Sun Devils

Phillip Chime's layup with 10.7 seconds remaining in overtime lifted visiting Texas-San Antonio to an 87-85 upset of No. 13 Arizona State last night. Arizona State (5-2) led by 10 points in the second half. But the Roadrunners (3-2) sent the game into overtime when Marlon Anderson's layup with two-tenths of a second remaining tied it 74-74. Cody Johnson's layup with 4:11 to play gave Texas-San Antonio its first lead since the game's opening basket. Darren Webber scored six of the Roadrunners' next eight points to give Texas-San Antonio a 84-80 lead with 45.5 seconds remaining.

It would have been easy to take a weather reading before yesterday's final of the women's 400-meter relay championship at the Penn Relays and declare that Arizona State had no chance to win. With the temperature struggling to stay in the low 50s, sheets of rain blowing into the runners' faces on the homestretch and the wind approaching speeds of 20 m.p.h., one had to figure that the Sun Devils would be on the next plane back home to Tempe, Ariz., a.k.a. the Valley of the Sun. But the Sun Devils weren't intimidated by the weather or the competition as they held off Morgan State to take the 400-meter relay Championship of America in the 94th annual Penn Relays at Franklin Field.

Arizona State coach Bill Frieder had been sounding a lot like a broken record this week. He had been warning his Sun Devils of the dangers of the NCAA Tournament, of how No. 12 seeds love to advance to the second round over fifth-seeded teams. Then No. 12 Miami of Ohio upset No. 5 Arizona in Dayton, Ohio, and No. 13 Manhattan toppled No. 4 Oklahoma in Memphis minutes before the Sun Devils took the floor yesterday. With those results as reminders, Arizona State downed Ball State, 81-66, in the Southeast Regional.

Legend has it Adolph Rupp, as a young coach at Kentucky, saw a thoroughbred running in a field one day and was so inspired he decided on the spot to create the Wildcats' famous fastbreak. Rick Pitino has been at Kentucky six seasons, long enough to hear almost every fable about what may be college basketball's most tradition-encrusted program. But even Pitino hadn't heard the one about Rupp and the pony that launched a thousand layups and dunks. "Sounds like a great story," Pitino said following Kentucky's 97-73 romp past Arizona State in an NCAA East Regional semifinal game last night in the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.

Penn coach Fran Dunphy predicted his team was going to be in for a long night before it even took the court against host Arizona State in the first round of last night's Tribune Classic. Because of an Ivy League rule that prohibits games during final exams period, Penn had not played in 21 days. So it wasn't particularly surprising to Dunphy that the Quakers fell to ASU, 94-62, in what was their worse defeat since a 33-point loss to host Miami, Fla., in the first round of the Palm Beach Classic on Dec. 29, 1988.

Ashley Morris continued to be a scoring threat for the Temple women's basketball team. Unfortunately for the Owls, the senior point guard from Central High was the only big weapon last night in a one-and-done NCAA tournament experience against Arizona State in the Oklahoma City Regional. Temple, the 11th seed, fell to the sixth-seeded Sun Devils, 61-54, at the University of Maryland's Comcast Center to finish the eighth season of the Dawn Staley era at 21-13. Temple had tried to overcome a 13-0 run by the Sun Devils at the start of the second half.

With J.R. Henderson the only one of UCLA's three senior starters a factor down the stretch against Arizona State, freshman Baron Davis made the leap into Pacific-10 Conference maturity. Davis brought the visiting Bruins from behind with a steal, two jumpers and a key defensive rebound in a 78-73 win over the Sun Devils last night. "I was struggling offensively, and J.R. freed me up a lot on the pick-and-rolls," Davis said. "So once I came off the pick and saw they were doubling and rotating toward him, I had to be the one to step up and make the shot.

Texas A & M coach Gary Blair is jumping on the Arizona State bandwagon - to some extent. If the sixth-seeded Sun Devils play as well as they did in knocking off the Aggies yesterday in the Trenton regional semifinal, they have a shot to beat top-seeded and undefeated Connecticut and earn a berth in the Final Four. "They were the better basketball team today," Blair said after Arizona State beat his Aggies, 84-69. "If they can play at that level, they can give Connecticut a good run, and Connecticut is one of the greatest teams I have ever seen.

Arizona State shrugged off 50-degree temperatures and high winds to slug its way past Long Beach State, 14-4, in the College World Series last night. The win eliminated the 49ers and sent ASU to Saturday's championship game. The Sun Devils (41-22) now are 3-0 in the double-elimination tournament. Defending champion LSU (48-17) will face elimination this afternoon when it meets Southern Cal (46-17) at 3:30. Should the Tigers win, the two will play again tomorrow with the loser going home.

John Cooper's official announcement he was resigning as Arizona State football coach was as anticlimactic as the Sun Devils' 33-28 Freedom Bowl win over Air Force that preceded it. It had been widely reported that Cooper would quit to take the head coaching job at Ohio State. "As most of you know, I've coached my last game at Arizona State," Cooper said after last night's game. "I have resigned my position and will accept another position soon, but I cannot say where. " Although Cooper said he could not publicly acknowledge he is headed for Ohio State, he told Arizona State athletic director Charles Harris on Tuesday night of his decision and told his players after the game.

