Arizona State Basketball: Crown the Sun Devils as Pac-12 favorites in 2020-21

With both of Arizona State Basketball’s draft decisions favoring the Sun Devils, they are now the favorites to win the Pac-12 in 2020-21.

This has been a weekend of unprecedented good news across the board in college basketball. One of the teams celebrating more than most reside in Tempe, where Arizona State Basketball is gearing up for a Pac-12 title run.

On Sunday afternoon, the team announced that Remy Martin would be withdrawing from the NBA Draft and returning to school for his senior year. His decision sets Arizona State down a path that should result in a conference championship in 2020-21.

As a junior, Martin developed into one of the best scorers in the country. The guard averaged 19.1 points per game while maintaining an assist average of 4.1 per game. He shot 43.2 percent from the field, just outside of a top ten mark in the Pac-12. His steals and free throw percentage also ranked near the top of the conference (as did his turnovers).

Martin finished First Team All-Pac-12 in 2019-20 and will start out on the preseason squad next year. He may even be a preseason All-American and should be the preseason Pac-12 Player of the Year. Essentially, his return gives coach Bobby Hurley an unbelievable asset: the undisputed best player in the conference with a maximum amount of experience in the program.

Martin’s return alone makes the Sun Devils dangerous. Paired with the news from a couple of weeks ago that Alonzo Verge Jr. would be returning as well and the Sun Devils are destined to be unstoppable on the offensive end next year. Arizona State now brings back their two top scorers from a year ago and two of the top 14 scorers from the Pac-12 in 2019-20.

In addition to the scoring guards, Arizona State is also bringing in Josh Christopher, one of the most hyped recruits in the history of the program. It’s possible the Sun Devils will have both the best-combined trio of players and the three best individual players in the Pac-12 next season.

Kimani Lawrence and Jalen Graham will likely end up rounding out the starting lineup. Neither showed a ton last season, but the latter was a freshman and both should be able to be competent enough to play alongside the stars.

All offseason, the conversation around the Pac-12 has centered around the lack of an elite team headed into 2020-21. There are decent teams, including Oregon, Arizona, UCLA, maybe even Stanford. But Arizona State has now separated itself from the pack as the one team with the potential to be elite next year.

It should be noted that a Pac-12 title would be historic for the Sun Devils. They would’ve made their third straight NCAA Tournament trip last season had the coronavirus not scuttled it. They’ve won eight regular-season conference titles, but none of them have come in the Pac-12; their most recent conference title came in the WAC in 1975, three years before Arizona State switched conferences.

Next season could be special for Arizona State. With Remy Martin back in the fold, a historic first Pac-12 title should be in the offing for the Sun Devils.