March 14, 2011
NCAA Tournament Central Game Notes in PDF Format Salt Lake City Media Info ESPN2 Info
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The Arizona State women’s basketball team opens play in the 2011 NCAA Tournament on Saturday when it faces the Temple Owls out of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. MT (1:05 p.m. in Arizona) at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
The winner of ASU-Temple will meet the winner of Saturday’s other first round contest between second-seeded Notre Dame and 15th-seeded Utah on Monday at 7:30 p.m. MT/6:30 p.m. PT.
After a one-year hiatus, the Sun Devils (20-10, 11-7 Pac-10) are making their sixth NCAA appearance in seven years (11th overall). ASU set a school record with five consecutive NCAA runs between 2005-09. That stretch included the program’s only two Elite Eight appearances as ASU was one win away from the Final Four in 2007 (lost to Rutgers in the Greensboro Regional Final) and again in 2009 (lost to UConn in the Trenton Regional final).
After losing six seniors from the 2009 team, including two-time Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year Briann January, who was the Indiana Fever’s top pick in the 2009 WNBA Draft, ASU just missed out on a sixth consecutive NCAA berth last season as it finished 18-14. The idea that ASU was even in NCAA contention last season was even more impressive given that in addition to the loss of the aforementioned senior class, ASU was also without All-Pac-10 guard Dymond Simon, who sat out last season to rehab a knee injury she suffered in the 2009 regular season finale.
This season a healthy Simon (2011 All-Pac-10) has teamed with senior forward Becca Tobin (2011 Pac-10 Honorable Mention), junior forward Kimberly Brandon (2011 Pac-10 Honorable Mention) and senior guard Tenaya Watson (2011 Pac-10 Defensive Honorable Mention) to once again make the Sun Devils a major player on the national scene. Still, the 2010-11 campaign hasn’t been without its share of learning experiences along the way. Although eight of the 14 players on ASU’s roster are ‘upperclassmen,’ the team was still young at the start of the season in terms of its experience (or lack there of) playing with one another.
After beginning the season 3-2 the Sun Devils (No. 7 seed in the Dayton Region) went on a seven-game winning streak, which included a 79-66 win over current No. 10 [and the No. 3 seed in the Philadelphia Region] DePaul and a 2-0 start in Pac-10 play. ASU then traveled to the Bay Area for its first Pac-10 road trip where it fell to both Cal and Stanford. The Sun Devils would then alternate wins and losses in their next eight games (4-4) before finishing the Pac-10 season with victories in six of their final eight games to finish third in the league.
ASU’s initial 2011 postseason foray netted a 1-1 record at last week’s Pac-10 Tournament in Los Angeles. ASU defeated Oregon State (59-54) in the first round before dropping a 48-43 decision to Cal in the second round.
TICKET INFORMATION
A limited number of tickets will be available to purchase at the Sun Devil ticket office tomorrow through Friday. Tickets are $15 per session and can be purchased by phone at 480.727.0000 or in person at the Sun Devil ticket office. All tickets purchased must be picked up the day of the game in Utah.
TV/RADIO
Saturday's contest can be seen live on ESPN2. Holly Rowe (play by play) and Sean Farnham (analysis) will be on hand to call the action. For viewers in the state of Arizona, because multiple games will be going on at once, Saturday's game will be on the standard version of ESPN2. Click here to get more information.
The game can also be heard live on The Fan AM 1060. Coverage will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Valley. Veteran broadcaster and the state of Arizona's 2010 Broadcaster of the Year Jeff Munn is in his seventh season as the voice of ASU women's basketball.
ASU IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• Arizona State is making its 11th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance and its eighth in the last 10 seasons.
• ASU's overall record in the NCAA Tournament is 13-10, including an 11-7 record under Charli Turner Thorne.
• The Sun Devils have won at least one NCAA Tournament game in their last six appearances (2002, `05, `06, `07, `08, `09).
• This is the first time that ASU has been a No. 7 seed.
• Since 2005, Sun Devils have had one NCAA Tournament meeting with each of the other three teams in the Salt Lake City subregional. ASU faced Notre Dame in 2005 (W), Utah in 2006 (L) and Temple in 2008 (W).
• ASU's highest NCAA seed in school history was a No. 3, which came in 2007 when it was placed in the Greensboro Regional.
• Prior to its Elite Eight berth in 2007, the furthest ASU had reached was the round of 16 (1982, 1983 and 2005). In both 1982 and `83, the fourth-seeded Sun Devils lost to the eventual national champion in the round of 16 (Louisiana Tech in 1982 and USC in 1983).
• As the No. 5 seed in the Tempe Regional in 2005 the Sun Devils advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 22 years after upsetting fourth-seeded Notre Dame, 70-61. In that game the Sun Devils overcame a 13-point first half deficit. In the Sweet 16 against UNC, the Sun Devils led by as many as 10 points and were within two points, 62-60, with 9:29 remaining before the Tar Heels closed out the game with a 17-12 run.
• As a No. 4 seed in 2006 ASU defeated Stephen F. Austin in the first round in Tucson (80-61) before falling to Utah in the second round (65-86).
