Life without Eddie House is taking a major toll on the Arizona State men’s basketball team.
The departed sharpshooter, who currently plays for the NBA’s Miami Heat, carried a team with six true freshman last year to ASU’s best season since the 1994-95 season (19-13 overall, 10-8 Pacific-10 Conference).
The 2000 Pac-10 Player of the Year is sorely missed in Tempe, Ariz., these days as the Sun Devils have yet to secure a league win in seven attempts. Arizona State will try to capture its first Pac-10 victory this week when it visits Oregon State Thursday and Oregon on Sunday.
Hope was high for Arizona State as it stormed out of the gate this season with seven wins in its first nine games.
“We’re ready to get into Pac-10 play,” said Arizona State head coach Rob Evans on the eve of the first league game.
But looking back on the schedule, it’s seen that those wins came against schools such as Winthrop, Southern Utah, Colgate, Kent State, Mercer and Belmont.
Ever since the Pac-10 slate began, it’s been one loss after another, with its closest defeat coming against Washington on the road (68-70, OT).
And, to add salt to the wound, Arizona State had to travel two hours to Tucson Wednesday and endure a mocking chant during its 86-75 loss to rival Arizona.
The Wildcat crowd began chanting “Oh-and-seven!” after Arizona guards Jason Gardner and Gilbert Arenas drained threes to put the Wildcats up by 19 late in the second half.

But, the Sun Devils didn’t go down without a fight — literally. After an Arenas three-pointer went through the net, Arizona’s 7-foot-1 center Loren Woods and Arizona State’s 6-9 forward/center Chad Prewitt went after each other on the floor.
The scuffle escalated when players of both teams jumped in and had to be broken up by the referees. After reviewing television replays of the incident, the officials issued technical fouls to both Woods and Prewitt.
Woods claimed that Prewitt provoked him.
“I kicked him right after he threw an elbow to my face and knocked me down,” Woods told the Tucson Citizen. “I don’t take anything from anybody no matter who they are.”
When relayed Woods’ words, Arizona State head coach Rob Evans blew off the notion that his team played dirty.
“I will not even honor that kind of statement,” Evans said. “It’s ridiculous. We’re the skinniest team in the country.”
The Sun Devils also happen to be one of the thinnest teams in the league in terms of their lineup. They are without the services of sophomores Tanner Shell and Justin Allen for the remainder of the season. Arizona State was also minus Prewitt for four games in January with a sprained ankle.

Shell is out with a broken left hand, while Allen is redshirting this season after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease.
Both are expected to return to action next season.
“We don’t have much margin for error with those guys being out,” Evans said. “It’s been tough, but that’s life. We have to continue to battle and we’ll be better for it.”

Pac-10 in the polls
Stanford remained in the No. 1 spot in both the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll for the fourth straight week.
Arizona climbed to No. 7 in the AP and No. 9 in the coaches poll. The only other team in the top-25 is Southern California, which is No. 21 in the AP and No. 19 in the coaches poll after disposing of both Oregon schools last weekend.