Arizona State’s Lethal Weapon Lights Up Pac-10

He has a jump shot to die for and a name that begs for a bad pun.

Eddie House has been, well, a House on fire for Arizona State.

The senior guard with “Lethal Weapon” tattooed on his left arm has overcome two coaching changes and some off-court stumbles to emerge as one of the most dynamic players in college basketball.

“Anybody who won’t come see Eddie House play, they don’t like basketball,” Sun Devils coach Rob Evans said. “We’ll win championships here, but I don’t know that we’ll ever see another guy offensively who can do the things he can do.”

The last player left from the Bill Frieder era, and the only senior on the team, House is among the top scorers in the country at 24 points a game.

The 6-foot-1 House is a shooting guard in Evans’ system, but he and his coach have no doubt he can be an NBA point guard.

House has a dazzling array of moves. On his jumper, his elevation is Jordanesque in its quickness and height. When the ball leaves his hand, it floats in a high, graceful arch. If someone guards him too close, he has a lightning first step to the hoop.

With help from that speed, he has gone on a scoring binge that began after an 0-for-16 shooting nightmare at BYU on Dec. 7. He was, the joke went, a brick House.

The way he responded showed how much he has grown in his four college seasons.

“I became more responsible for my actions,” House said. “Before, I pointed a lot of fingers, blamed other people.”

In his last nine games, he has averaged 32.4 points, and that’s including his off night in a loss against USC in Los Angeles on Thursday, when he wound up with 13 points.

If history is any indication, the slump won’t last.

In his first game after BYU, at home against San Diego State, House was 18-for-29 and scored 46. In a tournament in Tempe just after Christmas, he scored 31 against Bucknell and 42 against Penn State.

Then came Jan. 8 in Berkeley when House tied Lew Alcindor’s 33-year-old Pac-10 record with 61 points in the Sun Devils’ 111-108 double-overtime victory over Cal. House was 18-for-30 from the field, 7-for-10 from 3-point range and 18-for-19 at the foul line while playing all 50 minutes.

He could not have picked a better scene for his masterpiece.

“The main reason that made it so sweet is it was done in front of my mom,” House said. “That was maybe her fourth game seeing me in person. Being it was my senior year, it was great for that, and then just for my family and friends who live in the Bay area, that’s what made it the sweetest.”

House grew up nearby. His mother had worked in the mail room at Cal. As a high school star, House desperately wanted to follow in the footsteps of his idol Jason Kidd and play for the Golden Bears. But Cal’s coach at the time, Todd Bozeman, didn’t even call.

The transition to college was rough. In his first two seasons, House got into a brief fight with Arizona’s A.J. Bramlett in a restaurant and had a shouting match with teammate Bobby Lazor during a practice.

In summer 1997, House was accused of helping a teammate steal a CD player. The charges against House were later dropped when he convinced authorities he was innocent.

When Evans left Mississippi to take over at Arizona State in 1998, House thought briefly about transferring, but he didn’t want to sit out a year or adjust to another school.

He found out about Evans’ no-nonsense approach in a hurry when he missed a summer school class and was ordered to show up for a five-mile run at 5 a.m. House showed up at 4:30.

“They were testing me,” House said. “I showed up early just to make a statement that I’m not the person that everybody portrayed me to be.”

There was never any doubt about his toughness.

As a freshman, House chipped several teeth in a game but played the next day after three root canals.

As a junior, he was told he should sit out a month after breaking his jaw in practice. But he came back after four days and averaged 19 points in six games with his jaw wired shut.

As he has gained Evans’ respect, House has become the unquestioned leader of a team that includes six freshmen.

“What Eddie is doing this year, not just the scoring but by the leadership and work ethic that he’s showing, will set the tone for this program for 20 years,” Evans said.

At practice, House is always moving. During breaks, he practices shooting. During conditioning sprints, he is at the head of the pack.

House has heeded Evans’ persistent advice that he’s too good not to give it his best.

“I’m not going to let myself wallow in mediocrity,” House said. “I just come out and run as hard as I can and just push myself. If I’m in front, I expect some of the players to come up and challenge me. If I’m second, I’m definitely going to challenge them.”