An imperfection or two did not change Connecticut's perfect record last night in the NCAA Trenton regional title game at Sovereign Bank Arena. Riding on the shoulders of Maya Moore, the top-seeded Huskies beat Arizona State, 83-64, to advance to the Women's Final Four on Sunday night in St. Louis. In the national semifinals, the Huskies (37-0) will meet Stanford (33-4), which eliminated them in the same round a year ago. "I said last year we would be back," Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said last night.

Connecticut will face Arizona State tonight at 7 in the championship of the NCAA Trenton Regional. The Huskies are the toast of women's basketball at 36-0, but the sixth-seeded Sun Devils say they are not intimidated. The winner at the Sovereign Bank Arena will advance to the Women's Final Four, which begins Sunday in St. Louis. As of yesterday afternoon, about 4,000 seats (roughly half of capacity) had been sold for tonight's game. "I definitely think the pressure is on them and it's huge," Sun Devils coach Charli Turner Thorne said of the Huskies, the top seeds in the NCAA field.

Texas A & M coach Gary Blair is jumping on the Arizona State bandwagon - to some extent. If the sixth-seeded Sun Devils play as well as they did in knocking off the Aggies yesterday in the Trenton regional semifinal, they have a shot to beat top-seeded and undefeated Connecticut and earn a berth in the Final Four. "They were the better basketball team today," Blair said after Arizona State beat his Aggies, 84-69. "If they can play at that level, they can give Connecticut a good run, and Connecticut is one of the greatest teams I have ever seen.

MIAMI - Mr. Clutch will need to be Mr. Defense if Temple hopes to get past Arizona State today. Of course, a few of those big-moment shots that Ryan Brooks is known for wouldn't hurt the Owls' cause, either. But the guard's primary responsibility against the Sun Devils in the NCAA South Regional opener will be guarding the seemingly indefensible James Harden. The Pac-10's player of the year, Harden averages 20.8 points a game and can score anywhere, anytime and on any shot.

MIAMI - The Arizona State basketball team lost 15 straight games 2 years ago. That was before James Harden, the Pacific-10 Player of the Year, arrived to help turn the Sun Devils' program around. It's not surprising, then, that the electric sophomore guard is getting most of the attention as ASU prepares to play its first-round NCAA Tournament game against Temple this afternoon. What the team has accomplished, though, might just mean more to forward Jeff Pendergraph than to anyone.

TEMPLE vs. ARIZONA STATE NCAA South Regional First Round Today, 2:45 p.m. (approximately) American Airlines Arena, Miami TV/Radio: Channel 3; WPHT (1210-AM) Records: Arizona State is 24-9, Temple 22-11. History: Temple is 1-4 all-time against Arizona State. The Sun Devils have beaten the Owls four consecutive times, most recently by 65-62 at the Liacouras Center in 2004. How they got here: No. 6 Arizona State received an at-large bid out of the Pacific-10 Conference after losing to USC in the Pac-10 Tournament championship game, 68-56.

TEMPLE COACH Fran Dunphy had never been a head coach in a conference tournament until he got to Temple 3 years ago. He has gotten the hang of it rather quickly. After beating Duquesne, 69-64, for the Atlantic 10 championship Saturday night in Atlantic City, Dunphy's Owls have won six consecutive A-10 Tournament games and two consecutive championships. The Owls had about 22 hours to digest it all before they gathered at the Liacouras Center to watch the Selection Show last evening.

Ashley Morris continued to be a scoring threat for the Temple women's basketball team. Unfortunately for the Owls, the senior point guard from Central High was the only big weapon last night in a one-and-done NCAA tournament experience against Arizona State in the Oklahoma City Regional. Temple, the 11th seed, fell to the sixth-seeded Sun Devils, 61-54, at the University of Maryland's Comcast Center to finish the eighth season of the Dawn Staley era at 21-13. Temple had tried to overcome a 13-0 run by the Sun Devils at the start of the second half.

The late Pat Tillman, a former Arizona State linebacker who gave up a professional football career to join the military, is among 19 players up for election to the College Football Hall of Fame for the first time this year. The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame released a ballot yesterday with 75 players and eight coaches eligible for election to the hall. Temple running back Paul Palmer, who signed with an agent during his senior year, forcing the university to forfeit six victories in 1986, was also on the ballot.

The long trip home after its season-opening 63-16 loss at Arizona State ended at 10:30 yesterday morning for the Temple football team. After busing back to Edberg-Olson Hall, the players had classes and the coaches went home to get some rest before gathering for meetings late in the afternoon. Today, the Owls will look at film of their lopsided loss to the 20th-ranked Sun Devils. They will see how the game turned on a couple of second-quarter plays that put Arizona State ahead by 28-2 at halftime.