Arizona State Extends Herb Sendek, Accepts Mediocrity

Despite making just two NCAA Tournament appearances in eight seasons, Herb Sendek received a three-year contract extension from Arizona State on Monday.

Sendek’s deal would have expired at the end of the upcoming season, but his new deal will keep him in Tempe through 2019.

Although the Sun Devils are coming off an NCAA Tournament appearances, Sendek’s time with the team hasn’t brought much success. The team made just one other Tournament appearance before this year’s trip that ended in a heartbreaking loss to Texas.

That previous trip did yield a tournament win, though it’s tough to celebrate a second round appearance (the Round of 32 is, and will always be, the second round, regardless of what the NCAA says) when the team had James Harden on it.

Though Sendek certainly deserves credit for bringing in a player with as much talent as Harden, and to a lesser extent Jahii Carson, he hasn’t parlayed that talent into enough success to make up for the intervening years.

Between Harden and Carson’s tenures with the team, the program made one NIT appearance and missed the postseason twice.

It seems that the Arizona State athletic department is satisfied with having a mediocre basketball program. Sendek’s predecessor, Rob Evans, lasted eight years in Tempe with one Tournament appearance to go with three NIT births.

Though Arizona State is not a traditional powerhouse, there is a major opportunity right now in the Pac-12. Outside of in-state rival Arizona, no program in the conference is in great shape.

The next best situation is UCLA, whose coach has made one Sweet 16 in this millennium and just saw its program plundered by the NBA. Oregon’s seemingly inevitable Nike money-fueled rise to success is mired in scandal. There are other programs in good shape, but none should be intimidating.

It is too bad for Arizona State fans that its administration would rather sign up for another half-decade of middling results than take a shot at adding a different kind of Devil to the nation’s powerful programs.