Arizona State is heading into the 2026-27 season with a completely different feel.
The Sun Devils are coming off another missed NCAA Tournament appearance, and the program hasn’t earned a bid since the 2022-23 season. Since joining the Big 12 in 2024, they still haven’t gotten back to the tournament.
The biggest change came after the 2025-26 season, when Arizona State decided not to renew Bobby Hurley’s contract. Hurley, hired in April of 2015, spent 11 seasons trying to lift the program after years of mediocrity. Instead, the Sun Devils never became a consistent postseason team under his watch, and he finished 185-167 (.526) at the helm.
Now the Randy Bennett era is set to begin.
Arizona State announced Bennett as its next head coach soon after moving on from Hurley, and the hire brings one of college basketball’s most respected coaches to Tempe. Bennett spent the last 26 seasons leading Saint Mary’s (CA), where he built a long, steady run of success.
He guided the Gaels to seven West Coast Conference regular season titles, four conference tournament championships and 12 NCAA Tournament appearances. Bennett also won West Coast Conference Coach of the Year seven times, and his Saint Mary’s record ended at 589-228 (.721).
Bennett, an Arizona native, now gets a new challenge with the Sun Devils.
The roster looks just as different as the sideline. Bryce Ford is the only returning Arizona State player from last season, and he should play a major role again.
The 6-foot-4 guard spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at Toledo, then appeared in 27 games for the Sun Devils last year, starting 20 of them. He averaged a little more than 22 minutes per game and scored just under seven points a night.
Beyond Ford, Arizona State has loaded up on transfers, and several of them followed Bennett from Saint Mary’s.
One of those is Paulius Murauskas, a 6-foot-8 senior forward from Lithuania. He explained his decision to come to Tempe by saying, "I want to finish my college journey with the people who made the last two years so amazing and helped me become who I am now as a person and a player".
Murauskas was a huge producer for the Gaels last season, averaging 18.4 points and 7.6 rebounds while shooting 48.2% from the field. He earned First-Team All WCC honors twice.
Dillan Shaw is another Saint Mary’s transfer joining the Sun Devils. The 6-foot-7 wing averaged 7.5 points over 33 games last season.
Arizona State also added 6-foot-5 wing Emmanuel Innocenti, who started 29 games for Gonzaga a year ago and averaged six points while shooting 46.9%. Another name to watch is 7-foot center Ben Defty, who comes in after two seasons at Boston University. Defty averaged 15.1 points and 6.8 rebounds last season.
All told, eight of Arizona State’s 13 rostered players are from overseas. With a new coach and a rebuilt roster, the Sun Devils will try to turn that fresh look into a return to the NCAA Tournament.
In Other News...
Gonzaga Still Faces An Eligibility Cloud Over Two Key Players
A hearing in Santa Clara County this week kept the spotlight on Gonzaga players Xaivian Lee and Ines Bettencourt, whose push for a fifth year of college eligibility remains tied up in a lawsuit against the NCAA. The session was aimed at a preliminary injunction, and for now the case sits in a holding pattern while both players continue to move through team activities under a temporary restraining order.
No ruling came down at the hearing, which means the uncertainty around their status is still hanging over Gonzaga as the season gets closer. A continuation is set for October 20, leaving the Bulldogs to wait on a legal process that could determine whether Lee and Bettencourt are cleared to keep practicing and taking part in upcoming events as the case unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Gonzagas First Pac-12 Schedule Just Revealed A Tough New Reality
Gonzagas first season in the Pac-12 now has a complete shape, with the conference releasing its mens basketball schedule and the Bulldogs filling in the rest of a 31-game regular season. The slate shows the kind of transition that comes with a new league home: 16 conference games in a double round-robin format, plus at least 15 nonconference dates that still have to be navigated around a packed winter calendar.
For Gonzaga, the release does more than settle dates on paper. It clarifies where the biggest tests will land, when the conference grind begins, and how much room there is for the Bulldogs to build momentum before the Pac-12 Tournament. The full schedule gives Mark Fews team its first real look at what life in the league will demand, and it leaves one obvious question hanging in the air: how quickly can Gonzaga turn a new setting into a familiar routine? [Read more 🡒]
Gonzagas 2026-27 Schedule Sets Up Several Massive Early Tests
Gonzagas 2026-27 mens basketball slate is now in place after the Pac-12 released its conference schedule, and it sets up a heavyweight start to the season. The Bulldogs will go through two exhibition games, 15 non-conference matchups and 16 league games before the conference tournament in Las Vegas, with the early portion of the schedule loaded with the kind of opponents that tend to tell a program plenty about where it stands.
Purdue, Kansas State, Michigan State, Oregon and Duke are all on the list, giving Mark Fews team little room to ease into the year. The season opener has also been announced, but the broader picture is already clear: Gonzaga will be tested quickly, and those early results should shape the conversation around a team that expects to be in the spotlight from the start. [Read more 🡒]