Wednesday, March 11, 1998
Veal proves he's
a cut above the rest
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Jeremy Veal eyes the basket during practice yesterday.
He leads ASU into tonight's game vs. UH
By Cindy Luis
Star-BulletinNeither scandal nor coaching change nor a gloomy prediction of a last-place Pac-10 finish could keep Jeremy Veal from his appointed rounds. The 6-foot-3 guard has continued to deliver for controversy-plagued Arizona State.
It's a job he started his freshman year on a team that won the 1994 Maui Invitational and made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the 1995 NCAA Tournament. Veal has never missed a day of work and tonight will punch in for ASU for the 122nd consecutive game - a first-round NIT contest against host Hawaii.
ASU's all-time leading scorer (1,954 points) has pushed his individual accolades to the back of his mind. Named yesterday to the Associated Press All-America team as an honorable mention, Veal's goal for tonight's game is to make up for his performance in Saturday's 117-71 loss at Southern Cal.
Never mind that Veal was bed-ridden for most of the road trip with a stomach virus and lost nearly 10 pounds. All he thinks about is how he let his team down in the loss that might have kept ASU out of the NCAA Tournament.
"I was very disappointed in myself," said Veal, who had a season-low four points - all on free throws - against the Trojans. "We had so much on the line. SC was a very big game. But now I have a chance to redeem myself. I just want to go out there and play hard. It's gut-check time."
Given the problems surrounding the team before the start of the season, many would have been looking for a pulse at this time, not postseason life. The Sun Devils have survived a point-shaving scandal, the arrest of two players for theft, coach Bill Frieder's resignation in September and having just seven scholarship players to turn in an 18-12 record and a fifth-place finish in the Pac-10 (8-10).
"Think about a family when adversity comes," Veal said after yesterday's practice at the Stan Sheriff Center. "They tend to get closer and closer. Anytime something went wrong, I saw that it brought our players closer.
"Other things happen. People getting hurt. Urit Kelley (a senior forward) loses his dad. Losing to SC by 50 points. It's bonded us together. The bottom line is we still have our pride and we have something to prove."
The Rainbows know how dangerous that combination can be. After being blown out at TCU, 126-84, Hawaii bounced back to win its last five regular-season Western Athletic Conference games.
ASU has several things in common with Hawaii. Both started off hot (ASU 10-2, UH 11-1), both notched big wins over ranked opponents (ASU over Stanford, Hawaii over Indiana and Kansas) and both were given strong consideration for an NCAA at-large bid, feeling the last game of the season is what made the difference.
"This is an important game for both teams," said Veal, who is 29th nationally in scoring average (20.5 points per game).
"The only way you can prove we should have been in the NCAAs is to go out and show the country, 'Hey, we should have be in there,' by playing hard and giving it your all.
"It's not going to be easy for us, in front of a hostile, sold-out crowd. I saw Hawaii beat Kansas and knew they'd be a team to be reckoned with. They really impressed me. Their guards (Anthony Carter and Alika Smith) are as good as any in the country. They're a very, very good team and we're going to have to work hard together to beat them."
The Sun Devils have worked very hard for interim coach Don Newman in rebounding from a 10-20 record a year ago. This season, ASU went 5-9 against teams that made the NCAA Tournament, defeating Stanford, Washington, and Cincinnati, and losing to then-No. 2 Kansas, 90-88, in overtime of the Preseason NIT semifinal.
"It's been a very interesting season, the way it started out," said Newman, the CSU Sacramento coach for five years before taking the ASU job. "It was always one negative after another. The biggest thing I was concerned with was the attitude of the guys and where their psyche would be.
"When I got hired, the only thing I wanted to do was put my arms around these guys and let them know that we could do a lot of good things if we were serious about our commitment. That's what we did. We turned the dial up on our work ethic and our belief.
"Now look at us. We're in the marquee first-round game of the NIT against Hawaii. Two teams that have proven that, on any given night, they can play with anyone in the country. To be on ESPN in the premier game (tonight), that's an indication of how well both teams have done this year."
Veal led ASU in scoring 11 of the last 14 games, is only the fourth Pac-10 player to score 1,900 points and have 400 assists, and is the first ASU player to lead the conference in scoring since Byron Scott in 1983.
"Jeremy, in four years, has probably been through as much as any student-athlete can go through," Newman said.
"Positives and negatives, he came through it all solid. He kept his focus in the classroom and on the court. He stepped it up when he had to. He's just a guy I've leaned on all year long.
"Leading the Pac-10 in scoring is not easy. And he's done it because he's very consistent, not because he's selfish. He's proven he can distribute the ball. He's played the point, the 2 (shooting guard), the 3 (small forward). He's done everything that has been asked of him. He's had a phenomenal career at ASU. Everyone is proud of him, and he should be proud of himself."
