ASU men’s basketball is just a few days away from beginning its 2024-25 season at Duke and with a substantial overhaul to its roster, the program will start a new era in arguably the best basketball conference in the country, the Big 12.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Coming off of a 14-18 season last year after going 23-13 in 2022-23, the Sun Devils have departed from the Pac-12 and will go up against college basketball powerhouses like Kansas, Houston, Baylor, Arizona and Iowa State among other tough schools on their schedule.
Arizona State is projected to finish No. 12 in the Big 12, according to the coaches’ 2024-25 preseason poll from the conference. Leaving the Pac-12 for the new conference with ASU, Arizona was No. 5, Colorado was No. 15 and Utah was rock-bottom at No. 16.
When speaking on Wednesday at the 2024 Big 12 Basketball Media Days in Missouri, Sun Devil head coach Bobby Hurley is looking forward to competing against top programs and seeing how his roster team fares against them.
“Coming off of a disappointing season for us, we’re looking to regroup. We’re excited for our first season in the Big 12, in my opinion, the best basketball league in the country, Hurley said. “It’s loaded up top and really good depth of really quality programs, so I am excited to experience all of that. Visit new places, places I haven’t been and never coached at in different areas of the country.”
Knowing that the competition would skyrocket from the Pac-12 to the Big 12, Arizona State bolstered its lineup to compete.
Locking in five-star recruits Jayden Quantaince and Joson Sanon as well as adding major transfers like BJ Freeman (Milwaukee), Basheer Jihad (Ball State) and Alston Mason (Missouri State) to the squad, the Sun Devils have talent throughout the lineup, but they just need to show it on the court.
“We worked extremely hard in the offseason to rebuild, reconstruct our roster and put ourselves in the best position to be very competitive this year. I like what I am seeing in practice. I think we upgraded our talent level significantly, so I am excited to see where we stand,” Hurley said.
While the odds are stacked against them with doubters writing them off and not giving them a realistic chance of being a top-half team in the Big 12, ASU knows what it has and could shock the basketball world one game at a time.
Hurley didn’t explain his expectations of what he wants the program to achieve but seeing how much of a competitor he is, he wants to win and will do whatever it takes to help ASU get in the position to do just that.
“I would say knowing that we’re going to the Big 12 and the reputation about it being a very physical league more so than West Coast basketball is perceived, I wanted to stick to our style was going to be. I want us to play Arizona State basketball and I don’t want to try to be better than some of the top programs that have been great rebounding or tremendous defensive programs,” Hurley said. “I am not sure in a few months we’ll be a better rebounding team than Houston, so I am just going to try and be good at what we are capable of being good at.
“We repaired our frontcourt, it’s probably the deepest premier I have ever had since I have been at Arizona State. I’ve had some really good core perimeter here, but I think the depth of players that I can put on the floor has a pretty strong hand there. It’s a good mixture of experienced guys, returning players and incoming freshmen, so I really like what we have right now.”
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers the Phoenix Mercury, Suns and ASU Athletics for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
