The Arizona State Sun Devils have not received a bid to the NCAA Tournament since the 2022-23 season, meaning they also have not appeared in the tournament since joining the Big 12 in 2024.
The Sun Devils hired former NBA guard Bobby Hurley (brother of UConn head coach Dan Hurley) to be their head coach in April of 2015. The hire was in hopes of bringing the basketball program to a higher level after years of mediocrity. Unfortunately, through 11 season at the helm, Hurley struggled immensely to consistently lead Arizona State to the postseason. He went 185-167 (.526) and the school decided not to renew his contract at the end of the 2025-26 season.
The Randy Bennett era begins
Soon after Arizona State's decision to let Hurley walk, they announced they will be hiring Randy Bennett to be the program's next head coach.
Randy Bennett has spent the past 26 seasons as Saint Mary's (CA)well-respected head coach, where he established himself as one of the most well respected coaches in all of college hoops. He led the Gaels to seven West Coast Conference regular season championships, as well as four conference tournament championships. Impressively enough, Bennett brought the Gaels to 12 NCAA Tournament appearances, and even was named the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year seven different times. All in all, he finished with a 589-228 (.721) record as the man in charge.
Now, Bennett, who is an Arizona native, is set to take on a new challenge with the Sun Devils.
A new coach is not the only new look
If you thought the only change was at head coach... you thought wrong.
In addition to adding Randy Bennett's coaching, the Sun Devils have also brought in a plethora of new talent.
In fact, Bryce Ford is the lone Arizona State player who is returning from last year's team. We can actually expect Ford to be a significant part of this year's new team too. The 6-foot-4 guard, who spent both his freshman and sophomore campaigns at mid-major Toledo, saw action in 27 games last season and starting in 20 of them. He averaged just over 22 minutes played per game, scoring just shy of seven points each match.
Joining Ford this fall will be an army of transfers. Coach Bennett, as coaches frequently do, brought some of his best players to Tempe from Saint Mary's.
Paulius Murauskas, a 6-foot-8 senior forward from Lithuania. Murauskas explained the decision to join his coach in the desert, saying, "I want to finish my college journey with the people who made the last two years so amazing and helped me become who I am now as a person and a player".
The two-time First-Team All WCC player averaged an incredible 18.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game last season, while shooting an eye-popping 48.2% from the field.
6-foot-7 wing, Dillan Shaw also comes from Saint Mary's. He put up 7.5 points on average through 33 games with the Gaels a year ago.
Along with Murauskas and Shaw, Arizona State also brings in 6-foot-5 wing, Emmanuel Innocenti. Innocenti started 29 games at Gonzaga a season ago, scoring six points per match on an impressive 46.9% shooting. Alongside Innocenti, another incoming transfer to keep our eyes on would be the 7-foot center, Ben Defty. Defty signed with Arizona State after two seasons at Boston University, where he posted 15.1 points to go with 6.8 boards on average last season.
To end off, a fascinating note with Arizona State's new roster is that eight of their 13 rostered players actually come from overseas. As the season takes off, it will be interesting to see if the new and (expected to be) improved Sun Devils can bring the school back to the big dance.
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