Arizona State cannot be kept down

Ladies and gentlemen, you can sleep easy tonight. The Arizona State men's basketball team has won a Pac-10 game.

(Sigh of relief)

That's right. The Sun Devils, which brought an 0-14 record into a Sunday date with USC, left with their first win of the calendar year, beating the No. 22 Trojans 68-58.

While the glass of whatever it is they drink at ASU will be half full all week, USC coach Tim Floyd's glass will be half empty. And that's not good for Floyd.

Timmy already has the look of a guy who comes home from a brutally boring job -- regional manager or a paper distribution company perhaps -- loosens the tie, pours himself a healthy glass of Maker's Mark, takes it in one sip, loosens the tie some more, and pours another. (OK, so we already made that joke over at The 'House, but hey, new jokes are hard).

Back to Arizona State. The 'Devils were led by Jeff Pendergraph's 14 points and 15 rebounds and the fans stormed the court, which we think is sorta neat. Hey, they've had nothing to cheer about thus far, so why not pretend they just made the Tourney? The players did not seem as excited by the win and probably thought that at least they won't be the answer to some trivia question down the road.

As for Herb Sendek, well, it's his first Pac-10 win. He'll probably celebrate with two hookers and some blow. Just a thought.

In other news: The West beat the East 153-132 in the NBA All-Star game after the East decided to only play three players at a time.