House Of Sparky: FanPosts

SB Nation Survey + Chance to donate $500 to a charity of this community's choice

2010-03-20T00:47:57Z

>> Take SB Nation Survey

Hello sports fans! We're always striving to provide you with the best experience possible and it's been quite some time since we checked in with you.

So we're rolling out this survey to learn more about you and your sports world. It should only take about 10 minutes to complete.

We really appreciate your time and this is also going to help make a donation to a good cause.

By next Thursday (3/25) at 11:59pm PST the site that has the highest percentage of their community filling out the attached survey about their sports interests and consumption will win $500 to donate to a charity of their choice. We will leave it up to the discretion of the community manager(s) of the winning blog to decide how to choose the particular charity.

You can take the survey HERE

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WYR2WQT

Thanks for your support!

SB Nation's Pac-10 Tournament preview

2010-03-10T20:50:52Z

In case you're interested, I wanted to pass this along to you guys. I've written the SB Nation Pac-10 Tournament preview for the SBNation.com mothership, and I'm hoping many of your will take a few moments to check it out -- for a couple of reasons.

First off, you might learn something. But since I'm aware that you might not, since a lot of you are pretty darn smart and knowledgeable, you should go over there anyway just to see the cool stuff we're doing as a network.

If you've never been over there, the preview is actually the lead story for what's called a "StoryStream." I'll be continuously updating the stream with posts as the tournament advances, meaning that link above will be your one-stop shop for everything related to the conference tournament, including tidbits, game recaps, video, etc.

Updates are shown chronologically, with the most recent ones at the top. (You can also toggle it to show the oldest posts first, because hey, we're like Burger King -- have it your way.) Additionally, you can help me out by clicking the "submit your post" button on the stream to pass tips my way if you find things that you think could be included on the stream.

The best feature, I think, is this: If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to the stream here. The feed will deliver each update I post directly to your reader over the next four days. Pretty cool.

And if you dig it, take a look around the SBNation.com site -- I think you'll especially appreciate the college basketball page.

VOTE on SB Nation Pac-10 all-conference teams!

2010-03-06T03:44:55Z

Last year, we CougCenter.com authors put together our inaugural Pac-10 all-conference awards. As we were working on this year's edition, a thought hit us.

What if we did a fan vote across all the SB Nation Pac-10 sites?

Here's your chance to get your voice heard. After the text is a link to a form you can fill out to submit your votes. It's pretty lengthy, but you have to fill the whole thing out for your vote to be counted.

Just a few points of clarification.

We're asking for your home blog because it might be interesting to see how certain fan bases vote.
We're asking for your SB Nation user name because it will hopefully help keep us from getting spammed. Don't worry, we won't share how you voted, unless ...
If you leave a comment and we use it on the results post, we'll attribute it to your user name. If you don't want that to happen, don't leave any comments.
Base your selections on performance in conference, not the whole year.
This is an all-conference team, therefore, you are asked to select players who would actually comprise a basketball team. None of this wishy-washy, best five or 10 players regardless of position crap the actual conference does.

That's about it. We'll post the results on our site next week.

VOTE HERE NOW.

Lubick leaves ASU....for Duke???

2010-02-19T14:28:43Z

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/asu/articles/2010/02/17/20100217asu-football-matt-lubick.html

The Arizona State football coach who lured five-star talent Vontaze Burfict to Tempe is leaving.

Matt Lubick, ASU's assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator, finalized a multiyear contract Wednesday to accept different positions at Duke University.

Lubick, who also coached defensive backs for ASU the last three seasons, will be Duke's recruiting coordinator, passing game coordinator and receivers coach. Moving eastward affords him the opportunity to have a hands-on role on the offensive side of the ball.

Well, that's just great. We lost probably the two best recruiters on the staff (Lubick and Yarber).

Things are not looking good for the ASU football team.

Edit: Jeff Metcalfe has some ideas for what DE should do

NFL Draft Projections 2010 -- Arizona State

2010-02-16T23:21:16Z

via forkemsundevils.com

Even this being the second in two down years of Sun Devil football, many of Erickson's Class of 2010 could have a future in the NFL. Let's review who may have a NFL contract in their near future...

