March 17, 2013
SUN DEVIL NOTES AND STATS FOR NIT TILT VS. DETROIT 
SUN DEVILS TRY TO IMPROVE ON 21 WINS
The Sun Devil men's hoops team (21-12; 9-9 and tied for sixth in the Pac-12 Conference) meets Horizon League Player of the Year Ray McCallum and Detroit (20-12) in the opening round of the National Invitational Tournament on Wednesday, March 20, at 7 p.m. PT on ESPNU. The Sun Devils went 4-5 against the top five teams in the Pac-12 this year, with a sweep of Colorado and single wins over UCLA (1-2) and California (1-0). ASU has notched its fourth 20-win season under Coach Sendek in his seven years, something that ASU did just three times in the prior 25 seasons to his arrival in spring of 2006. ASU is 2-1 vs. Detroit, with the last meeting taking place Dec. 30, 1995, and Detroit winning 71-66 in Tempe. The winner of Detroit/ASU will take on the winner of Baylor/Long Beach State, with date, site and time TBD.
NIT HISTORY
ASU has appeared in the NIT 11 times (1983, 1990, 1992-94, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2010) and is 5-11 all-time....five current Pac-12 members have won the NIT, as Colorado (1940), Utah (1944), UCLA (1985), Stanford (1991 and 2012) and California (1999)...under Coach Sendek the Sun Devils are 2-2 in the event, beating Alabama State and Southern Illinois in 2008 before falling to Florida and losing to Jacksonville in 2010.
CONFERENCE HONORS
Hometown product Jahii Carson earned Pac-12 Co-Freshman of the Year honors with Shabazz Muhammad of UCLA, joining Sun Devils Ike Diogu (2002-03), Jamal Faulkner (1990-91) and Byron Scott (1979-80) to earn the honor. He also earned first-team All-Pac-12. Carson then earned Pac-12 All-Tournament honors after exploding for 55 points in two games and adding 11 assists, including a Pac-12 Tournament freshman record 34 against Stanford on March 13. He made all eight free throws in the two games...Carson is the nation's leading freshman scorer (18.3 points per game)...senior Carrick Felix earned second-team All-Pac-12 and earned a spot on the five-man Pac-12 All-Defensive Team along with junior Jordan Bachynski, who already has set the Pac-12 and Sun Devil season record with 116 blocks on the year.
REMINDER JUST HOW MUCH CARRICK IMPROVED
Last season, Carrick Felix had zero double-doubles. This year, he leads the league with 13 on the year and in Pac-12 regular season games he had a league-best nine...in Pac-12 regular season games he averaged 13.9 points and 8.7 rebounds. Only Stanford's Dwight Powell (15.6 ppg. and 8.8 rpg.) was equal in those numbers...Carrick is shooting .497 from the field this year after shooting .411 in his first two seasons...he averaged 2.8 rebounds in his first two seasons but is at 8.2 this season...he shot .284 from the three-point stripe his first two years but is at .367 this season...he earned second-team All-Pac-12, Pac-12 All-Defensive Team and Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.
JAHII-SUS HE HAS BEEN GOOD
Jahii Carson numbers are simply amazing this year, and here are some of them...posted three 30-point games this year, no other Sun Devil freshmen posted more than one...averaging a Pac-12 best 37.2 minutes, the best mark by a freshman in Sun Devil history (the Beard lighting up NBA averaged 34.1 in 2007-08)...has set the school freshman mark for assists with 165, breaking the 28-year old mark of 114 set by Bobby Thompson in 1983-84....has 16 20-point games tied with James Harden (2007-08) for most by freshmen in Sun Devil history.
JAHII'S FRESHMEN RANKINGS (LEADER IN PARENTHESES)
SCORING: 1st/18.3 (Shabazz Muhammad, UCLA, 2nd/17.8)
MINUTES PER GAME: 2nd/37.2 (Siyani Chambers, Harvard, 37.7)
FREE THROWS MADE: 2nd/135 (Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State, 163)
FREE THROWS ATTEMPTED: 6th/185 (Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State, 207)
ASSISTS: 7th/5.0 (Siyani Chambers, Harvard, 5.74)
MOST POINTS BY A SUN DEVIL FRESHMAN
35, Mario Bennett vs. #5 Arizona, Feb. 20, 1992
34, Jahii Carson vs. Stanford (Pac-12 Tournament), Mar. 13, 2013
32, Jahii Carson at Washington, Feb. 2, 2013
31, Byron Scott vs. #18 Arizona, Feb. 23, 1980
30, Jahii Carson vs. #14 Creighton @Las Vegas, Nov. 24, 2012
30, Ty Abbott vs. California, Feb. 16, 2008
BLOCK PARTY
ASU has a Pac-12 and ASU record 203 blocks this season (6.2 pg), topping UCLA's 2010-11 Pac-12 record of 199. In Coach Sendek's first six seasons (197 games) at ASU, the Sun Devils had nine blocks four times. It has had at least nine blocks nine times this season. An overlooked statistic for junior Jordan Bachynski is keeping it in play. Of his 116 blocks, 72 have resulted in possession for ASU. He has 177 career blocks and the Sun Devil career record is 191, held by Mario Bennett from 1991-95. The Pac-12 career record is 278 held by Arizona's Anthony Cook from 1986-89.
