and depending on our chemistry, we've got a chance to be a very good team."

ASU returns four starters, having lost only senior point guard Alton Mason, who started all 29 games and led the team in scoring (13.4 ppg) and assists (3.8 apg). Additionally, the Sun Devils have back seven other lettermen, including Allen, Shell and sophomore guard Kenny Crandall, who spent the last two years on a Mormon mission in Eugene, Ore.

Top newcomers include guard Curtis Millage, a junior college transfer, and freshman point guard Jason Braxton, both of whom will compete for starting jobs.

In all, the Sun Devils will field a squad with a promising mix of experience and new blood, and enough bodies to perhaps approach the game somewhat differently on occasion.

Backcourt

The Sun Devils will send a new starting backcourt onto the floor. There are plenty of candidates, led by newcomers Millage and Braxton.

Millage is a 6-3 shooting guard who earned California Junior College Player-of-the-Year honors last season at L.A. Southwest Junior College.

Braxton, a 6-3 point guard from Canyon Springs High School in Moreno Valley, Calif., was a Top 100 recruit last season.

Junior Kyle Dodd (4.8 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.1 apg, .368 FG, .321 3PT, .710 FT) returns as a contender for the point guard spot. At 6-0, 165 pounds, Dodd still relies more on guile than strength, but he has become stronger.

Sophomore Jonathan Howard (2.6 ppg, .360 FG, .217 3PT, .400 FT), at 6-4, saw action at both the point and shooting guard on the Australian trip. He doesn't make many mistakes, but does not shoot well and lacks great explosiveness.

Back from his Mormon mission, 6-4 sophomore Crandall brings maturity and shooting ability. He averaged 5.9 points and started 23 games as a freshman in 1998-99, and added 25 pounds of muscle during his two years away.

The team's most welcome returnee is Allen, the 6-7 sophomore whose future was in doubt when he contracted Hodgkin's disease, the same form of cancer that afflicted NHL star Mario Lemieux. Allen's weight temporarily dropped 40 pounds from 230 during six months of chemotherapy, a program that was followed by radiation treatment.

Allen said from the beginning he expected to return to the team, and last spring he joined the Sun Devils in Australia, averaging 8.3 points and leading the club with 11 three-pointers in five games. As a freshman, Allen averaged 2.1 points.

Frontcourt

The buzz in Tempe is that the club's best player may wind up being someone who was not a full-time starter last year.

Junior Tommy Smith (9.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 spg, .568 FG, .615 FT) started just nine games last season and averaged barely 19 minutes per outing. His biggest obstacle: 120 personal fouls and 10 games in which he fouled out.

At 6-9, Smith can play either forward position and is ready to blossom. Evans expects Smith's development to be so profound he could wrestle the starting power forward spot away from 6-6, 221-pound senior Awvee Storey (13.1 ppg, 9.1 rpg, .498 FG, .602 FT), who led the Pac-10 in rebounding and posted 11 double-doubles.

Also back at forward is 6-7 junior Sean Redhage (8.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg, .404 FG, .816 FT), who started 24 games and had 19-point outbursts against Tulsa and Charlotte. However, Redhage averaged just 4.2 points over the final eight games of the season, and finished the season coming off the bench.

The likely starter at the small forward spot is 6-7 junior Donnell Knight (9.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 2.1 apg, .415 FG, .306 3PT, .684 FT), who started 25 games last season (most of them out of position at shooting guard) and scored in double figures 18 times. Knight is a slasher with good quickness who scored a season-high 21 points against Southern Utah, but has been up and down his first two seasons.

Behind Knight is Shell, who demonstrated on the Australian tour that he's over his hand and back injuries of a year ago. The 6-6 sophomore, who averaged 9.1 points in Pac-10 play as a freshman two years ago and had 24 points in a game at USC, made seven three-pointers Down Under.

The starting center will again be 6-9, 241-pound senior Chad Prewitt (10.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg, .481 FG, .351 3PT, .637 FT), regarded as a strong passer and post defender. Prewitt scored 23 points against Charlotte and 20 against BYU, and had a 15-point, 11-rebound performance against Kent State.

Junior Chris Osborne, a 6-9, 240-pound junior college transfer, will provide depth at both center and power forward. Osborne originally signed with ASU in the fall of 1998, but spent the last two years at Compton College in Los Angeles.

Also available at center is 7-foot junior Tyson Johnston (1.4 ppg, 1.5 rpg, .390 FG, .238 FT), who two years ago transferred from Utah.

Bottom line

The Sun Devils believe they have remedied many of their glaring problems from a year ago. They expect to shoot the ball much better and improved depth should allow them to survive fouls and play the aggressive style of defense they favor.

It's an intriguing team with a lot of parts, many of them interchangeable. But the Sun Devils must show they can put it together after losing nine Pac-10 games by double-digit margins.

"Our biggest concerns are staying healthy and getting these guys to play better defensively," Evans said. "I think we'll be a good rebounding team and if our point guard play is as solid as I think it can be in time, we've got a chance."

A chance for the NCAA Tournament? Evans believes so.

"Every year we expect to be an NCAA team," he said. "If we do the things we need to, I think we can be."

Don't count the Sun Devils out.