After a devastating finish in last year’s NCAA Tournament, Arizona State men’s basketball is poised for another journey with dreams of playing in March once again.
However, this year’s quest to make it to the Dance will have many different faces.
Head coach Bobby Hurley, fresh off his two-year contract extension signed in May, has pieced together rosters using the transfer portal and freshman before.
The gauntlet he faced this offseason was enormous.
With conference realignment looming and a new roster to play with, the Sun Devils season will be defined early on by two words: mystery and potential.
The Exodus
Last season, Arizona State was led by guards DJ Horne, Desmond Cambridge Jr., and Devan Cambridge. The trio averaged 36.3 points per game.
The team finished 23-13 and 11-9 in conference play before falling in dramatic fashion to TCU in the tournament. Hurley praised that trio, and big man Warren Washington, for turning things around for the program quickly after a lost 21-22 season.
However, things changed quickly.
Cambridge Jr., a graduate transfer, ran out of eligibility. Despite citing his desire to stay in Tempe, his brother Devan transferred to Texas Tech.
Horne fled closer to home and will suit up for North Carolina State in the 23-24 season.
Devan Cambridge didn’t go to Texas Tech alone. Defensive anchor Warren Washington used his final year of eligibility to follow his teammate to Lubbock.
Four of the five regular starters for the Sun Devils left for one reason or another. That has simply become the nature of college basketball.
Hurley likely expected freshman role players Austin Nunez and local product Duke Brennan to contribute heavily this season. Both players looked for greener pastures, with Nunez transferring to Ole Miss and Brennan staying in the Valley, but donning the purple uniform of Grand Canyon University.
An exodus was to be expected in this era, but one of this magnitude came as a shock. Hurley was left with one task: pick up the pieces.
The Returners
Hurley retained three contributors from last year’s squad.
First, and perhaps most importantly, junior point guard Frankie Collins decided to don the Maroon and Gold for another season.
The Michigan transfer was immediately thrust into the starting point guard role last season and made an impact with his passing and ball handling. Collins had a tendency to force shots and was not an incredibly efficient scorer, but was often crucial as a primary ball handler for the Sun Devils. His return provides the offense with continuity, something rare today.
The returner with the highest ceiling was not Collins. Fellow junior guard Jamiya Neal briefly flirted with transferring. He ultimately decided to stay.
The guard was a mixed bag in his sophomore year but showcased tremendous defensive capability, athleticism and microwave scoring ability in some crucial games. Neal’s season highlight was a 12-point outburst in ASU’s stunning victory over rival Arizona in Tucson.
Neal will have significantly more opportunities offensively throughout the coming season and showed what he can do given those chances last season. If the Sun Devils have tournament aspirations, his development as a score is crucial.
After the season’s first practice, Hurley said Neal and Collins have been and will be essential in maintaining the coach’s lofty standards for his team’s defense.
The final returning contributor is graduate student Alonzo Gaffney. The 6-foot-9-inch forward has always been an intriguing prospect but has never bloomed.
Gaffney only averaged 3.2 points per game, often held down by a lack of touches and questionable shot selection for a player with his frame.
It was Gaffney’s length and athleticism that allowed him opportunities last season, as his defensive prowess was crucial at times alongside the more traditional big man in Washington.
Whether he can make the leap as a scorer or not remains to be seen, but the veteran forward will certainly have chances.
Those three hold the task of teaching the plethora of likely contributors from the bunch of newcomers Hurley’s ways. Much of the season depends on how quickly those players can integrate. The trio of veterans can expedite that process.
“Those guys are anchors for what we’re doing and vocally they’ve been excellent,” Hurley said. “They’ve been great leaders for us on and off the court.”
The Replacements
Seven transfers. One junior college transfer. Two freshmen. 10 players arrived in Tempe over the Spring and Summer terms.
Can Hurley recreate the magic produced by players like Horne, Cambridge Jr., and Washington from last season? That is unclear now.
However, the strategy is clear. To quote Brad Pitt in the 2011 feature film Moneyball, “We recreate them in the aggregate.”
Hurley has taken to the portal with a strength-in-numbers approach. He didn’t look for a one-size-fits-all replacement, but rather a collection of players who can emulate what the core group from 2022-23 did as a collective.
To replace the size and intimidation Washington brought to the paint, Hurley added two different options.
7-foot Shawn Phillips, a sophomore, was the size solution. Phillips got limited playing time as a freshman at LSU but was an elite rim protector when given the opportunity. The sophomore’s more slender frame obviously is much different than the very strong Washington.
