(Photo: Tod Fierner/Saint Mary’s Athletics)
PHOENIX – Arizona State is reportedly hiring Saint Mary’s men’s basketball head coach Randy Bennett as its next head coach, per The Field of 68.
Bennett, 63, is a native of Mesa, Arizona, and has led the Gaels for 25 consecutive seasons since 2001-02, posting a 589–228 overall record and a 304–99 record against West Coast Conference opponents. He was named the WCC Coach of the Year seven times, most recently in 2025, when the Gaels earned the No. 1 seed in the WCC Tournament off the back of a 17-1 regular season.
Bennett won four WCC Tournaments during his time in Moraga, California, most recently in 2024, and finished runner-up behind Gonzaga 11 times. He’s also made the NCAA Tournament on 12 occasions, including in each of the past five seasons, making it to the Round of 32 three times. This go-around, he lost to No. 10 seed Texas A&M in the Round of 64, 63-50.
His best tournament appearance came in 2010, when he made the Sweet 16 for the first, and so far only, time in his coaching career, beating No. 7 seed Richmond and No. 2 seed Villanova, before falling to No. 3 seed Baylor.
Prior to leading the Gaels, Bennett served as an assistant coach at San Diego, Pepperdine and Saint Louis. Before those roles, he was a graduate assistant at Idaho and a volunteer assistant at San Diego.
Bennett himself played collegiate basketball at Mesa Community College, where he was coached by his father, Tom Bennett, before transferring to UC San Diego.
Bennett will be tasked with building up the Sun Devils, who haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2023 and have only posted two winning seasons since the COVID-19 Pandemic. It won’t be easy, especially in a competitive Big 12 Conference, but he has experience in facilitating turnarounds, as evidenced by taking a Saint Mary’s program that experienced four straight losing seasons before he got there and turning it into a renowned mid-major.
