TEMPE – During his long, 26-year stint as a head coach, Randy Bennett has coached many great players. A lot of those players have come from the international pipeline he’s built in his long tenure with St. Mary’s.
However, the best player he’s ever coached might be one he’s still coaching. And one that can take Arizona State (4-0) to the next level as a program.
When asked where Sun Devil senior forward Paulius Murauskas ranks among players he’s coached, the veteran coach admitted he’s the best he’s recruited at the power forward position.
“It’s hard for me breaking down (Matthew) Dellavedova, Patty (Mills), (Jock) Londale and (Omar) Samhan,” Bennett said on Murauskas. “But as far as a four, best one I’ve coached.”
The Lithuanian’s play backed up Bennett’s claim Friday night. He secured his second consecutive double-double with 31 points and 13 rebounds as the Sun Devils continued their winning ways to begin the Randy Bennett era with a 92-62 win over UL Monroe (1-3).
In Tuesday’s win against Hofstra, Murauskas turned in a solid game in terms of his points. But, for his standards, it was a below-average night shooting the ball. He shot 1-for-6 in the second half, with a good amount of scoring coming from the charity stripe.
Call it a comeback, a bounceback or a return to a lofty mean. The aforementioned double-double he secured came in the first half alone, not long after the halfway mark of the opening period.
Murauskas did it all sorts of ways, dunking, finishing fast-break layups, keeping possessions alive with his size and fighting through double teams to dish out passes to wide-open teammates.
Now in his third year under Bennett, he’s built a special trust with his coach.
“It’s pretty special. That’s why I transferred because I trust the coach and I got better,” Murauskas on why he transferred with Bennett. “I said multiple times I will get better this year as the season goes on. I trust Coach. He’s really great at making the guys better.”
And whenever it’s a game that the Mesa-native doesn’t have to talk with his star forward too much, it’s something he likes because it shows another aspect of his game not entirely on the court where he’s improved.
“He wants to be good. He wants his team to be good,” Bennett said. “Everybody asks me, where’s he gotten better? He’s gotten better in other areas. He’s gotten stronger, but he just really has grown up into a good leader as far as a basketball player, dad, husband, whole deal.”
Muruaskas was named part of the Big XII Starting Five after his performances in his two appearances last week. But now, with two double-doubles in his action this week, including Friday’s dominant performance, it sets him up to win more prominent weekly awards in a few days, and also down the line.
He’ll need to keep having big performances once the strong teams on ASU’s schedule arrive. After a Wednesday night tilt against Oakland, the Sun Devils take a week off before heading to the Acrisure Classic in Palm Springs. Then, after finishing non-conference play, a devilish conference schedule begins with a Saturday night battle versus BYU on Jan. 2.
But if he keeps taking over games, like he’s doing right now in the early part of the season, the stage is set for a potentially historic first season in Tempe.
“I think we did a good job once the second half started of breaking them in the first five minutes, and by then it was just OK,” sophomore guard Joel Foxwell said. “Let’s try a couple different things and move some pieces around and experiment a little bit. Games like this, we can do that while still maintaining that good lead and still finding that rhythm.”
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