Super soph Harden stepping up his game for Sun Devils

 He was already good, but a second November has been a boon for Arizona State sophomore James Harden. Only the scoreboard mattered.

Raw numbers meant nothing, so after a hellacious 26-point second half in which James Harden single-handedly tried to bring the Arizona State men’s basketball team back out of the gutter, it wasn’t good enough.

Harden finished with 32 points, four 3-pointers, 10 free throws, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals in a loss to Baylor at the Anaheim Classic.

Worthless.

The sophomore was also part of the biggest reason the Sun Devils fell, though he certainly wasn’t alone. ASU couldn’t defend Baylor’s drives to the basket or outside shots.

After the game and locker room lecture, the team returned to their hotel and Harden decided to go to ASU assistant Scott Pera’s room for a couple hours to vent.

Harden’s — and the team’s — defense wasn’t good enough, and he knew it. Every postgame analysis from Harden is about defense and deflecting praise to his teammates.

His own praise and adoration from his freshman season meant enormous expectations this season, ones Harden has done nothing but ramp up to an even higher level through the first month.

He’s fifth in the nation in scoring (26.3 points per game) and leads the team in rebounding (7.0) as a guard. He’s more efficient (86 points in his last 68 minutes) and energetic (four assists per game) thanks to offseason conditioning and some NBA-style camp appearances, including ones hosted by Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce, where he’d play against NBA or NBA-caliber players, and “he had to be good all the time or he’d get embarrassed,” according to Pera.

And, of course, a year going around the college basketball block helps.

“I’m starting to get back into a groove,” Harden said. “Playing a lot better and obviously shooting the ball real well, but being in attack mode, more aggressive. Trying to get teammates open shots. Once I’m being more aggressive, my teammates get more open shots and it helps the offense a lot more, too.”

He dominated in stretches last season, including several late-game situations against Arizona, Washington and Stanford where he couldn’t be stopped and the Sun Devils won late.

Emphasis on stretches.

“Another point people miss out is playing and being all you can be for 40 minutes,” Pera said. “He could do 18- to 20- to 22-minute segments and had to rest or would be tired. Now he’s able to sustain great energy for longer periods of time, and that’s the biggest difference to me.”

Even teammates, who’ve been asked about the former McDonald’s All-American since Day One and probably could have run out of superlatives by now, have seen him evolve.

Uninterested in the spotlight, his three 30-point scoring nights (including the third 40-point night in school history against UTEP two days after the Baylor loss) felt like ho-hum affairs.

Harden requires few shots and shoots a lot of free throws, which isn’t attention-grabbing, but adds up quickly.

“Yeah, it’s crazy, because it doesn’t really seem like he’s doing that,” senior Jeff Pendergraph said.

“You’ll just watch and he’ll get a couple buckets, and you’ll be like, 'All right, he has 10. Cool, cool.’ And then he’ll mellow out for a bit, (but) then the next thing I know, I’m looking up at the (scoreboard) and I’m like, 'Yo, is that like 30-something? Are you kidding me? Where the heck did he get 30 points from?’ It’s insane.”

Defense will always be at the forefront of Sendek’s attention, which means it will be on his players’ minds as well. So, too, is taking care of the basketball.

Those are a couple reasons why Harden and his teammates believe there’s more in store. Whatever his “ceiling” is as a player, no one said they can see it.

“I know him pretty well, and he’s not there yet in terms of reaching his full potential,” Pera said. “I hope he’s there sometime in March.”

Nebraska at No. 19 ASU
When: Noon today
Where: Wells Fargo Arena
TV/Radio: FSN Arizona/KTAR (620 AM)

Outlook:
Arizona State: Things looked promising very early in last year’s meeting between these teams, but ASU committed 13 turnovers in the first half alone (19 for the game), trailed by nine at halftime and never threatened. Opponents have a 28-rebound advantage (80-52) on the offensive glass on ASU this season. The Sun Devils are off for a week until they play IUPUI as part of the Desert Classic at US Airways Center next Sunday.

Nebraska: The undefeated Huskers (6-0) concluded a four-game homestand by blowing out Alabama State, in which Nebraska hit nine 3-pointers in the first half. They’ve also beaten a solid TCU team on the road, as well as Creighton. Four players average at least eight points per game, led by Steve Harley (12.8 ppg), but their bread-and-butter is a pressure defense. Of the 112 turnovers forced by Nebraska thus far, 59 have been steals.

James Harden: Better with age
First 7 games of 2007
Field goals:    41-for-73 (.562)
3-pointers:    6-for-13 (.462)
Free throws:    32-for-38 (.842)
Rebounds:    40 (5.7 per game)
Assists:    14 (2 per game)
Steals:    13 (1.9 per game)

First 7 games of 2008
Field goals:    57-for-98 (.582)
3-pointers:    16-for-32 (.500)
Free throws:    54-for-66 (.818)
Rebounds:    49 (7 per game)
Assists:          28 (4 per game)
Steals:              13 (1.9 per game)