Herb Sendek Articles & Resources

Novelty. Who else employs a 6-8 shooting guard whose best move is driving to 12 feet for a pull-up jumper? Though he is not an accurate 3-point shooter, sophomore Adam Morrison is averaging points. There is no player like him in Division I, so opponents aren't comfortable defending him. Center Ronny Turiaf's ability to bank shots from the post causes similar problems.

"A lot of guys either shoot the 3 or it's all the way to the hole," Morrison says. "I hardly ever get to the basket because I'm not that fast. I try to use my body, use angles, use up-fakes. It works out."

Gonzaga's emphasis on the running game compounds the distress for opponents. They must deal with uncommon tactics at a high rate of speed.

Size. Gonzaga is one of the few teams that has two legitimate post scorers. Turiaf is 6-10, 250. Junior college transfer . Batista is 6-8, 265. Each can score from the block or pass out of a double-team. Coach Mark Few turns to Batista when Turiaf encounters foul trouble or fatigue and uses them together when neither factor is an issue.

"People try to make it their emphasis to stop Adam or me," Turiaf says. ". is such a great player that people are realizing if you focus too much on one of us, he can hurt you."

Versatility. The most recent Gonzaga teams were deeply dependent on the dominance of star guards Dan Dickau and Blake Stepp. This team can use Turiaf or Morrison as a primary option. Complementary players such as forwards Sean Mallon and Erroll Knight and point guard Derek Raivio are better able to deliver big numbers when necessary.

This is a product of Gonzaga's improvement in recruiting. Before, Few and his coaches worked to emphasize the strengths and disguise the weaknesses of capable but limited players. Now, the job is to get skilled players to reach their potential and function as a team.

Just how dangerous Gonzaga can be is evident in the 12-point margin of its victory over Georgia Tech. But the Zags will be challenged in the West Coast Conference to a degree they've not experienced recently. St. Mary's, Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine figure to be legitimate title contenders. Gonzaga will struggle to match its average 13-1 league record of the previous four years.

This still is not a great defensive team. Whereas Syracuse makes a statement with its zone, the Zags use theirs to hide. The team's frontcourt size hasn't resulted in productive rebounding. But that means Gonzaga has plenty of available room for improvement.

"This team has the ability to rise up to a level that is extremely high," Few says.

How high? If the Zags hang around 91 days into 2005, guess where that would put them?

speed reads

If Tulsa wants so badly to keep its next coach for the long term, it should consider former North Carolina coach Matt Doherty. He knows the Midwest from his years as a Kansas assistant and recruits with great energy He also knows how unstable elite jobs can be and might not rush to leave after getting Tulsa back to winning big.

Missouri plays with heart, wins a big game over Gonzaga and what happens? Guard Jimmy McKinney is caught on camera taunting one of the Tigers' victims. Beautiful.

Rumors that Rick Majerus resigned at Southern California because he was interested in coaching Indiana are ridiculous Majerus is no idiot. He did not take the USE job one day, then wake up the next and realize things aren't going well for IU Who makes up this garbage?

Putting undefeated Illinois and undefeated Cincinnati on an undersized high school court was roughly equivalent to shooting the next installment of SpiderMan on a cell phone camera.

Nothing will come easy in the ACC

It's tougher to find an easy game in the Atlantic Coast Conference than to find a funny joke in Meet the Fockers. But some games are more difficult than others, which might be a plus for Wake Forest's Demon Deacons.

With expansion bringing in Virginia Tech and Miami, not all ACC teams will be playing one another twice in the regular season--meaning not all schedules are created equal among the seven teams who figure to contend for the title.

Toughest overall: . State. Coach Herb Sendek's squad will play 11 total games against the others, missing out only on a road game against Duke.

Toughest road: Virginia. The Cavaliers are the only team that will play all of the other six contenders away from home.

Toughest stretch: Between January 8 and the end of the month, Maryland visits North Carolina, Wake Forest and Duke and has home games against Virginia, . State and Georgia Tech. A nonleague game against Temple complicates things further.

Easiest overall: Quotation marks should surround the word "easiest." There's no such thing. But Wake Forest has just four road games against this group and won't visit Maryland or North Carolina.

What a breeze!

INSIDE DISH

Detroit coach Perry Watson will take his time developing sophomore transfer Brandon Cotton into a point guard. Cotton was not a pure point guard in high school and struggled at the position as a freshman at Michigan State. In his first three games playing off the ball after he became eligible for the Titans, Cotton averaged points and helped secure two victories. Merely having a guard who can create offense has made Detroit's young team better. "Before, it seemed like every shot we took was a tough shot," Watson says. "Brandon gets other guys easier shots," * If Duke had to lose PF Shavlik Randolph for an extended period--he's recovering from mononucleosis--his timing could not have been better. The Blue Devils had a 15-day layoff after their December 18 victory against Oklahoma. They worked on getting former football player Reggie Love and 6-6 Lee Melchionni more involved, and they also tried out a four-guard look with 6-3 DeMarcus Nelson assigned to defend the opposing power forward. Nelson gets the call because the Devils coaches believe he plays bigger than his size. Duke should be able to get away with this look against most ACC contenders; few of them feature traditional, post-based power forwards. Duke is hoping Randolph will be practicing again by mid-January. * Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton told ESPN he expects to coach at least one more season after this. OSU announced after its 2004 Final Four trip that Sutton's son, Sean, would be his eventual replacement. The Cowboys subsequently attracted one of their most decorated recruiting classes, including likely McDonald's All-American Gerald Green of Houston. The 2005-06 team will be extremely young, and Eddie Sutton does not want Sean to be criticized if it develops slowly. * It hasn't hurt Bowling Green to lose SF Ron Lewis, last year's leading scorer, who transferred to Ohio State just before the start of the school year. Coach Dan Dakich says he designed offseason workouts to push players and affirm their commitment to winning. Senior Fs Josh Almanson, Cory Eyink and John Reimold have delivered solid leadership, and the Falcons are defending with passion. "Nobody's complaining," Dakich says. "We've got guys who want to be a team." * Louisville's decision to make sure PF Otis George is fully recovered from a stress fracture before he returns is at least partly a reaction to the team's late fades the past two seasons. Louisville was 14-14 after January 31 the past two years. If George's recovery were set back by an early return, the Cardinals would have little interior depth and less hope for a longer March. * Villanova PG Kyle Lowry played 17 more minutes in a win over Penn last week than he was expected to play all season. Lowry tore a knee ligament in late August, but he recovered quickly from surgery. After excelling during two weeks of practice, he met with coach Jay Wright and asked to play instead of redshirting. Lowry appears to have lost none of his quickness and dazzled Wildcats fans with a dynamic baseline drive and reverse layup against Penn. He gives Villanova a fourth guard, which allows Wright to use more of the three-guard look he prefers.

One reason Ohio State PG Brandon FussCheatham is enjoying a career renaissance as a senior is improved speed and quickness. The new Buckeyes coaches were surprised to learn his body-fat percentage was in double digits when they arrived; They pushed him to get leaner, and he's now more effective as a penetrator. That has helped him regal, his confidence as a shooter. With freshman Jamar Butler backing him up, Fuss-Cheatham now plays hard at all times inroad of pacing himself to survive late-game situations.