Shawn Lauvao (OL) -- Shawn was probably the most consistent lineman the Sun Devils have had in the past three years. In the last three years, he has played every game at different line positions moving between guard and tackle and starting in all, but four. Shawn played 17 games at left guard and 14 games at left tackle showing he can protect any quarterback's blind side. ESPN reported he can bench over 500 pounds and squat over 600. His high bench numbers could entice many coaches and general managers to take a chance and draft him earlier (see Heyward-Bey.) Shawn, despite his strength, may have to put on ten to fifteen pounds to be in the average for NFL offensive lineman. I projected Shawn at a early sixth round pick and will probably stick with a team in need of versatility and/or plagued by injuries.

Dexter Davis (DE/OLB) -- Going into the 2009 season, Dexter was considered one of the best pass-rushers in the country and a lock to be draft. Now, after a 2009 season, where he went from 11 sacks to 3.5, he'll be lucky to be drafted. Dexter went to the East-West Shrine practices and was torn to shreds by scouts saying he will not be able to play linebacker because of his lack of coverage ability. Without coverage ability, any team with a 3-4 defense will be out of the question as he will be too small to play defensive end in the 3-4 defensive alignment. If he wishes to play defensive end in another 4-3 system, he will have to located the pass-rushing ability he had in 2009. I project Dexter will catch on as a late seventh round pick with a team running the 4-3 willing to try and find that former pass rushing ability.

Chris McGaha (WR) -- Chris has started in every game since 2007, but never put up a stellar season. His highest receiving yards total was in 2007 where he ran up 830 yards and catch a season-high 61 throws. Chris contributed to the Arizona State offense, but never was a true number one receiver, which the NFL thrives on. Against Georgia, Chris vanished in two years straight only catching 6 balls and 41 yards. I project Chris will most likely go undrafted and, hopefully, catch on with team in need of wide receivers.

Travis Goethel (ILB) -- Travis played in all the games in his four year college career. Despite the emergence of freshman Vontaze Burflict at linebacker, Travis still managed to register 57 tackles, only losing 14 tackles from 2008. He is most likely stuck at ILB because of his apparent lack of pass rushing skills (2 sacks at ASU). Travis could play in either a 4-3 or 3-4 at ILB, while he may not be able to play OLB in either. I project Travis to go in the middle seventh round to a team willing to take a chance on a consistent college player.

Dimitri Nance (RB) -- Nance led Arizona State in rushing the last two years, but that does no say very much. In 2008, he only ran for 410 yards and, in 2009, only ran for 795. He is a tough inside runner and would rather lower his shoulder, then spin out of a tackle. In his 2006 and 2008 seasons, his longest rush was only for 17 and 18 yards, which shows he lacks break-out speed. In his career, however, he ran for 19 touchdowns which shows he has a nose for the goal line and could be a goal line specialist in the NFL. I project Dimitri will go undrafted because many teams will not use a draft pick on only a goal line talent.

Thomas Altieri (C) -- Altieri started a total of 22 games over his last two seasons. He replace Mike Pollak after he went to the NFL. Altieri is slightly underweight like Lauvao. He missed two games in his last season which adds a durability question to an already weak portfolio. I project Alteri will go undrafted and will maybe catch on a practice squad.

Disagree? Agree with all your heart? Either way, comment below and give me your own projections.

Poll

Who will be the most successful Sun Devil in the NFL?

Dimitri Nance (RB)

3 votes

Thomas Altieri (C)

1 votes

Chris McGaha (WR)

18 votes

Dexter Davis (DE/OLB)

10 votes

Travis Goethel (ILB)

1 votes

Shawn Lauvao (OL)

16 votes

49 votes | Poll has closed

ASU Schedules Missouri for 2011 and 2012 Football Seasons

2010-02-12T20:19:23Z

This is for a home and home in 2011 and 2012.

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post/_/id/7921/arizona-state-will-play-missouri-in-2001-2012

The home schedule for 2011 is going to be pretty solid. We will have Utah State, Washington, Missouri, Oregon State, Cal, USC, and U of A. Thank goodness I get season tickets. Go Devils!!

