(Photo: Courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)
TEMPE – Inside the Arizona State men’s basketball locker room, each player posted their goals for the 2026-27 season on a wall.
“We all want to win,” second-year guard Dillan Shaw said. “That’s our main goal here. We all want to compete for a Big 12 championship.”
Success will likely be built on three key pillars. Head coach Randy Bennett’s 25-year tenure at Saint Mary’s was built on lockdown defense, patient offense, size, and most importantly, being connected.
Five weeks before Bennett’s first season at the helm at ASU begins, the talk at the Weatherup Center, the team’s practice facility, was all about these key principles.
“We’re building continuity every day,” associate head coach Rick Croy said. “We realize it’s a day-by-day process, but our guys have bought into that.”
The continuity and chemistry start with the coaching staff. When building his coaching staff, Bennett prioritized bringing in familiar faces. Four of Bennett’s five assistant coaches have previously worked under Bennett at Saint Mary’s.
“He’s a leader of leaders,” Croy said. “He gets guys that are in it for the right reasons, and everyone on our staff is here to compete at the highest level.”
To compete at the highest level, Bennett and his coaching staff will have to rely on the principles that helped them succeed at Saint Mary’s.
Last season, Bennett’s Saint Mary’s team finished 22nd in the nation for defensive rating, a mark that helped them earn a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament. Meanwhile, the Sun Devils finished 64th and on the outside looking in.
“Our guys understand that there’s a tremendous premium on defense,” Croy said. “If we want to protect home floor, if we want to be tough enough to go in on the road, we’ve got to guard and we’ve got to do it together.”
With six players listed over 6-feet-8-inches tall, ASU’s defense will be built as much on its stature as on its mentality.
“I would say it would be definitely hard for teams to get off passes against us,” Shaw said. “We’ll be in passing lanes with our wingspan, over the top of passes for sure.”
While Shaw praised the team’s athleticism potentially creating turnovers, it can also bode well on the glass.
This is another key principle of Bennett’s brand of basketball, as last year, Saint Mary’s finished third in the nation in defensive rebounding percentage. The Sun Devils, on the other hand, finished 336th.
“We definitely have the size to be a good rebounding team, but that’s on habits,” Croy said.
Developing the habits on the glass will be as important as developing them offensively, where Bennett looks to implement his trademark offensive style. Featuring a slow, methodical brand, last year’s Saint Mary’s offense was the 304th-slowest in the country.
“The movement off the ball, it’s a lot different,” Shaw said. “Sometimes we pass and we cut; there are different rules, different situations where we don’t cut and where we stay and keep our spacing.
“Some guys like to grab a rebound, like Foxwell, our shortest guy, would probably try to get in there and grab a rebound, but no. He needs to stay out because we have 7-footers down there.”
With or without his rebounding, second-year guard Joel Foxwell is set to hold the keys to this offense as starting point guard. Last season, Foxwell averaged 15.6 points per game and 6.5 assists with Portland, a former conference rival of Bennett and Saint Mary’s.
“The point guard is one of the most important spots on the floor,” Foxwell said. “Everything runs through the point guard, so having that pressure, it’ll be good, and it’ll be a big jump.”
The jump from the West Coast Conference to the Big 12 promises to be one of the biggest tests for this year’s ASU squad. Four players and three coaches were at WCC programs last year, split across Portland, Gonzaga and, of course, Saint Mary’s.
Last year’s Big 12 was one of the best conferences in the country. The Big 12 sent eight teams to the NCAA Tournament, only trailing the SEC and Big 10.
“You definitely have to be able to get on your front foot, be connected and take care of the basketball,” Croy said. “These teams will try and overwhelm you with physicality and aggression, so you’ve got to be really tough.”
Molding the toughness and physicality of this team with the offense and defense successfully will help define the strengths and weaknesses of this team.
“We’re all starting to gel and mesh together,” Shaw said. “I feel by the time the season hits, we will be great. We’ll be ready.”
A new era of Sun Devil basketball is set to be underway and Monday’s press conference continued to show what the defining elements of the Bennett era will look like. Strong defense, methodical offense, elite physicality and tight-knit chemistry.
“We want our guys to be all in, and they’ve done that,” Croy said. “That’s how you get a team that gets better every step of the way.”
