File photo/Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior point guard Mustafa Shakur and the Wildcats have recently dominated the in-state rivalry, beating ASU eight times straight including last year's 70-68 victory. They will try to make it nine in a row in Tempe tonight at 7:30 in a game televised on FSN Arizona.

ASU retooling in wake of Diogu's departure

If you take away last year's game, where Salim Stoudamire's jumper killed ASU's chance at a rare upset, the constantly struggling Sun Devils haven't come within eight points of the Arizona men's basketball team since January 2002.

After losing Pacific 10 Conference player of the year Ike Diogu, the team that has made the NCAA tournament only five times in the last 27 years is in the rebuilding stages yet again. But, according to the Arizona coaching staff, the Sun Devils (7-10, 1-7) may be right on the verge of turning things around.

"They should have beat Stanford, they should have beat UCLA, and they should have beat (Southern California)," Arizona assistant coach Josh Pastner said. "They're a good basketball team."

"The only score that looks like it was not close was Cal, and that in fact was close until the five- or six-minute mark," head coach Lute Olson said, referring to ASU's game Thursday, in which they lost by 30 to California.

What some may consider a rivalry is just another game for most of the Wildcats, none of whom are from the state of Arizona. Arizona (12-6, 5-3) has toppled ASU in 20 of its last 21 games and has lost just six times in Olson's reign at Arizona.

"I don't see any rivalry," junior forward Ivan Radenovic said. "I'm not from here, so I don't understand this rivalry. I can't lie, their fans are not welcoming and they talk trash, and obviously this is the biggest rivalry game of the year for them."

ASU has transformed from a team that pounded the ball down low to Diogu into a perimeter-oriented group whose only two double-digit scorers are both guards and which doesn't have anyone in the Pac-10's top 20 in rebounding.

"You can't lose a guy of that prominence and not be hurt by it because it was almost every time down court he would handle the ball," Olson said. "I think it was very smart on (ASU head coach) Rob's (Evans) case that the ball was put in his hands.

"Once it was in his hands, other people could get better shots than if they just tried to get shots on their own."

Arizona's big men are glad the physical, punishing, 250-pound Diogu has moved on to the Golden State Warriors after being picked ninth in last year's NBA draft.

"It's kind of nice knowing that I don't have to go against him," junior center Kirk Walters said.

Diogu's 22.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per game have been sorely missed by the Sun Devils, who rank eighth in the Pac-10 in scoring offense and field goal percentage.

"They lost like 50 percent of their team pretty much with Diogu, but they're still playing pretty hard," Radenovic said.

ASU junior guards Kevin Kruger (14.4 points per game) and Bryson Krueger (12.0 ppg), who lost his starting job last game against Stanford, have shot almost an identical percentage on 3-point field goals - 39.6 percent - as they have overall - 40.1 percent - but it is freshman forward Jeff Pendergraph who has drawn the attention of opposing scouts.

"Pendergraph does a very good job in the post-up situation and is playing better than he's played since he's gotten to ASU," Olson said. "He's been relatively healthy and as far as what we feel we need to do, we just need to keep him out of the lane. He's just a very good take-it-to-the-basket type guy."

In place of Krueger, Evans said he will likely start 6-foot-9 freshman forward Sylvester Seay, who started and played 18 minutes in ASU's 70-64 loss to Stanford Saturday.

"We've been trying to bring him along," Evans said in a teleconference yesterday. "He's learning the game. His effort has been better, and I think he really has a chance to be a talented player. We decided to put him in the lineup because he's a longer guy who will rebound the ball better from that spot, rather than us going to three perimeter guys, and he did a good job in the game against Stanford."

While the Sun Devils are just 1-4 on the road, they have stayed at .500 at home and have played tough to protect their home court.

"They played people really well at home," Olson said. "They just had some unfortunate breaks in terms of being able to get over the hump."