Just in case anyone was wondering the away games for 2011 are Illinois, Oregon, UCLA, Stanford, and Washington St

New Arizona State online photo store

2010-02-01T20:32:47Z

Check out the new online photo store of Arizona State called www.sundevilphoto.com. Pass this on to all ASU fans. Proceeds go back to benefit ASU. Upload your personal photos and use licensed marks and templates of Arizona State for the first time ever. Post it to your facebook and let all fans of Sparky know about this site. There is also a community sharing site to post all of your Arizona State pics.

Episode 3 of 18 And Life now live, featuring BBP's John Gasaway

2010-01-12T23:50:57Z

People seemed to enjoy the first couple of episodes, so I just wanted to let you know that the third episode of 18 And Life, the Pac-10 hoops podcast, is live. You can find it by clicking here.

Storming The Floor west coast editor Seth Kolloen and I start off discussing the crazy closeness of the conference race, the Sun Devils' resurrection from the dead, and Washington's precipitous fall from grace. We also spend some time honoring the best 6th Men in the conference, break down Ty Abbott's selection as Pac-10 POW -- sorry, we're not pleased -- and wrap up by looking at the three most interesting games of the weekend. (ASU at Oregon makes the cut.)

Perhaps the coolest part of the podcast is our interview with Basketball Prospectus author John Gasaway, who explains the unique way he looks at the game of basketball, whether down cycles in conferences are inevitable, and who some of the up and comers in the Pac-10 are. It's good stuff!

You can listen to the episode via streaming here, or you can visit our site for myriad subscription options. We're also in the iTunes directory -- just search "eighteenandlife" in the iTunes store -- or simply click this link to subscribe in iTunes.

This is probably the last time I'll promote the show through a FanPost; after this, I'll just drop a link in the FanShots every Tuesday when the new episode is live. Thanks for listening.

ASU Football Recruiting Talk - Revised 1/7/2010

2009-12-03T17:28:30Z

Putting up this post so we can discuss the upcoming recruiting class, gets updates when we get a new commit, and what anyone is hearing about some of our prospects. My personal opinion is that this class has the makings to be very good or very poor depending on a few key recruits. I have noticed that there have been a lot of recruits that have looked and narrowed their decision to ASU and another school and have more often than not chosen the other school. Heres to hoping that DE can do some serious closing in the next couple of months.

Here are the commits we already have:

George Bell, WR - 6-3 with 4.4 40 sounds pretty good to me. I also heard he used to be a lockdown CB too

Josh Fulton, TE - Not going to be a Miller but anything is better than we saw this year. Also an in-state guy so I am glad he stayed home.

Kevin Anderson, Mike Willie (JC) and Randy Knust, WR - All over 6'1" and under 4.5 40

Taylor Walstad, Deantre Lewis, Carl Bradford, and Damian Williams, RB - Dont seem to be gamebreakers but depth is needed. Walstad is another AZ guy and our first commit. Bradford is more of a fullback at 6'1" 230

Nduka Onyeali, DE - 6'1" 240 and runs a 4.5-4.6 40. Just recently named second team high school all american.

Jordan McDonald and Joita Te'i DE - McDonald is a local kid that has good size at 6'4" 215. Would like to see him redshirt to put on some weight.

Devan Spann, CB - Playing for one of the best teams in the nation. Hopefully he can bring his big name teammates this year and next. There are some huge recuits that would be nice additions to the Sun Devils.

Chris De Armas and Sil Ajawara, OG; Aderious Simmons, Tyler Sulka, and Jamil Douglas, OT - A lot of these kids are big with Simmons and De Armas being teammates at a Cali JUCO. Douglas and Sulka will need to put on about 20-30 pounds.

Here are the major prospects that would greatly help this program:

Jackson Jeffcoat, DE - I think we might be a long shot at getting him but hopefully he wants to follow in his dad's footsteps. Visited ASU

Hayes Pullard, MLB - He would be a nice pickup since he could start the Crenshaw HS to ASU since we are recruiting about 5 others from their team including the #1 RB in the class of 2011. Visited ASU

Marquis Flowers, S - AZ kid that would really help this program. I think he could come in and start right away. Really hope he becomes a Sun Devil. Visited ASU

Other pretty big prospect - Eric Dargan - S, Kemonte Bateman - WR, James McConico - RB, Soma Vainuku - LB, Kain Colter - QB, and John Cullen - OT.

Hope this gets us started and we should be hearing shortly about some commits coming. Please update if anyone hears anything new.

