Unicorns kiss passionately. A shirtless man strums a pink guitar. A shark eats somebody’s head. A big bearded dude in underwear swings around Miley Cyrus’ wrecking ball suggestively.
And Herb Sendek keeps his game face on, no matter what ASU students do while opponents shoot free throws.
“I’m obviously well aware of it,” the ASU coach said about his student section’s increasingly well-known “Curtain of Distraction.” “But to be completely honest, during the course of the game, it’s not something I notice or pay attention to. But it does provide us with outstanding free-throw shooting defense.”
Does it? Lo and behold, the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective has already begun looking into this.
In a paper published just this week, the Harvard folks said opposing teams are shooting 8 percent less from the line (just 60.6 percent) this season in the second halves of games, when they must shoot while facing ASU students.
What’s more, after digging into it with further statistical analysis (something about “Z-scores” and “p-values”), author Austin Tymins estimated that the Curtain is actually worth an average of about 1.41 points per game to the Sun Devils.
Certainly, if nothing else, it’s been worth much more than that in free exposure for the sometimes unremarkable Sun Devils.
ASU has been struggling all season to incorporate a rash of junior college transfers, lost a fast-rising point guard (Kodi Justice) to a season-ending foot injury, and no longer can mop up defensive mistakes with now-departed shot-blocker Jordan Bachynski.
The Sun Devils are 3-6 in Pac-12 play, though they have three wins and an overtime loss to Oregon over their past five games. They also take more three-pointers than any other team in Pac-12 play, which can make them worth a look if they get hot.
“They’ve changed quite a bit,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “They have so many weapons behind the arc.”
But even if the Sun Devils don’t hit many of those threes — they only average 34.4 percent in Pac-12 games — they can always foul somebody in the second half and get the “Curtain” going.
That will gain attention every time. Just go to YouTube and search “curtain distraction,” or Google the same for all the details in written form.
There’s lots of talk, and lots of examples. Once the referee hands the ball to the free-throw shooters, the curtain is opened to reveal the latest goofiness.
Screaming “babies” in diapers. A big guy doing squats in tight pink shorts. A kayaker in midair.
Who knows what pops out Saturday?
“Their creativity has fast become legend,” Sendek said. “I think a lot of people are really getting a kick out of it. Last year, during March Madness, CBS did a special. It seems like I’ve done more interviews about the Curtain of Distraction than any other topic.”
In one sense, the curtain vs. UA’s free-throw shooting might be the most compelling matchup. The Wildcats lead the Pac-12 in free-throw shooting during conference games at the midway point (76.2 percent) but they were also wildly inconsistent from the line (64.9 percent) during nonconference play.
That might suggest the mental game — or some form of distraction — sometimes affects them at the line. Yet, during last year’s UA-ASU game at Wells Fargo Arena, the curtain appeared to have no effect on the Wildcats.
In their double-overtime loss at ASU last season, when the “Curtain” antics were in their infancy, the Wildcats shot 56 percent from the line over the second half and two overtime periods.
While that was a miserable percentage that contributed to the Wildcats’ 69-66 loss, Arizona was even worse (2 for 5) in the first half while shooting the other direction.
Plus, there’s also the fact that Arizona went just 4 for 16 from three-point range during that game, with top shooter Gabe York missing all four bombs he took and all six shots overall.
For York and the Wildcats, the “Curtain” was in front of the basket.
And it never retracted.
“Not being able to go out there and help my team — that was a very personal thing for me,” York said of last year’s game. “I’m challenging myself not to go out and chuck up shots but just play a really good basketball game.”