PAC-12 SINGLE SEASON BLOCKED SHOTS LEADERS
1. 116 - Jordan Bachynski, Arizona State, 2012-13
2. 115 - Mario Bennett, Arizona State, 1994-95
3. 113 - Rodger Farrington, Arizona State, 1996-97
ASSISTS
Jahii Carson has 165 assists, as only seven Pac-12 freshmen have notched more (and only five Sun Devils). The Pac-12 list is below, and none of them averaged more than the 13.5 points per game Mike Bibby did in 1996-97.
TOP FRESHMEN ASSISTS TOTALS/POINTS PER GAME
1. 229, Gary Payton, Oregon State, 1986-87; 7.6 apg/12.5 ppg.
2. 222, Jason Kidd, California, 1992-93; 7.7 apg./13.0 ppg.
3. 197, Russell Brown, Arizona, 1977-78; 7.6 apg/5.8 ppg.
4. 179, Pooh Richardson, UCLA, 1985-86; 6.2 apg/10.6 ppg.
5. 178, Mike Bibby, Arizona, 1996-97; 5.2 apg/13.5 ppg.
6. 175, Jelani Gardner, California, 1994-95; 6.5 apg/10.7 ppg.
7. 175, Kenya Wilkins, Oregon, 1993-94; 5.3 apg/11.5 ppg.
8. 165, Jahii Carson, Arizona State, 2012-13; 5.0 apg./18.3 ppg.
9. 162, Jason Gardner, Arizona, 1999-2000; 4.8 apg/12.6 ppg.
10. 161, Baron Davis, UCLA, 1997-98; 5.0 apg./11.7 ppg.
SUN DEVIL SINGLE SEASON ASSISTS
1. 294 - Ahlon Lewis, 1998
2. 233 - Marcell Capers, 1995
3. 200 - Marcell Capers, 1993
4. 185 - Mike Redhair, 1990
5. 177 - Lynn Collins, 1992
6. 165- Jahii Carson, 2013
NOTE ON JAHII'S NUMBERS
Jahii Carson is averaging 18.3 points and 5.0 assists and only one freshman in the past sixteen years has averaged 17 points and five assists, as Ben Woodside produced those digits in 2005-06 for North Dakota State (17.5 points and 5.1 assists). Previous to Woodside, the last freshmen to notch those digits was Shaheen Holloway of Seton Hall back in 1996-97, when he finished at 17.3 points per game and 6.3 assists.
JAHII A FINALIST
Jahii Carson was named one of eight finalists for the Integris Wayman Tisdale Freshman of Year Award which was won by Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart. He was joined as finalist by Anthony Bennett (UNLV), Garry Harris (Michigan State), Ben McLemore (Kansas), Shabazz Muhammad (UCLA), Nerlens Noel (Kentucky) and Rasheed Sulaimon (Duke).
CARRICK NOTES
Carrick Felix had nine double-doubles in Pac-12 regular season play which led the league, topping Stanford's Josh Huestis who had eight, and 13 overall which currently is tops in the league.
MOST DOUBLE-DOUBLES BY PAC-12 PLAYERS
Carrick Felix, Arizona State, 13
Andre Roberson, Colorado, 12
Eric Moreland, Oregon State, 12
Aziz N'Diaye, Washington, 11
MOST SUN DEVIL DOUBLE-DOUBLES IN PAC-10/12 ERA
Ike Diogu, Jr., 2004-05, 15
Carrick Felix, Sr., 2012-13, 13
Kurt Nimphius, Sr., 1979-80, 13
PAC-12 FRESHMAN SCORING LIST
1. Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Cal, 1995-96, 21.1
2. O.J. Mayo, USC, 2007-08, 20.7
3. Harold Miner, USC, 1989-90, 20.6
4. Jerryd Bayless, Arizona, 2007-08, 19.7
5. Ike Diogu, Arizona State, 2002-03, 19.0
6. Don McLean, UCLA, 1988-89, 18.6
7. Cliff Robinson, USC, 1977-78, 18.4
8. Jahii Carson, Arizona State, 2012-13, 18.3
9. Shabazz Muhammad, UCLA, 2012-13, 17.8
9. James Harden, Arizona State, 2007-08, 17.8
11. Tom Lewis, USC, 1985-86, 17.6
1. Kevin Love, UCLA, 2007-08, 17.5
GILLING AND ABLE
Sophomore Jonathan Gilling has 206 rebounds (6.2 pg) after posting 54 last season. He posted a career high 22 at UW on Feb. 2 (including a career-best six threes). Gilling also had 18 points at UCLA on Feb. 27 (including six three-pointers) and at Texas Tech on Dec. 22. He has three double-doubles with 13/11/6 vs. USC on Jan. 24, 12/10 against CU on Jan. 6 and 13/15 vs. Florida A&M on Nov. 18. He leads the Pac-12 at 2.39 three-pointers made per game (79 in 33 games).
SUN DEVIL SEASON THREE-POINTERS MADE
1. 113 - Stevin Smith, 1993
2. 96 - Stevin Smith, 1994
3. 93 - Rihards Kuksiks, 2009
4. 83 - Alex Austin, 1990
5. 81 - Rihards Kuksiks, 2010
5. 81 - Kevin Kruger, 2006
7. 80 - Ron Riley, 1995
8. 79 - Jonathan Gilling, 2013
COACH OF YEAR
The Pac-12 has six current coaches who have earned Pac-10/12 Coach of the Year. Herb Sendek earned it in 2009-10, while Dana Altman (2012-13), Sean Miller (2010-11), Lorenzo Romar (2011-12, 2008-09 and 2004-05) and Ben Howland (2005-06) earned kudos at their school. Mike Montgomery did it four times at Stanford (2003-04, 2002-03, 1999-2000 and 1998-99).