Episode 2 of '18 And Life' now live

2010-01-05T20:08:53Z

People seemed to enjoy the last episode, so I just wanted to let you know that the second episode of 18 And Life, the Pac-10 hoops podcast, is live. You can find it by clicking here.

Storming The Floor west coast editor Seth Kolloen and I start off discussing USC's 2-0 start in the face of a postseason ban and Oregon's 2-0 start (with a huge assist from the refs), but then we move on to ASU's tough trip to Los Angeles, trying to get to the bottom of why ASU struggled in Southern California.

We also catch up with Eugene Register-Guard reporter Adam Jude to talk about the Ducks, and then weigh in on the most interesting games of this weekend -- including the UW/ASU matchup on Friday, which we think is a pretty big contest at this point. We also break down the huge USC at Cal tilt on Saturday. You'll have to listen to find out which team we think that matchup favors.

You can listen to the episode via streaming here, or you can visit our site for myriad subscription options. We're also in the iTunes directory -- just search "eighteenandlife" in the iTunes store -- or simply click this link to subscribe in iTunes.

Check out new Pac-10 hoops podcast, 18 and Life!

2009-12-30T19:30:12Z

Hey House of Sparky readers! Just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a new Pac-10 hoops podcast which makes its debut this week, 18 and Life. It's co-hosted by myself (one of the founding editors of SBN brother blog CougCenter) and Seth Kolloen, a freelance writer out of the Seattle area who also is the west coast editor at Storming The Floor, an excellent national college basketball blog.

We're both just college basketball junkies who wanted an outlet for talking about our favorite hoops conference.

In this first episode, we talk about why this should be the most exciting Pac-10 race in years, whether Ernie Kent should be on the hot seat, who the favorites are for player of the year, and more. There's a little something in there for every Pac-10 fan, and we do spend a bit of time breaking down the Sun Devils' chances of winning the conference. Also, Derek Glasser is Seth's dark horse candidate for Pac-10 Player of the Year. Hear why.

If you want to listen to the first episode, you can do so via the player below. If you're interested in subscribing, or just want to set a bookmark, you can find our home page here. You can play this episode and all future ones there. You can also follow us via Twitter @18andLIFEhoops. We're not in the iTunes directory yet, but hope to be soon; if you want to manually add the feed, it's http://eighteenandlife.podbean.com/feed.

And if you like it, do us a favor and spread the word. Thanks!

ASU Baseball accused of major NCAA violations

2009-12-18T00:07:10Z

AZ Republic LINK

I think we know why Pat Murphy was fired now....

Even the dreaded "lack of institutional control" phrase is dropped. This could get ugly -- and not just for the baseball program.

A portion of the notice obtained by The Republic shows that ASU is being accused of at least nine violations. A key one is that the university lacks "institutional control."

"It is alleged that the institution violated the principles of institutional control in that it failed to ensure adequate systems to monitor for compliance and provide adequate NCAA rules education involving the baseball program and student athletes," the NCAA stated on Page 15 of its notice.

The notice refers to infractions involving telephone-recruiting violations, impermissible coaching activities, employment of student athletes and relationships with outside contractors. The partial report contained few details.

ASU President Michael Crow and Lisa Love, vice president for athletics, declined to comment on the allegations.

"ASU is working with the NCAA on an investigation of the university's baseball program involving allegations of infractions of NCAA legislation," ASU spokesman Virgil Renzulli said in an e-mail Wednesday.

"This is an ongoing process, and we do not currently have an estimate for the completion of the effort and the release of results," Renzulli wrote.

Murphy also declined to comment on the allegations, on the advice of his attorneys.

"It is very frustrating that I am unable to set the record straight and state my side of the story," he said Wednesday.

If the NCAA finds a major violation occurred, it would be ASU's ninth such case since 1953, more than any other school in the country. ASU is now tied for violations with Southern Methodist University in Texas, which was given the "death penalty" by the NCAA in the 1980s when it banned the football program from competing for three years.

In November 2005, the NCAA put ASU on two years of probation for a lack of institutional control and impermissible financial aid. That case involved former football player Loren Wade receiving improper benefits from an athletic-department employee.

The NCAA also found that 61 athletes received impermissible financial aid from 2002 to 2004 and that athletes were improperly given books to sell for personal gain.

