(Photo: Jack Simon/WCSN)
TEMPE — Five days ahead of Arizona State men’s and women’s basketball home openers, players from both squads gathered at the Novus Place district in Tempe to meet fans and sign autographs at the Sun Devil Basketball Block Party.
The influx of fans and general vibrant attitude had ASU men’s basketball coach Randy Bennett excited for his new beginnings as a Sun Devil.
“It feels like basketball season’s coming,” Bennett said.
With Bennett’s first game at the helm for ASU fast approaching, the former Saint Mary’s coach made it clear that his team this year would not be what fans were used to seeing in Moraga, California.
In the team’s three preseason exhibition games against Texas, Colorado State and New Mexico, Bennett said his main goal was to reshape his offense to look different from the one he ran with the Gaels.
“We are trying to push the pace,” he said. “We did it. We got better. Got better each scrimmage exhibition game as we went.”
At Saint Mary’s, Bennett ran one of the slowest offenses in the country. Since 2020, the Gaels ranked in the 4th percentile in pace — an advanced metric that divides the number of possessions a team has by 40.
In their scrimmage against New Mexico, ASU’s only exhibition game open to the public, the Sun Devils beat the Lobos 91-86. Bennett’s Gaels only eclipsed the 90-point mark three times last season.
The match had standout performances from the two players Bennett brought along with him from Moraga.
Fourth-year forward Paulius Murauskas led all scorers with 31 points, going 8-for-12 from the field and 7-for-10 from deep. He tacked on nine rebounds to his totals, also leading the Sun Devils in that department.
Second-year wing Dillan Shaw had 22 points in the scrimmage, shooting 8-for-18 from the field and going 5-for-13 from beyond the arc.
“We’re a pretty good 3-point shooting team,” Shaw said. “We’re pretty good all around with everything we do.”
The Northridge, California, native played all 40 minutes of the contest, something he did twice last season at Saint Mary’s. With only one other player on ASU’s roster listed as a guard/forward, Shaw could see an uptick in his usage from the year prior.
He averaged 27.5 minutes per game — ranking in the upper third of college basketball — but could see more games this season where he doesn’t touch the bench at all.
Shaw also grabbed seven rebounds, good for the second most of all Sun Devils that day.
Rebounding has been one of the hallmarks of Bennett’s teams throughout the years. In the past three seasons, Bennett has led his teams to be top-20 in the country in total rebounds per game.
However, the Lobos were able to out-rebound ASU in their match, despite having an average player height three inches shorter than the Sun Devils. New Mexico grabbed 36 rebounds to ASU’s 35.
Shaw says ASU’s scrimmage performance won’t be indicative of how the team will look come Monday’s season opener against East Tennessee State.
“I would say we probably let them score a little bit too much towards the end, but we’re gonna correct things during the season,” he said.
Coming to ASU had been a full reset for Bennett, having spent 25 years in Moraga. The move allowed him to be closer to his hometown of Mesa. Since the move, he’s been able to see old friends and be closer to his parents.
“My home was always here,” Bennett said. “So to get back here, it’s been easier than I thought to reconnect. All my friends, my high school teammates, all the coaches around here, family, the whole thing.”
One of the largest differences Bennett noted since coming back to Arizona was his recruiting process. Bringing recruits to Saint Mary’s campus, tucked away in a small town in California’s East Bay, offered a quieter atmosphere that allowed them to be without distractions from basketball, but rarely left them impressed by the facilities.
Showing recruits around ASU’s multi-million dollar athletic complexes has already yielded more successful results for Bennett.
In a quarter century at Saint Mary’s, Bennett landed commitments from six 4-star recruits. In a single recruiting cycle at ASU, Bennett has already landed three.
4-star prospects Jakyi Miles, Howard Williams and Carson Crawford have all committed to ASU in the last three months.
“Arizona State has been the easiest place I’ve ever had to recruit to,” Bennett said. “I don’t know a place that I would rather recruit a player.”
The Sun Devil Basketball Block Party brought in a substantial fan turnout and set the expectations high for what the crowd could look like in ASU’s season opener.
After playing two exhibition games without fans and one at their opponents’ arena, Shaw is eager for the opportunity to play for the Sun Devil faithful.
“We’re all just ready to get out there and play another team in front of our crowd,” he said.
