15. Arizona State Sun Devils
There were many memorable moments over the last eleven years, but Bobby Hurley’s tenure at Arizona State came to an end a few months ago. Far more surprising was the Sun Devils hiring Randy Bennett to take his place, luring him away after a quarter century at Saint Mary’s. Arizona State reached just three NCAA Tournaments under Hurley and haven’t exactly taken a big step forward since joining the Big 12 two years ago, with Bennett hoping to change the conversation around this program.
A loaded transfer class doesn’t hurt matters and it’s focused around one of his own stars in Paulius Murauskas. The former Saint Mary’s forward averaged 18.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game last season and was one of the top names in the portal. Fellow Gael Dillan Shaw also follows Bennett after putting up nice numbers as a freshman. A new roster with a WCC feel also includes Joel Foxwell, a talented point guard who averaged 15.6 points and 6.5 assists per game as a freshman at Portland, and former Gonzaga junior Emanuel Innocenti.
Former Cal Baptist head coach Rick Croy is part of this new coaching staff and he’s brought two of his bigs as well, getting 7-footer Nathaniel Garcia and 6-11 junior Jonathan Griman. Even more frontcourt depth comes by way of Boston University in Ben Defty, who put up 15.1 points and 6.8 rebounds a night as a sophomore on the east coast. The eighth and final name is Marcus Vaughns, an Australian forward who didn’t play at LSU but certainly has real potential.
A few words on each player doesn’t really demonstrate how this roster will work but there’s a lot of size and familiarity among Bennett’s new bunch. We won’t exactly see how it all works until this team is on the court in five or six months but it’s hard not to be excited about the new direction. Bennett was committed to winning at Saint Mary’s and looks ready to prove himself in the Big 12.
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