Sir Donald
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"Double, double, toil and trouble" - Macbeth
The goose bumps finally came back to me like old friends after a decades long absence during overtime in the first Arizona game this year in Wells Fargo Arena. After 35 plus years of following Sun Devil basketball it was an old but still familiar feeling to get a visit from the little suckers as they popped up all over me while I sat in the nosebleeds and screamed my head off like I was a student again. Last night in OT against Stanford I had goose bumps on top of goose bumps. It was Double Bump City baby....
I was nearly doubled over with excitement near the end of the final five minutes when I suddenly realized that something even more impossible was happening than beating a short handed U of A team twice. We had a chance to beat a full strength Cardinal team and the doublemint twins, ranked number seven nationally and tied for first in the PacTen, without center Jeff Pendergraph in OT. JP was the man on fire in the second Arizona game and without him in the middle, tonight of ALL nights, the game had seemingly turned to ashes.
It had been a rollercoaster of emotions already with very high highs and even lower lows as I looked down at the court from my much better row thirteen seats this time around. The double fist in my stomach was nearly nauseating earlier in the game as the double vision nightmare that was the seven foot Lopez brothers began to pull away from us in the second half during a 24-2 run that nearly broke our will and put them up by 13. An intimate Valentine's Day date with those two beasts was not what the Devils were hoping for at this point in their season.
We had no answer for them as they double teamed JP and seemed to get every call for a while from the night’s Trifecta of Shame, the three blind mice. He finally succumbed to the challenge at the end of regulation when he had to foul out of desperation to stop the clock and then he was done for the evening.
I doubt that not more than a handful of the most delusional Devils really believed we would come out on top once JP sat down and Eric Boateng jogged onto the court. JP was our fearless leader, the man with three faces, and they had turned to stone when he realized he would be missing the chance for a second life against them. Boateng was ineffective for his short time on the court earlier. It didn’t look good.
It was the magical double pump drives of freshman James “Black Magic” Harden that gave us hope. The trio of doubletalkers began to call some fouls for him as the OT period progressed and he hit his shots. The 6’4” sophomore Jerren Ship and Boateng were battling the twin towers of terror with all their might. But I must say the bumps had still not yet returned. I still did not believe we could really win it. Not with two reserves guarding the two most dominant post men in the toughest league in the nation. It was almost laughable to even think it.
Boateng was fairing well against Brook Lopez but Robin was pushing Shipp all over the paint. He needed a lot of help from another key man who happened to be in the stands. It was the “sixth” man of rabid Devil students who helped him out bigtime. Robin went to the line several times and was greeted by a deafening roar of “Lopez Sisters” time and time again. It rattled him.
He missed his free shots more often than not. They really got to him and , frankly, we don’t win that game without the incredible support of over 1,000 crazed students screaming like there was no tommorrow. There wasn’t.
Once freshman Rihard Kuksics fouled out next after the game of his life then I lost all hope. We were without our two biggest starters and facing almost certain defeat. In fact, hundreds of idiot fans left with minutes left in regulation believing we had NO CHANCE! But when sophomore Eric Boateng snagged the most critical offensive rebound of the game with seconds left I felt two layers of chicken skin sweep over my exhausted body. I thought “My God, I’ve NEVER seen anything like THIS Sun Devil team. They might win this thing now. Maybe they’re too young to realize they cannot possibly do it.”
Once Boateng hit his only point of the game and snagged his critical first rebound it was clear that I was not seeing things. Out of breath again as the oxygen had fled the arena I felt as if I was suffering from some sort of double pneumonia. “We’re gonna beat these suckers!” I gasped. “How do you like them two apples down there in the paint “ I roared at some Stanford fans next to me about Shipp and Boateng.
When I looked one last time down on the court I saw Black Magic being whisked away to the announcers table, Glasser high-fiving all the students, and Boateng proudly cradling the ball he will treasure for the rest of his life. When we needed that ball the most he went up high and got it for us.
It was just maybe the greatest regular season game I have ever seen as a lifelong Devil fan. I cannot ever remember one more gratifying. Once the double bumps left me and I walked out of the arena, the entire crowd was chanting ‘ASU, ASU, ASU” as we walked down the ramp. The pride is back on the campus like I haven’t seen it since we last went to the Rose Bowl. The tandem of Herb Sendek and Dennis Ericsson have pumped tremendous life back into their programs and have great reason to be confident in their futures.
For now I hope the team and the students really enjoy what they accomplished together. I know I will until Saturday. It may have been the biggest win for Devil basketball in fifteen or twenty years. The Cardinal are a legitimate top ten team. The Lopez brothers combined for 46 points and were nearly unstoppable in the paint. They were only stopped in the final five minutes when it counted most by an unlikely pair.
If we had lost this game we would have moved to five and six in league before facing the very tough Cal Bears and our confidence in an NCAA tournament berth would have been shaken like a double martini on the rocks. Instead we have a chance to go six and five and roll into the critical Bear game with tremendous confidence.
We now have a couple of wins over Arizona and another pair over two highly ranked teams in (11) Xavier and (7) Stanford. With back to back wins over both Bay Area schools at home, and a good chance to finish up three and three and 10 and 8 overall in the Pac, we will be sitting pretty for a ticket to the dance with a win on Saturday.
Sendek said the fan support will again be a key factor as it had waivered at times in this one. We only had about 8,000 last night in the late starting game but really need twice that many on Saturday afternoon to give us the full advantage. Two tickets for me please. One for me and one for my lumpy little friends….
