Notebook | Sendek reaction to 'hustle play' earns an ejection

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Arizona State coach Herb Sendek thought it was an "all-time great hustle play."

Washington's Ryan Appleby had a different opinion of Arizona State's Antwi Atuahene diving into him as he was in pursuit of a loose ball.

"A foul's a foul," he said.

The officials agreed with Appleby, setting off the craziest sequence of Washington's 66-61 win over Arizona State on Thursday night.

The Sun Devils were in the midst of cutting deeply into Washington's 44-21 halftime lead, having crawled to 48-38 when Atuahene poked the ball away from Appleby and into backcourt. As the two scrambled for the ball, Atuahene dove for the ball and knocked Appleby down.

"He took my legs out from under me," Appleby said. "It's not like it was inadvertent contact. He dove beneath my legs."

A foul was called on Atuahene, setting off a round of loud booing from a crowd that officially numbered 7,164 but seemed half that in reality.

Sendek then raised his arms as if to implore the crowd to boo louder, and was whistled for a technical. When he didn't stop, he got another technical.

"Coach violated rule 1096, inciting an undesirable response from the crowd, after he had been asked not to do that," official Michael Reed said in a statement after the game.

Sendek disagreed, saying he merely wanted the crowd to applaud the hustle of Atuahene. "This was Pete Rose times 10 head-first dive into third base," he said.

Sendek said he continued because "I thought after I had explained myself, it was all right."

Appleby, who made all four technical-foul free throws, said he thought Sendek "was trying to get his team some motivation. The crowd was kind of into it and [Sendek] saw they were coming back and he thought he'd get his team more fired up if they [the crowd] got more fired up."

Burm comes up big

Senior walk-on Brandon Burmeister played 11 minutes, nine in the second half as Washington staved off ASU's rally. Coach Lorenzo Romar said Burmeister was put in the game to lend some stability.

"He's a senior and he's been in big games before," Romar said.

With about a minute left and UW ahead just 61-58, Burmeister made what Romar said might have been the play of the game. ASU's Jerren Shipp appeared to have a steal of an errant Appleby pass, but Burmeister hustled and got the ball back as Shipp wildly tried to throw it downcourt.

A few seconds later, Justin Dentmon hit a shot to put the Huskies up by five.

"He didn't quit on the play," Romar said. "He hustled. That's why he was in there."

Said Burmeister: "Coaches always stress to get back in the play. That's what I was trying to do."