Editor’s note: This story appeared in the Star’s 2019-20 college basketball preview section, which was with the Sunday, Oct. 27 Arizona Daily Star.
If one sequence highlights the ascent of Arizona State into the upper echelon of the Pac-12, it is 5-7-8-12 — as in the Sun Devils’ conference win total over the last four seasons.
When coach Bobby Hurley inherited the program from Herb Sendek, the Sun Devils had petered out around .500 in conference play, an NCAA Tournament hopeful but far from a sure thing. The momentum of third- and second-place finishes in 2008-09 and 2009-10 had died down. What followed were 10th-, 10th-, sixth-, third- and fifth-place finishes over the ensuing five years.
Hurley’s first Sun Devils finished 11th, but after soaring to second place in the Pac-12 last year, Arizona State’s sights are even higher this year.
Despite the loss of Luguentz Dort to the NBA draft after just one season — and the equally damaging loss of do-it-all senior Zylan Cheatham — the Sun Devils have their eyes set on a Sin City celebration.
“We’ve come a long way, as we’ve shown,” junior guard Remy Martin said. “But we always want more. We’re striving to get better — we haven’t gone far in the NCAA Tournament, we haven’t won a Pac-12 Tournament. There are things to think about. We’ve come a long way but it’s not the standard we want to set.”
Martin takes on an important role this season as the team’s leading returning scorer after averaging 12.9 points, 5.0 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game last year. The Sun Devils will miss Dort’s 16.1 points per game, and Cheatham provided 12.1 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per contest as well as crucial leadership.
Martin hopes to fill that vocal void this year with what is still a relatively young group.
“I want to be able to lead this program,” he said. “The scoring, the assists — I could not care less. I just want to win. I’m trying to get better every day, holding people accountable. To me, that team success is when you not only hold everyone else accountable, but yourself. I’m letting them know I’m a person they can rely on. When I get on the court, I’m going to give it my all.”
The trust doesn’t end there, though. Martin said the Sun Devils are fully bought into Hurley’s vision and culture, and it has shown in the win column.
“He’s made it very clear, this is what we do,” Martin said. “I trust him as a coach. That’s why I came here. I think a lot of players on our team do as well. Since my freshman year when I first came in — from Day 1, he’s been the same guy, preaching the same thing.”
One potential hurdle for the Sun Devils: A Nov. 8 trip to Shanghai to play Pac-12 foe Colorado.
Arizona State, which has bolstered its postseason resumes the last two years with terrific non-conference runs — including back-to-back wins over then-No. 1-ranked and No. 2-ranked Kansas in successive years — so Hurley is justifiably nervous about starting his season off on the wrong foot.
“There’s a little more urgency in our practices, just trying to get our system in place more and throwing more at our players to really hopefully they retain what we need to get done,” Hurley said at Pac-12 Media Day.
“It’s kind of like losing a week almost in terms of practice time with all the travel. That’s an issue. We’ve been able to get off to a very fast start in the non-conference the last two years, and we’re hoping to continue that trend. So we just, we can’t afford to lose days.”
