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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAY

October 28, 2011

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Let's start with Arizona State coach Herb Sendek and junior guard Trent Lockett. Coach, an opening statement?
COACH SENDEK: Thank you. Appreciate you coming today. It's great to be together with you. It's hard to believe we're ready to start another season already. I'm particularly pleased to be here with Trent Lockett, a young man we're incredibly proud of at Arizona State. He had a terrific first year as a freshman making the all-newcomer team, and then last year I thought he really had an outstanding sophomore year, earning all-conference honors.
I know Trent's worked incredibly hard in preparation for this coming season, and we anticipate him to have a breakthrough year now as an upperclassman.
Like all teams at this time of the year, we're working hard to get better. Trying to take advantage of every opportunity to improve, but the season pounces on you quickly. We open up November 11, which is startlingly right around the corner.
But our guys have shown good energy, good enthusiasm in practice. We've had a good time working together on the court, and looking forward to the season ahead.

Q. You have a lot of guys coming back, but outside the guys sitting right next to you, where do you expect to get some of your scoring?
COACH SENDEK: Sure, well, Trent is our leading returning scorer from last year. And really other than Trent, we don't have somebody who has put a lot of points on the board yet in their career.
So I don't know that we can look to any one individual in particular. I think we're going to have to be a team that really works to get each other baskets. We're a team that hopefully at some point will achieve some synergy. Then we're going to have to be very much a unit that is productive team offense and team defense.
You know, the other thing is as any season moves along, different guys are going to emerge. Guys are going to be thrust into different roles and have opportunities that perhaps in the past they didn't have.
But, obviously, when you look at it on paper right now, Trent is the one guy who has consistently put points on the board so far to this point in his career.

Q. What is the latest on Jahii Carson and what have you guys been doing in the meanwhile without him?
COACH SENDEK: Yeah, I'm not at liberty to say very much with respect to Jahii for obvious privacy reasons, but we remain hopeful that he'll be able to join us some time in the near future.

Q. Trent, what are some of your special goals for yourself and the team during the off-season that you made?
TRENT LOCKETT: The biggest goal for me this year is just to go out and win. That is the biggest thing. We had a tough year last year. So personally I'm just going out every night trying to do the best I can to help my team.
As a team, I think to just improve every game and work every day in practice and make sure our intensity is where it needs to be, I think we'll have a pretty good season.

Q. What do you know about Colorado and Utah basketball? What do you think they add to the conference?
COACH SENDEK: Sure. I think everybody's tremendously excited with our conference expansion, the impact it's had in our ability to negotiate a new television contract, increase our geographic footprint.
Colorado and Utah are both outstanding universities. Each has had a tremendous history in athletics, and I think that the Pac-12 is really poised moving forward to continue to be an outstanding conference. Commissioner Scott and his staff have done a remarkable job positioning us very well.

Q. Herb, how does it change you guys if Jahii Carson is ineligible this year?
COACH SENDEK: Well, I mean, one of the mandates you have in sports is to always coach and play the guys who are available. And sometimes you have to overcome injuries and other adversities that make it more difficult, and also make it more incumbent for the guys that are available to step up and produce.
So our approach has been from the beginning that we're going to work with the guys who are available to us, and take it from there. Obviously, Jahii is a very talented young player. Like I said, we remain hopeful that he'll be with us sooner rather than later.

Q. Coach, after finishing the last season 12-19, what changes have been implemented to improve on that regard and get out of the Pac-12 basement?
COACH SENDEK: Yeah, we're always working to improve even coming off our best years. We had gone to three straight postseason plays prior to last year. We worked hard to improve.
The great thing about sports is each year presents a new beginning. Our team is entirely different than it was a year ago. We lost three guy in Jamelle, Ty, and Rick who finished their career with more wins than any other players in the history of Arizona State basketball in a four-year period.
But we have to work to replace them. We're working to incorporate some new guys that we have and guys like Trent who return for us, I think are excited about expanding their roles and having a great season.

Q. Any thoughts on the new NCAA rule changes and the opportunity to have more access to kids during the summer and during the April, unlimited phone calls? What are your thoughts on some of the package reforms that have come out?
COACH SENDEK: I think in the most general sense, I'm a strong proponent of deregulation. Over the years with good intent, with intelligent rationale, it seems like we continue to add layer upon layer of rules. In many cases, those rules have created chasms between coaches and players, coaches and perspective players. And I think anything we can do to simplify and standardize the rules can go a long way toward helping the member institutions, the coaches, administrators and players.
So I'm a very strong proponent in really in favor of president Emmert's directive to simplify. I think we've taken some steps in that direction. I'm also along those lines very happy to see increased access.

Q. As a basketball coach, did you guys ever feel almost left out in all the talks about conference realignment? Basketball hasn't exactly been in the forefront in all of this. Are you guys getting forgotten, or is it just proof of how much football drives everything?
COACH SENDEK: Sure, you know, I never feel forgotten or not included. When the conference is realigned, it's obviously for all sports. With some minor exception, I guess there is some discussion about some teams joining leagues for football only. It's obvious as your question represents, football drives a lot of the decisions, and I think we all understand that, but that doesn't make us feel bad.

Q. Looking ahead to the March tournament, now with the expansion to 12. Now you have 12 teams playing in the tournament. How good an opportunity is that for more of the conference teams to actually make the NCAA Tournament with more exposure now especially coming with the TV deal?
COACH SENDEK: Yeah, I don't think that more teams playing in a tournament necessarily increases the likelihood that we'll have more teams in the tournament. I think that's relative, and I think some other conferences, as they expand, have a similar dynamic.
It does seem though that there is considerable weight given to games played that last weekend by the selection committee, but I don't know by adding two more teams and increasing the tournament another day, that that necessarily increases the percentages of us having more teams in the tournament, especially with the committee's stance that they're going to consider the whole body of work.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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