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Per the ASU Basketball Facebook page, Rihards Kuksiks is back in town.

This is a positive sign for the Sun Devils, who are now very deep and look to be a contender for the 2010-2011 Pac-10 title.

Cross-posted at SB Nation Arizona.

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There is no doubt about it: Arizona State basketball is on the rise.

After recruiting seven quality players for this upcoming season, including hyped talent Keala King, coach Herb Sendek has already garnered a commitment from the 10th best point guard in the 2011 class.

His name? Jahii Carson. His current location? Mesa. Local recruitment will only boost the team's profile in the area, building up the fanbase through regional commitment and an emphasis on high quality basketball.

Why would Carson, considered the 49th best overall player in the class, come to ASU? Playing time.

"I had a couple visits going to check out other schools, but I just felt like staying at home and playing immediately was the best option for me," Carson said.

He thought of his grandmother, the only one he has left. She lives in Mesa and Carson wanted to make sure she had a chance to keep seeing him play.

He thought of ASU coach Herb Sendek, who gave it to him straight throughout his recruitment."He keeps it real with me," Carson said. "He never gave me any nonsense."

Lets take a look at a video that showcases this young man's incredible athletic ability. He's going to make us extremely versatile next season.

Last fall, expectations were low for Herb Sendek's ASU squad after losing James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph to the NBA. Most publications picked the Sun Devils to finish between 7th and 9th in the Pac-10.

Fortunately for ASU, the Pac-10 experienced a precipitous downturn in basketball quality, which allowed for the Devils to win 22 games and come one win away from sharing the regular season Pac-10 title with Cal. 

After the season, we saw ASU lose seven players (three graduated, four transferred). Here they are, in descending order of importance:

1. Derek Glasser, PG. Glasser graduated as the all-time assist leader, and his scrappy play made him quite popular in Tempe.

2. Eric Boateng, C. Boateng stepped up nicely in his senior season and replaced Pendergraph's big body in the middle of that match-up zone for Sendek.

3. Jerren Shipp, G. Shipp was a selfless player who worked hard for Sendek. In the process, he earned playing time over a lot of more talented players, but ultimately Shipp was not a good basketball player. With his departure, we are losing a lot of hustle and heart.

4. Demetrius Walker, SG. Hailed as the next LeBron James out of high school, Walker never saw consistent playing time as the season went by and decided to transfer. He has committed to New Mexico.

5. Taylor Rohde, F. Rohde is slow for his height (6'8") and knew he wasn't going to get playing time, even after Boateng's departure. No one will notice he is gone.

6. Victor Rudd, F. Rudd was put into games during mop up duty, and would try his best to shoot as quickly as possible. He never seemed to make a shot. He looked extremely athletic but did not fit into the system.

7. Brandon Thompson, G. Only saw the floor once or twice, I believe. Did not contribute much.

From a departure standpoint, seven players is a big number, but Sendek has successfully recruited seven new players to fill the void.

Next time, I'll break down the seven new recruits. In part three of this mini-series, we will project the 2010-2011 Sun Devils and their chances at making the Big Dance.

If there is a theme that sums up the short couple of weeks that have passed since the Devils loss to Jacksonville, it might be one of abandoning ship.  It has been a tumultuous offseason so far with 3 players defecting from the Devils and finding a new gym to call home.  Brandon Thompson, Demetrius Walker, and Taylor Rohde have all decided to hang up their Sun Devil jerseys and move on from Herb Sendek's system.  

It is understandable, to me, that Thompson left, as he rarely saw the court and with the influx of talent entering the system this year would likely have been buried on the depth chart a la Christian Polk, Kraidon Woods, and other players who've left the Devils.  Rohde seemed somewhat lost on the court and I don't think he truly is the answer down low.  With Pateev and Bachynski, the Devils aren't much worse off with the loss of Mr. Rohde.  

Walker...hmmm.  Could this be one of those situations where in 2 years we wonder what could've been of the Devils had Walker stayed?  I'm not sure.  He showed flashes of his athleticism, but showed the weakness of his jump shot.   It would've been nice to see what would've come of Walker, as his time of the court most likely would've been increased next year.  We lost some talent, but hopefully can make it up with this years incoming recruiting class. 

Speaking of the recruiting class, it isn't complete.  Herb is working hard to pull-in another player or two.  He is chasing after the #7 SG in the nation Trey Zeigler.  Zeigler will visit Tempe this week along with JUCO PF Dwight McCombs. McCombs is deciding between Arkansas, Auburn, Minnesota, Murray State, and of course, ASU.  McCombs originally went to Miami of Ohio, before transferring to play at the junior college level.  Either Zeigler and/or McCombs would make a very good incoming class a great incoming class.

Here's a good viewer for all of you working fans who want to watch BYU and Florida, or any of the other great games on today.

As of right now, BYU just went on an 8-0 run to take a 29-28 lead with a few minutes left in the first half. Notre Dame is beating ODU and Robert Morris is playing very tough against 2 seeded Villanova. Lets talk about March Madness right here!

We knew this was coming. Heck, I saw Rihards Kuksiks and Ty Abbott at the Royals/A's spring training game during the selection show, so I had a feeling we knew our destination long before 6:00 EST rolled around.

We are a  #1 seed in the 2010 NIT, and you can get the bracket here. The best part about this? Arizona didn't even make the NIT. As a matter of fact, we're the only Pac-10 school. Thus, the CBI may represent us well.

ASU takes on #8 seed Jacksonville, the regular season Atlantic Sun champions, on Tuesday evening at 8:00 in Wells Fargo Arena. The Sun Devils, should they win, would play the winner of the Seton Hall/Texas Tech match up.

All in all, this is what we expected. I am a little surprised we are hosting again, but it is deserved for being 22-10, I guess. I'd ask you to show up on Tuesday, but I won't. The game will be on ESPN2.

While I'll quickly admit that it has been more laziness than anything else thats kept me from writing up a bracketology report.  It's back.  We've been in and out of the last four in, last four out, next four out over the past few weeks .  With Thursday rolling around, my excitement for basketball is in full swing.   Right now, Lunardi has us as a 12 seed against the Aggies of Texas A&M.

Can we beat the Aggies?  The 22-8 Aggies have quietly put together a great season.  Their worst loss was to the Washington Huskies, proving how well they have played.  But if UW can beat them, so can we.  And we will.  Our defense is something unseen to the Big 12 outside of Baylor and we all saw how tough it was for Baylor to pull the win off in Tempe.  Shipp comes off the bench to help carry us into the 2nd round like he has done much of the past few weeks. 

2nd Round... Rematch.   Bring on SDSU.  Yep you've got it.  12  seed vs. 13 seed.  Who wins?  ASU handled the Aztecs from tip off to the last horn.  No reason to think that it wouldn't happen again.  Abbott and Kuksiks team up to shoot lights out from the outside and carry the Devils to the oh so sweet 16.  How are the Devils, predicted to be 7th/8th/9th in the Pac-10 in the Sweet 16?  Destiny.  Herb Sendek.

3rd Round....Rematch.  Bring on Syracuse.  Can we win? Nope.  Not a chance.  They are even better than last year and we are significantly less talented.  Talent wins out in the tournament and while we might hang with them for a half, they'll blow us away by the end.  There is no way around it.  Syracuse to the Final Four.

For now...BEAT THE CARDINAL!