Hurley looked elsewhere for the intimidation and rebounding replacement. He might have struck gold, landing one of the nation’s best rebounders in junior forward Bryant Selebangue.
In his lone season at Tulsa, Selebangue averaged close to a double-double, posting 12 points per game with 9.2 rebounds per game. He has a nose for the ball off the glass and will immediately provide a boost inside for a Sun Devils squad that direly needs it.
The scoring prowess of Horne and Cambridge Jr. will likely fall to a mixture of three arriving guards, one of whom is awaiting news on his eligibility.
Redshirt junior Adam Miller came with Phillips from LSU. The guard has been a prolific, but sometimes erratic, scorer throughout his career with the Tigers and at Illinois. His 3-point shooting would immediately provide the Sun Devils with a bonus in perimeter scoring, but as a two-time transfer, must wait to see if the NCAA will allow him to participate.
“[Miller’s] a shot-maker, you can get him the ball a lot of different ways, coming off the dribble or off screens,” Hurley said.
The portal stayed open late for Hurley, with graduate student guard Jose Perez joining the Sun Devils in October, just a few weeks before the start of the season. Arizona State marks Perez’s fifth program, although he did not appear last season for West Virginia.
Perez has good size for a guard and has showcased high-level ball handling and scoring ability inside. He has struggled from beyond the arc historically but makes up for it with his mid-range game.
Two seasons ago, he averaged 18.9 points per game at Manhattan. If Perez can integrate quickly, he could be crucial in replacing the lost guards of 22-23.
JUCO transfer Malachi Davis fits into that mystery category for ASU. The junior averaged 17.7 points per game at Tallahassee Community College and exploded for 48 points in a March game against Salt Lake Community College.
The transition from JUCO basketball to Pac-12 basketball could be difficult for Davis, but the guard has a nose for the basket.
As for replacing Devan Cambridge, enter Kamari Lands and Zane Meeks.
Lands, a product of Hillcrest Prep in the Valley, was a four-star recruit who played one season at Louisville, which had one of its worst seasons in program history.
The sophomore transfer showcased tremendous bounce and slashing ability. Lands had freshman woes as a defender in the ACC gauntlet, but his athleticism could allow him to develop more on that end.
Meeks will be a senior and came from San Francisco, where he helped the Dons eviscerate ASU 97-60 in December of 2022. The forward was a talented 3-point shooter and will provide important depth at forward with his 6-foot-9-inch body.
Senior transfer Brycen Long, a 3-point specialist from Houston Christian University rounded out the transfer class. Long’s place in the rotation likely depends on the status of Miller and Perez.
The Rookies
Every team has its rookies. ASU is no exception.
Hurley secured commitments from two freshmen who could potentially contribute in their first year as Sun Devils.
Guard Braelon Green arrived from Southern California with combo guard skills and a four-star prospect rating among many forums. He had offers from prominent programs such as Kansas, Maryland and Michigan State, but ultimately chose Hurley’s offer.
Hurley returned to his East Coast roots when he found Akil Watson. The forward hails from New Jersey where he helped lead his high school, Roselle Catholic, to a state championship in 2022. Watson was a capable 3-point shooter in high school and was a high-energy player.
The Outlook
“I think we’re far ahead of where we’d usually be this time of year,” Hurley said.
The additional practice that the Sun Devils got during their trip to Europe over the summer was something that Hurley thinks will benefit the team and its ability to develop chemistry.
ASU has once again placed an emphasis on scheduling out-of-conference tests in November and December to give itself the best possible resume.
The team begins its season in Chicago at the Barstool Invitational, with the first game against Mississippi State, an SEC school that frequently makes appearances in March.
The team will also head to Vegas for the two-game Vegas Showdown, with one guaranteed matchup against BYU and a second game against either Vanderbilt or DJ Horne and NC State.
The out-of-conference tests continue with showcase games against Northwestern and the team that bounced ASU from the tournament last March, TCU, in December.
The season largely depends on ASU’s performance in those showcases. With wins, the Sun Devils will create some credibility amongst voters and head into the final Pac-12 gauntlet with some confidence.
The team will likely depend on its defense again, as Hurley’s offense over the last few seasons has been explosive, but also incredibly inconsistent.
Arizona State was picked to finish sixth in conference play by the Pac-12 media just a couple of weeks ago.
The ceiling could be higher, but with so much turnover, the Sun Devils are shrouded in that familiar word. Mystery.
“It’s our last chance to win anything in the Pac-12 for Arizona State basketball. I don’t see any banners in our arena,” Hurley said.
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