Arizona State’s season opener left Randy Bennett with plenty to sort through, and the biggest question hanging over the Sun Devils is simple: how long can they keep leaning on such a short rotation?
Bennett used just eight players in the opener, and three of them logged at least 31 minutes. Guard Joel Foxwell and forward Paulius Murauskas were both on the floor for 39 minutes, a heavy load for a team still trying to settle in. Bennett said the depth is there - it just hasn’t had enough time to show itself.
“We have good depth,” Bennett said. “We just have to get some more reps, more games, so that I know what they can do.”
The first-year ASU coach also spent part of his postgame session walking through the injury situation, and there are a few moving parts. One of them is Innocenti, who suffered a rolled and sprained ankle. Bennett said the timeline is still unclear.
“Rolled ankle, sprained,” Bennett said. “So it (could be) two days, three days, a week. Still not sure, they’re figuring it out, X-rays.”
Innocenti had been a bright spot in ASU’s final exhibition in New Mexico, finishing with 13 points, six rebounds and four assists in 37 minutes. The Gonzaga transfer is expected to be a major part of the starting lineup, so any missed time would be a significant development for Bennett and the Sun Devils.
Another injury concern is Vaughns, who is dealing with a sore hip.
“Vaughns’ (injury) is a sore hip,” Bennett said. “We’re trying to figure it out.
He probably won’t be ready for Friday, but probably next week sometime. We just have to be careful on that one.
That just happened a couple of days ago.
The redshifrt freshman from Australia missed ASU’s final exhibition in New Mexico and was unavailable for the opener after getting hurt in practice last week.
Bennett also gave an update on John Griman, who has been working back into the mix after a stretch away from the team. The Cal Baptist transfer senior received the needed injunction and temporary restraining order from the courts vs. NCAA to join the Sun Devils this season, and Bennett said the next step is simply getting him back into rhythm.
“We got John Griman back, and we got him cleared with the NCAA stuff, and during that time, his back was sore, spasming. So he’s just been off for like two and a half, three weeks,” Bennett said.
“And he didn’t know if he was gonna get to play. So that’ll wear on you mentally.
But he got cleared on that, and now, yesterday was his first day of practice in about three weeks. So he’s gonna come on.
I think he’s a really good player.”
Bennett said he’d like to get Griman some minutes in Friday’s home game against Northern Colorado, though nothing is certain yet.
“I don’t know yet. I’d like to,” Bennett said.
“He won’t be full tilt, but we need to get him. We need to get him reps.
We need to get him playing. He’s a good front line player.
He gives us something that none others do.”
There’s also room for more from the rest of the bench. Bennett said he wished the opener had been more spread out so he could have used more players, and he pointed to Bryce Ford and Vijay Wallace as two more options who could see increased time.
“I wish we would have separated on this game so that we could have played some guys more,” Bennett said. “But Bryce (Ford) is going to get in there. I even think Vijay (Wallace) can get in there.”
Wallace played just six seconds against ETSU, checking in only in the final moments, while Ford logged about nine minutes and could see that number rise with Innocenti sidelined.
For now, the Sun Devils are still in the early stages of figuring out how all the pieces fit. Friday’s matchup with Northern Colorado on Nov. 6 should offer another look at how Bennett plans to manage the rotation moving forward.
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