• ASU earned a No. 3 seed in the Greensboro Region in 2007 and advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history, earning a school record 31 wins along the way. The Sun Devils denied the upset bids of 14th-seeded UC Riverside (first round) and sixth-seeded Louisville (second round), overcoming double-digit deficits in the final 10 minutes of both games before going on to defeat Bowling Green (67-49) in the Sweet 16. ASU's season ended with a 64-45 loss to Rutgers in the Greensboro Regional Final.
• As a No. 6 seed in 2008, ASU defeated Temple 61-54 in the first round before bowing out with a 67-59 loss to Duke (No. 3 seed).
• In its most recent NCAA appearance in 2009, ASU (a No. 6 seed in the Trenton Region) earned its second Elite Eight berth in three years. ASU defeated No. 11 Georgia and No. 3 Florida State in Duluth, Ga., before knocking off the No. 2 seed Texas A&M in the regional semifinal. ASU was defeated by eventual national champion UConn in the Trenton Regional final.
• ASU's first NCAA appearance in the Turner Thorne era came in 2001. As the No. 11 seed in the Midwest Region, the Sun Devils fell to sixth-seeded LSU in the first round. Turner Thorne earned her first victory in the NCAA Tournament the following year after the ninth-seeded Sun Devils defeated eighth-seeded Wisconsin in the first round of the Midwest sub-regional, 73-70. ASU would fall to top-seeded Vanderbilt in the second round, 61-35.
SCOUTING TEMPLE
Temple (23-8, 13-1 Atlantic 10) is making its eighth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Owls had a trio of players earn A-10 Conference honors in the form of junior guard Shey Peddy (A-10 First Team and All-Defensive Team), junior forward Kristen McCarthy (A-10 Second Team) and senior guard Qwedia Wallace (A-10 Third Team). Peddy led the Owls in scoring (14.0 ppg), assists (4.2 apg) and steals (3.1 spg); McCarthy was third on the team in scoring (13.2 ppg) and second in both rebounds (4.9 rpg) and steals (1.7 spg) and Wallace was second on the team in scoring (13.8 ppg) and third in both assists (2.7 apg) and steals (1.5 spg). Temple (No. 10 seed in the Dayton Region) is led by third-year head coach Tonya Cardoza, who was named the 2010-11 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year.
LOOKING AHEAD
If the Sun Devils are victorious on Saturday, they would meet either Notre Dame or Utah in Monday's second round. ASU has won two of the three all-time meetings with the Fighting Irish, including the most recent contest, a 70-61 triumph in the second round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament in Fresno, Calif. The Sun Devils have won only three of nine all-time meetings with Utah. The two schools have met only once in the last 23 years. That meeting occurred in the second round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament in Tucson where the Utes (seeded fifth) overcame a 15-point deficit to defeat the fourth-seeded Sun Devils 86-65. Next season ASU and Utah will begin meeting on a regular basis as members of the Pac-12 Conference.
WHAT ELSE TO LOOK FOR
• With this year's 11-7 record in Pac-10 play, ASU has now won 73 percent of its regular season league contests (79-29) going back to the 2005-06 season. ASU has also finished among the top three teams in the Pac-10 nine times in the last 11 years.
• ASU leads the all-time series with Temple 3-0. The most recent meeting took place in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament where the Sun Devils were victorious 61-54 in College Park, Md. ASU also defeated Temple in 1982 (66-65) and in 1987 (87-68).
• ASU is 4-0 this season in games decided by three points or less. In those contests ASU has shown a trend of stepping up when it matters most as it has shot 56 pct. in the last five minutes of those games while limiting the opposition to 34 pct.
• ASU is currently second in the Pac-10 in free throw shooting pct (.732) while Tenaya Watson (.814) and Dymond Simon (.808) are Nos. 3 and 4, respectively, in the league.
• ASU has held the opposition to 56 or fewer points 15 times this season. The Sun Devils improved their scoring defense by four points during the last 10 games of the season (55.5 ppg) compared with the first 20 games of the season (59.6). Since the 2005-06 season ASU is 46-1 when it holds the opponent to 50 or fewer points.
• Although Dymond Simon was the only Sun Devil to average double figures in scoring for the season (13.5 ppg), other Sun Devils came on during the stretch run. Along with Simon (12.1 ppg), also averaging double figures in scoring the last 10 games of the season were Kimberly Brandon (10.7 ppg) and Becca Tobin (10.1 ppg). Tobin also led the team in rebounding (6.0 rpg) and blocks (1.3 bpg) during that stretch while hitting 52 percent of her shots.
• Currently with 98 career blocks, Tobin needs two more rejections to pass former Sun Devil Fran Ciak (1987-90) for second place on ASU's all-time list.
• Did you know? Six of ASU's 10 losses this season were to teams who were among the Top 15 of the final NCAA RPI standings -- Tennessee (No. 2), Stanford (2x - No. 5), UCLA (2x - No. 9) and Florida State (No. 15).
• Since 2004 the Sun Devils have won 84 percent (88-18) of their home games. In the last two-plus seasons ASU is 17-1 (.944) at home in non-conference games. The Sun Devils outscored the opposition by an average of 8.8 points in 14 home games this season.