Arizona State’s season opener gave Randy Bennett a little of everything: stretches of promise, stretches of frustration, and a win that still told a pretty clear story about where this team is right now.
The Sun Devils beat East Tennessee on Monday night, and while plenty of fans wanted a cleaner, more convincing result, the first look at Bennett’s group still offered some useful clues. This is a different ASU team now. The old formula built around high-volume guard play and Bobby Hurley’s sideline fire has given way to a roster that’s supposed to win with size, length, ball security and defense.
That identity, though, is still under construction.
Bennett didn’t hide that after the game. “I thought our rebounding had been bad, and we were inconsistent tonight,” Bennett said.
“We’re usually a very good rebounding team. We should be.
We have good size, but we’re just not there yet. Our habits aren’t where they need to be.”
That was the tension all night. ASU found a way to win anyway, even if it wasn’t pretty. And that kind of ugly win is exactly the sort of thing Hurley’s teams often struggled to produce.
The biggest issue remains the frontcourt. Bennett had already flagged the center spot after ASU’s final exhibition in New Mexico, saying, “We got outplayed at the five, so I don’t think the size helped us, and it needs to help us, or we need to go a different route. And I think they’ll step up, and that’s what they heard in the locker room: we lost the boards, and that can’t happen.”
On Monday, Malesevic gave ASU a jolt off the bench. He went 4-for-4 from the field and grabbed six rebounds, while starting center Ben Defty finished 0-for-4 with two rebounds. That leaves an obvious question hanging over the next stretch: can Malesevic bring enough consistency at the five, and is there a case for moving him into the starting lineup?
There’s also the matter of ASU’s top two options on the perimeter. Captains Paulius Murauskas and Dillan Shaw combined to shoot 10-for-25, including 2-for-11 from three-point range. East Tennessee had plenty to do with that, doubling Paulius and blitzing Shaw on ball screens.
“They got aggressive on those on-ball screens, so they’re gonna they’re gonna blitz you, and they’re gonna come,” Bennett said. “Dylan’s in an on-ball, he’s not used to being blitzed in an on-ball. He hasn’t had that much experience doing that in his career, but he’ll get better at it.”
Bennett has talked about the depth on this roster, and there’s reason to believe ASU can lean on more than just those two. But it’s hard to picture the Devils having much success if Murauskas and Shaw aren’t efficient. That was true in Albuquerque, where the two former Saint Mary’s forwards combined for 53 of ASU’s 91 points.
Friday brings a different kind of test. Northern Colorado also wants to keep opponents off the three-point line, so the Sun Devils may be staring at another night where shot-making from deep becomes a major swing factor.
There’s one more piece to watch, too: Emmanuel Innocenti. Through preseason play and the opener, he has emerged as ASU’s main answer for top scoring threats. The Ivory Coast native drew the assignment on all-conference guard Jake Hall in New Mexico, then took on BJ Ward against East Tennessee.
When Innocenti left Monday’s game with a sprained ankle, Ward took off. He finished with 25 points, a career high, and ASU felt that loss right away.
Now the challenge shifts to another dangerous scorer. Northern Colorado arrives with Langston Reynolds, the Big Sky Conference Preseason Most Valuable Player.
Reynolds spent one season at Minnesota after three at Northern Colorado before returning for his fifth and final year. He averaged 16 points per game in 2024-2025 and did it in Steve Smiley’s up-tempo system.
So the next question for ASU is pretty simple: can the Sun Devils tighten up their rebounding, get more from the five spot, and slow down another high-octane offense? That answer comes Friday night at Desert Financial Arena.
In Other News...
Arizona State Suddenly Has A Much More Realistic CFP Path
The College Football Playoff has already gone from a four-team exclusive to a 12-team field, and the next shift is on the horizon after the 2026-27 season, when the bracket is set to grow again. For Arizona State, that matters because every expansion changes the math for programs outside the traditional top tier, especially in a Big 12 landscape where more teams can now see a clearer path into the postseason conversation.
The bigger field also brings the usual debate about what the playoff is becoming, with money driving much of the push and rankings likely to carry even more weight as the format keeps widening. For the Sun Devils, though, the immediate takeaway is simpler: the door is opening wider, and the odds of being part of the national picture are suddenly a lot more realistic than they were in the old system. [Read more 🡒]
ASU Puts Its Military Pride At Center Stage This Week
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The effort also underscores how deeply military life is woven into the university community. ASU says it has more than 22,000 military-connected students and employs 700 veterans, a reminder that this is more than a ceremonial nod on the calendar. University leadership has made clear the support is meant to be sustained, not symbolic, even as the weeks biggest moments are still to come. [Read more 🡒]
ASU Already Faces An Early Test After A Frustrating Opener
Arizona State escaped its season opener with a win over East Tennessee State, but the performance did not match the standard the Sun Devils had set for themselves. Now the focus shifts quickly to Northern Colorado, a Big Sky contender that arrives with a legitimate challenge in preseason MVP Langston Reynolds and a roster that should test ASU in ways the opener did not.
For a team still trying to settle into its identity, this is the kind of early game that can reveal a lot about where the Sun Devils really stand. The matchup brings both pressure and opportunity, with ASU looking to clean up the issues that showed up in the opener while also proving it can handle a more polished opponent at home. [Read more 🡒]