Penalties for a repeat case of lack of institutional control could include a prohibition of competition, including some or all postseason games. Penalties also could result in elimination of scholarships and recruiting restrictions in baseball.

Outside of baseball, the university could face multiyear probation, suspension or termination of staff and ASU officials being banned from NCAA leadership positions for up to four years.

ASU fires Offensive Coordinator Rich Olson

2009-12-04T00:06:36Z

Link to article

Arizona State is in the market for a new offensive coordinator.

Dennis Erickson said Thursday that he is not bringing Rich Olson back for a fourth season, the first coordinator-level change since Erickson became head coach in 2007. The move comes after a second consecutive losing season, the first of Erickson college career, in which ASU was 90th or below nationally in total, rushing and scoring offense.

2 words: Thank God

So let the speculation begin on the new OC....

Biggest Surprise So Far

2009-11-30T19:47:14Z

From espn.com's Weekly Watch
"Biggest surprise so far: Arizona State's ability to score. Herb Sendek's Sun Devils are averaging 75 points a game, Derek Glasser is scoring 13.2 (24 against LSU) and the Sun Devils look like a legit top-five contender in the Pac-10. Who had that?"

Erickson the athlete

2009-11-25T04:30:53Z

It is common knowledge that Dennis Erickson has been coaching longer than man has had the use of fire and has been up and down between the pros and college ranks more times than a see saw. What I somehow managed to overlook for many years is that he was a football player before he even thought of roaming the sidelines. He wasn't too shabby of a QB. Check out his player profile at the link below.

Erickson before coaching

Sullivan Out, Brock In

2009-11-13T04:05:24Z

Link to story

Arizona State quarterback Danny Sullivan will not play at No. 13 Oregon on Saturday because of a biceps injury that prevented him from practicing this week.

The senior will travel with the team, coach Dennis Erickson said Thursday, to provide sideline support for Brock Osweiler, a true freshman making his first start, and sophomore backup Samson Szakacsy.

As happy as I am about Brock getting an opportunity -- I'm not very optimistic about his first start coming at Autzen.

Jeffcoat still has ASU on his list

2009-09-30T18:15:49Z

At 6 foot 5 inches, 230 pounds, Jeffcoat has drawn comparisons to such greats as Julius Peppers with his lean, long body and athleticism.

And a few weeks ago, as first reported in The Dallas Morning News, Jeffcoat narrowed his college choices down to six schools with signing day coming on Feb. 3. While many athletes choose to commit early, Jeffcoat is likely to wait right up until signing day or even until the day itself to reveal the lucky school.

Jeffcoat's list now reads as follows: Arizona State, Florida, Houston, Oklahoma, Texas and USC.

Reads like a wishlist of schools for potential college players to go, with the exception of one -- Houston.

But the Cougars are on the rise under head coach Mike Sumlin, and oh yeah, there's one more thing, Papa Jim is an assistant coach under Sumlin. If the Cougars were to land Jeffcoat it would be one of the greatest recruiting coups of all time.

Article on Jeffcoat

AWESOME ASU FANS

2009-09-28T21:44:01Z

Every ASU fan we met in Athens this weekend was great. We thank all of you that made the trip, and I thank everyone for the great time we had in Tempe.

We met a large group of Sun Devils that came out and partied with us like they were at home, and we gave them a shout out on our blog.

You can see the post here: http://bubbanearl.blogspot.com/2009/09/moustache-nation-from-arizona-state.html

ASU lands 7'2" center from Canada

2009-09-22T22:43:28Z

Just saw on Scout and Rivals that ASU has signed a 7'2" 245lb kid from Canada for next years class. I have been trying to find more information on him but I know he went onto a 2 year Mormon mission already so he should be good to go next year. Rivals says the kid has a huge upside so hopefully along with the signing of the 5 star Kaela King ASU should be back to really good in a year.

Nice work Herb!!

For all you Rudy lovers/haters

2009-09-03T13:09:15Z

Rudy Carpenter is going to get alot of playing time in the Cowboys/Vikings game tomorrow night. I figured most on here will revel in the chance to watch him fail, so there's your chance. He doesn't have a very good shot of making the roster, but a spot on the practice squad could be a possibility.

I imagine Andrew Walter will get a lot of playing time for the Pats this weekend too.