Randy Bennett Is About to Attempt Something Bobby Hurley Never Accomplished at Arizona State

Things will be quite different for Arizona State men's basketball, but is different always good?

When former ASU head coach Bobby Hurley was originally hired back in 2015, the former legendary Duke guard brought his name value to Tempe, but had only two years under his belt as a college head coach.

11 years later, Randy Bennett moves his boxes into the Desert Financial Arena offices. Just an unknown guard in the 1980s, playing at Mesa Community College and San Diego, before embarking on a 41-year coaching run, including 25 seasons as a head coach, before coming to ASU.

Their playing careers may be a great motif for the bigger picture of the two coaches coaching styles.

Hurley knew how to get talent in the door, such as locking down consensus 5-star prospect Jayden Quaintance and other top-rated recruits. This is a man who has walked the walk, backing up his ability to talk the talk. Hurley was a two-time NCAA champion with Duke, a Final Four MVP in 1992 and earned multiple All-American honors while his No. 11 was retired in Durham.

However, he did this as a player. Not a coach. Your number hanging in the rafters only holds so much weight when your team is getting run off the hardwood below it (Exhibit A: ASU vs. Duke Exhibition in 2024).

In 11 seasons with ASU, Hurley never made it past the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He finished eighth or worse in-conference in eight of his 11 seasons, including three straight losing seasons from 2023 to 2026.

Doing this with top recruits? That is what they like to call "Doing Less With More".

Meanwhile, almost 750 miles west of Tempe, a Mesa native has been doing more with less.

Randy Bennett took over the reins for Saint Mary's College in 2001, inheriting a 2-27 team in a mid-major conference.

In the 25 years since, Bennett led the Gaels to 12 NCAA Tournament appearances, a Sweet Sixteen run in 2010, four conference tournament titles and seven regular-season conference championships.

But while the Arizona native returns home, long resume in hand, this isn't the West Coast Conference anymore: Can Bennett do what Hurley never truly accomplished and implement his style in Tempe, leading to a program renaissance?

This Isn't Saint Mary's Anymore...

"How does he (Randy Bennett) adjust now, to be in a power conference and taking on (Arizona's) Tommy Lloyd on a Saturday and (Houston's) Kelvin Sampson on a Wednesday?" CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein said.

Randy Bennett is stepping into a boxing ring that has no more pillow fights coming.

Bennett's resume speaks for itself, but the difference in the WCC and Big 12 is vast.

Bobby Hurley, despite a tenure to forget, made a living off knocking off big-time opponents. This dates all the way back to 2017 and 2018, defeating No. 2 Kansas and No. 1 Kansas in a two-year home-and-home series, and continuing all the way to his final year, defeating No. 13 Texas Tech and No. 14 Kansas in the final month of the season.

For Bennett, he has not had the same success against ranked/power opponents. In his 7-12 NCAA Tournament record, just three of those wins came against power conference opponents.

Furthermore, Saint Mary's has just one ranked victory in the non-conference portion of their schedule since 2020, playing in a conference that lacks quality opponents (outside of then-conference rival Gonzaga), while playing a ranked team is a nightly occurrence in the Big 12.

"There are no Portlands, or San Diegos, or Loyola Marymounts, or any programs like that, in the Big 12. You are getting heavyweight matchup after heavyweight matchup." Rothstein said.

Will The Style Work?

While Bobby Hurley's up-tempo. guard-heavy style helped the Sun Devils (somewhat) try to keep up with the talent and scoring ability of the Big 12, Bennett's style will try to zig while the rest of the conference zags.

Bennett is known for a defense-heavy, methodical style on the hardwood, begging the biggest question of the preseason: can this style survive in the Big 12?

Now, it's important to note that Bennett and Co. are fully aware of the need for scoring in the conference. They aren't trying to reinvent the wheel and turn the now-NBA Machine that is the Big 12, into a full-court press.

"Teams (that make it to) the end of the year are teams that defend and rebound and take care of the ball. We want to be able to score at a high clip as well," Bennett said at Big 12 media days. "And we're working on that. But if you don't do those other three, I don't think you have a chance."

Saint Mary's averaged 77.3 points per game last season. Good for third in the WCC, but would be slotted in 11th in the Big 12.

On the flip side, the Gaels allowed 64.5 points per game, first in the WCC and would've been second-best in the Big 12, only behind Houston (62.3).

Houston, of course, being arguably the best slow-tempo team in the country, poses another question for ASU: How will their game plan hold up when facing a team of the same style?

Is there a likely chance that ASU's style will make them an outlier in the conference? Sure. But will Bennett and the Devils use this as a strength, or will it devolve into a weakness?

"I think it'll translate to every league," Bennett said.

On The Recruiting Trail

Being at a WCC school, Randy Bennett had to get creative to find talent. This was evident when Bennett started taking closer looks at international talent, bringing in Australian names such as Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova, hidden gems who would end up putting together lengthy and successful NBA careers.

“The way internationals and Australians play, he just loves." Australian transfer and current ASU guard Joel Foxwell said.

But now at Arizona State: the conference prestige is there, the location is there, and even the "Activate The Valley"-driven NIL commitment is there.

This means Bennett will have to do something he has never truly experienced on the recruiting trail: instead of finding hidden gems, he will have to battle for top talents with other schools.

Bennett knows how to develop talent...

"I think it (ASU) was the right move, right move for me because Coach (Bennett) is a really great coach, and I really trust him," ASU transfer Paulius Murauskas said.

Now he has to get it in the door.

The Verdict...

"Arizona State is literally going to be if you took Saint Mary's and put them in the Big 12..." BlueBlooded Podcast Host Ryan Hammer said. "I think their floor is solid...I could see them being a tournament team, because Saint Mary's is always a tournament team...but they also ranked very high analytically from being in the WCC."

Will it indeed be a Saint Mary's year in ASU uniforms? Can Bennett shake off the power-opponent blues? What can year one tell us about the Sun Devil run to come?

The answers will begin to be written on Nov. 2, when Arizona State hosts East Tennessee State in the season opener.

"'Do more with less',-is that how you phrase it?" Bennett told CBS Sports. "I'd like to be able to say we did more with more...Because you're gonna have to in the Big 12."