The goose bumps finally came back to me like old friends after a decades long absence during overtime in the first Arizona game this year in Wells Fargo Arena. After 35 plus years of following Sun Devil basketball it was an old but still familiar feeling to get a visit from the little suckers as they popped up all over me while I sat in the nosebleeds and screamed my head off like I was a student again. Last night in OT against Stanford I had goose bumps on top of goose bumps. It was Double Bump City baby....
I was nearly doubled over with excitement near the end of the final five minutes when I suddenly realized that something even more impossible was happening than beating a short handed U of A team twice. We had a chance to beat a full strength Cardinal team and the doublemint twins, ranked number seven nationally and tied for first in the PacTen, without center Jeff Pendergraph in OT. JP was the man on fire in the second Arizona game and without him in the middle, tonight of ALL nights, the game had seemingly turned to ashes.
It had been a rollercoaster of emotions already with very high highs and even lower lows as I looked down at the court from my much better row thirteen seats this time around. The double fist in my stomach was nearly nauseating earlier in the game as the double vision nightmare that was the seven foot Lopez brothers began to pull away from us in the second half during a 24-2 run that nearly broke our will and put them up by 13. An intimate Valentine's Day date with those two beasts was not what the Devils were hoping for at this point in their season.
We had no answer for them as they double teamed JP and seemed to get every call for a while from the night’s Trifecta of Shame, the three blind mice. He finally succumbed to the challenge at the end of regulation when he had to foul out of desperation to stop the clock and then he was done for the evening.
I doubt that not more than a handful of the most delusional Devils really believed we would come out on top once JP sat down and Eric Boateng jogged onto the court. JP was our fearless leader, the man with three faces, and they had turned to stone when he realized he would be missing the chance for a second life against them. Boateng was ineffective for his short time on the court earlier. It didn’t look good.
It was the magical double pump drives of freshman James “Black Magic” Harden that gave us hope. The trio of doubletalkers began to call some fouls for him as the OT period progressed and he hit his shots. The 6’4” sophomore Jerren Ship and Boateng were battling the twin towers of terror with all their might. But I must say the bumps had still not yet returned. I still did not believe we could really win it. Not with two reserves guarding the two most dominant post men in the toughest league in the nation. It was almost laughable to even think it.
Boateng was fairing well against Brook Lopez but Robin was pushing Shipp all over the paint. He needed a lot of help from another key man who happened to be in the stands. It was the “sixth” man of rabid Devil students who helped him out bigtime. Robin went to the line several times and was greeted by a deafening roar of “Lopez Sisters” time and time again. It rattled him.
He missed his free shots more often than not. They really got to him and , frankly, we don’t win that game without the incredible support of over 1,000 crazed students screaming like there was no tommorrow. There wasn’t.
Once freshman Rihard Kuksics fouled out next after the game of his life then I lost all hope. We were without our two biggest starters and facing almost certain defeat. In fact, hundreds of idiot fans left with minutes left in regulation believing we had NO CHANCE! But when sophomore Eric Boateng snagged the most critical offensive rebound of the game with seconds left I felt two layers of chicken skin sweep over my exhausted body. I thought “My God, I’ve NEVER seen anything like THIS Sun Devil team. They might win this thing now. Maybe they’re too young to realize they cannot possibly do it.”
Once Boateng hit his only point of the game and snagged his critical first rebound it was clear that I was not seeing things. Out of breath again as the oxygen had fled the arena I felt as if I was suffering from some sort of double pneumonia. “We’re gonna beat these suckers!” I gasped. “How do you like them two apples down there in the paint “ I roared at some Stanford fans next to me about Shipp and Boateng.
When I looked one last time down on the court I saw Black Magic being whisked away to the announcers table, Glasser high-fiving all the students, and Boateng proudly cradling the ball he will treasure for the rest of his life. When we needed that ball the most he went up high and got it for us.
It was just maybe the greatest regular season game I have ever seen as a lifelong Devil fan. I cannot ever remember one more gratifying. Once the double bumps left me and I walked out of the arena, the entire crowd was chanting ‘ASU, ASU, ASU” as we walked down the ramp. The pride is back on the campus like I haven’t seen it since we last went to the Rose Bowl. The tandem of Herb Sendek and Dennis Ericsson have pumped tremendous life back into their programs and have great reason to be confident in their futures.
For now I hope the team and the students really enjoy what they accomplished together. I know I will until Saturday. It may have been the biggest win for Devil basketball in fifteen or twenty years. The Cardinal are a legitimate top ten team. The Lopez brothers combined for 46 points and were nearly unstoppable in the paint. They were only stopped in the final five minutes when it counted most by an unlikely pair.
If we had lost this game we would have moved to five and six in league before facing the very tough Cal Bears and our confidence in an NCAA tournament berth would have been shaken like a double martini on the rocks. Instead we have a chance to go six and five and roll into the critical Bear game with tremendous confidence.
We now have a couple of wins over Arizona and another pair over two highly ranked teams in (11) Xavier and (7) Stanford. With back to back wins over both Bay Area schools at home, and a good chance to finish up three and three and 10 and 8 overall in the Pac, we will be sitting pretty for a ticket to the dance with a win on Saturday.
Sendek said the fan support will again be a key factor as it had waivered at times in this one. We only had about 8,000 last night in the late starting game but really need twice that many on Saturday afternoon to give us the full advantage. Two tickets for me please. One for me and one for my lumpy little friends….
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