Men's hoops hosts UAB in home opener

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The Arizona State Sun Devils (0-1 in 2010-11 after going 22-11 last year) open their home slate Saturday at 2 p.m. against the UAB Blazers, who are 2-0 this year and were 25-9 a year ago. ASU is 25-3 in non-conference home games the past three seasons while Herb Sendek is 61-14 (.813) in November in his 18-year career.

ASU plays just one of its first six games at home and has only one home game in November after having five last year. ASU fell at New Mexico 76-62 on Tuesday, its first season opening game on the road since the 1992-93 season. Trent Lockett led the way with a career-high 22 points.

Saturday marks the first meeting between UAB and also is the first time Herb Sendek has coached against the Blazers.

Using the 20-Win Theory
ASU will play at least six teams that won at least 20 games last year in its non-conference schedule. New Mexico (30-5), UAB (25-9), Baylor (28-8), Richmond (26-9), Nevada (21-13) and Tulsa (23-12) all won 20, while Weber State, a possible second-round opponent in the Great Alaska Shootout, was 20-11.

I Can't Believe We Are Using These Three Letters
Six of ASU's 10 known non-conference opponents posted final RPIs in the top 100. Baylor (9), New Mexico (10) and Richmond (25) finished in the top-25, while UAB (45), Tulsa (68) and Nevada (73) also were in the top 100.

At Home
ASU is 43-12 (.782) at home in the past three seasons, including a 15-5 mark in 2007-08 that set the ASU mark for total home wins that was topped by last year's 16-4 (.800) mark. ASU is 28-7 (.800) the past two seasons at home.

Quickly on UAB
UAB, under Mike Davis, has averaged 21.8 wins in the past seven seasons and has been a top-50 RPI team in five of the past seven seasons. Mike Davis is now 87-48 (.644) in his fifth seasons at UAB. He was hired the same year that ASU hired Herb Sendek.

UAB Final Record/RPI Past Seven Seasons
2009-10: 25-9/45
2008-09: 22-12/46
2007-08: 23-11/56
2006-07: 15-16/134
2005-06: 24-7/32
2004-05: 22-11/49
2003-04: 22-10/33

Head Coach
Herb Sendek, 76-57 (.571) at ASU, is in his 18th season as a head coach in 2010-2011 and has averaged 19.4 wins per season. He led the NC State Wolfpack to five straight NCAA appearances from 2002-06 and is now 330-215 (.606) and was 191-132 (.591) at NC State. The 47-year-old (born Feb. 22, 1963) Pittsburgh, Pa., native remains the third-youngest coach in the Pac-10 despite seven coaching changes in the league in the past three seasons. Only Duke posted more ACC wins (regular season and ACC Tournament) than NC State's 53 from 2002-2006. An overlooked note is his 10-year stay at NC State. To compare it to the Pac-10, since the league expanded to 10 teams in 1978-79, only five coaches have coached at their schools for at least 10 years: Lute Olson (24/Arizona), Ralph Miller (19/Oregon State), Mike Montgomery (18/Stanford), Ernie Kent (13/Oregon) and Ben Braun (12/California).