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who's b what you playing? Well, They're gonna be playing
as U U for years to come. In the Big twelve,
we're gonna find out what's uh what's cooking down in
the Valley of the Sun with their new coach and
coaching staff. In this segment, an old foe from the
West Coast Conference is taking over the reins in Sun
Devil Territory. We're gonna break that down here on your
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get out to the hotline. Welcome in, owner publisher of
sundevilsource dot com of the twenty four seven network. We
got Chris Cartman on theline. Chris, how you.
Speaker 2: Living doing great? Just wrapped that football practice. It's pretty
hot out here, but that's that's pretty normal.
Speaker 1: Yeah man, Well we're March twenty six. How hot is
it down in Arizona right now? How hot is it
in Tempe?
Speaker 2: We just had five days in a row that were
one hundred degrees and that's never happened. There's never been
more than one day of one hundred degrees in March
in history, So we're setting records out here.
Speaker 1: Is there an idea that like springball could be moved?
I know the Cardinals used to you know, do their
their their camp up and flag Staff. Has there been
any talk about moving ASU's springball up to flag Staff
and have it like remote now?
Speaker 2: They do go to Pace in Arizona for about a
week in August to get out of the heat. They've
been doing that for since the late fifties. But they
also have an indoor facility where they have the ability
to go if it gets too high.
Speaker 1: When was the indoor facility built for football?
Speaker 2: Around two thousand and eight or two thousand and nine
is when it opened.
Speaker 3: It's a it's an.
Speaker 2: Inflatable but it's but it's climate controlled. They're actually going
to build a permanent indoor structure that's right next to
the stadium that's going to start being built next year,
so that's going to be in use in like a
year and a half.
Speaker 1: When So, what was the cost for the IPF, That
new IPF that you guys are going to be a building?
Do you know the number?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's it's it's like forty something million dollars
uh for the indoor But they're also going to have
as part of that a new volleyball facility like a
practice and offices and stuff. So that's also several million
of the whole thing.
Speaker 3: It's a it's a huge it's a huge.
Speaker 2: Building, one hundred and seventy yards. It's going to be
the biggest one other than Texas A and M that
I've seen in the country.
Speaker 1: Crazy times. Look, they there's a lot of buzz positive
buzz down there. How would you describe the momentum right
now for ASU football with your coach being extended? Dillingham
is a is an ASU alum. He seems bought in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2: The they sold out every game last season, which is
the first time that that's happened in decades, like five decades.
So the disappointment of a season for eight wins is
kind of tells you what the expectations are now for
AS and what they've been able to accomplish with their roster.
I feel like they added a whole bunch of very
high profile transfers that have looked good through the first
several days of practice. So a lot of positive momentum
going love that.
Speaker 1: Let's talk some basketball news. Big moves on the head
coaching front with Hurley essentially stepping down and new coaching
staff being hired. Give us the latest. Who's the new
head coach and what's the buzz like around the new
head coaching.
Speaker 2: High Yeah, Randy Bennett decided to come back to the valley.
He was born and.
Speaker 3: Raised in Mesa.
Speaker 2: His dad was a pretty famous junior college coach, six
time Coach of the Year in Arizona and and Randy Bennett,
after twelve instable A appearances in twenty five years of
Saint Mary's all time winning as coach, one of the
best coaches in West Coast Conference history, decided he wanted
to come back home. Sixty three years old, his parents
are getting up there in age now, and in the
opportunity to be close to them in this latter stage
of his coaching tenure was very appealing and a pretty
impressive higher for.
Speaker 3: A If you've given what Bennett was able to accomplish.
Speaker 2: And also considering that if he really hasn't been that
successful in basketball since Ned Wolke, which that was got
to go forty five years ago.
Speaker 1: What type of impact do you think Randy Bennett's going
to have on this ASU program? Do you think it's
going to be able to He's going to be able
to kind of build them up and get them into
a competitive mode and maybe even compete for a big
total championship.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the goal. Obviously, you got to have realistic aspirations.
