TEMPE, ARIZ. - They call themselves the Herbivores. Without any reference to plant-eating animals, student fans at Arizona State created the moniker and accompanying T-shirt last season to pay homage to new basketball coach Herb Sendek.

"It makes no sense, but it has a nice ring to it," said ASU senior communications major Jacob Krug, who was sitting in the front row of the student section at Wells Fargo Arena last week in a gold shirt stenciled with a black and white profile of the former N.C. State coach.

Krug's buddy, Jack Leary, helped co-design the shirt with a picture that looks like a play on the work of John Tsombikos, the elusive graffiti artist who two years ago taunted Raleigh with his subversive Borf wall tags.

In considering Sendek -- the coach many N.C. State fans liked to dislike -- they overlooked the "boring offense" gripes, the "dull personality" complaints, the "he can't beat Duke or North Carolina" concerns and welcomed a successful stranger to a place that had never forged a significant basketball tradition.

"We listened, we knew what they were saying," Leary said of State fans. "But we were going to find out for ourselves."

With such an open welcome, Sendek has found a basketball home in the desert where his soft-spoken monotone, highbrow vocabulary, dry wit and 3-point bombing style seem to suit the locals just fine.

He has unapologetically remained himself, though his third head coaching post provides a chance to start over and learn from the diverse experiences he gained in taking over a high-profile ACC program at 33.

"I just strive every day to be a better person, to try to be a better leader and try to coach to the best of my ability," he said.

If Sendek, 44, builds an ASU basketball program with half the consistency he found at N.C. State -- five consecutive NCAA Tournament berths from 2001 to 2006 -- they will crown him a hero and draw his face on T-shirts for years to come.

Sendek, who left the Wolfpack basketball program after 10 seasons as coach, appears cheerful these days, at least until the subject of the Triangle is broached.

Is N.C. State behind him?

"Yes," is the only answer the second-year coach yielded, refusing to talk about the past.

Those around him, like longtime assistant Mark Phelps, say Raleigh is in the rearview mirror. They say without the support of the fan base it was time to leave State and seek new challenges. They say Sendek is happy living in the Phoenix metro area and holds no regrets about leaving.

"He refuses to allow anything that would be construed as negative to occupy his time," Phelps said. "People want to say, 'Are you bitter, are you disappointed, are you anything,' and, honestly, he refuses to let it occupy his time because it's counterproductive. It serves no value.

"So there's no looking back. There's only looking forward. There's no bitterness. There's only excitement and enthusiasm about what's ahead."

And why not? Sendek has landed in a place where people laugh at his jokes.

"Excuse me," he said after coughing during a postgame news conference last week, adding, "I don't smoke, if you were wondering."

Making hoops relevant

Sendek has landed in a place that considers him a winner for amassing a 254-154 record after head coaching stints at Miami (Ohio) and State. His team is 5-2 this season.

He has signed a contract at ASU for roughly $900,000 per year. He has the full support of athletic director Lisa Love, who approached him about the job.

"He's the right guy because of his track record," she said. "He's the right guy because of his character, who he is, who he has always been. And he's confident enough to take a look at Arizona State and think, 'I can build this basketball program.' "

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