I would say that ASU is still going to be
significantly outspent on its roster compared to a lot of
the operational on Big twelve teams. Ben At Saint Mary's
team this this year.
Speaker 3: Had six or.
Speaker 2: Seven losses only on the season and was at number
seven seed in the NBA Tournament and only had one senior.
That had three all conference players who are have remaining eligibility,
one of whom already entered the transfer portal. Probably others
will follow.
Speaker 3: It's a safe bet that some of.
Speaker 2: These guys will probably end up following Randy Bennett to ASU.
And there's several good players that are on the roster
who have the ability to decide whether or not they
want to stay or transfer what that's gonna look like.
Speaker 3: So I think the key thing with.
Speaker 2: Randy Bennett is a very high floor, Like you know,
you're gonna play great defense, and you're gonna be well coached,
You're gonna hunt for high quality shots. Are they gonna
all of a sudden be able to play in that
pop tire in the Big twelve? Well, probably not, although
maybe you know, some nights they will. And I think
overall the goal is just.
Speaker 3: Trying to get to more NCAA tournament appearances. To days
who's been able to accomplish in recent decades, it seems
like it's on average been like a once every three
to four year thing, And the goal will be to
try to make that more, like, you know, better than average,
Like more than fifty percent would probably be a goal.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And just to go along with that maybe a
little bit and put this in a maybe a BYU
type of perspective, YU and Arizona State start to get
a little bit of a rivalry on the football field
with Kenny Dillingham and bau fans obviously have some experience
against Randy Bennett teams and there was a rivalry there
between Bay and Saint Mary's for a few years. Could
you see this coaching move producing more of a rivalry
on the basketball court between BYU and Arizona State. With
the history between BYU and Randy Bennett.
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 2: Already there were a ton of BYU fans in my
comments on my social media posts about the possibility of
Randy Bennett getting hired and then eventually him being named
the coach. So yeah, I think I think there's going
to be more attention to this. And as you know,
you know that the Arizona and the Valley have the
second highest percentage of LDS population of anywhere in the
in the country. So there's already a lot of b
YU fans that are here. There's a lot of people
that pay a lot of people that pay a lot
of really close attention to kind of what happens, and
that that rivalry between as U and and b YU
both at proximity the bordering states, you know, and the
latter the experance connection, and now you got Randy Bennett's conection.
There's a lot of things there that people are paying
attention to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm intrigued by this hire and I think it's
an awesome hire. Actually, b YU fan do not like
Randy Bennett one bit. Like he is enemy. He was
like public enemy number one in the West Coast coinars.
They did not like his demeanor, they didn't like how
he coached, They didn't like his like tirades on the sideline.
And look, Saint Mary's got their fair share of dubs.
There was a Dela Vedova dagger once upon a time.
They always had like these like Australian bigs that would
just dominate in the low post and rebound and like
double double machines. They did not like. They do not
like Randy Bennett. And if so, if any of these
these Saint Mary like teams are coming to Provo with
a little bit more nil behind them, there's maybe fear
in the hearts of the of the BYU fan right now.
Speaker 3: I gotta know about fear.
Speaker 2: I mean, YU really got it rolling and a lot
of money on the roster this year with you know,
arguably the top player in college basketball or one of
the top two. I just think that, you know, the
Big twelve is ultra competitive. Everybody understands that the teams
that haven't done as well are trying to improve their
standing and.
Speaker 3: Compete in this ultra challenging conference. And you can see
that AFU has not really had that much success.
Speaker 2: Under Bobby Hurley in the Big twelve in two years
and wanted to go a different route.
Speaker 3: His contract is basically ending in June, so not even
a need to fire him or anything. It's just, hey,
we're going to go in a different direction.
Speaker 2: Randy Bennett is the type of guy who's gone to
war against you know, Gonzaga and and BYU and other
Isantapira and other teams and over the years, and now
he's ready to do that at.
Speaker 3: As you.
Speaker 1: So, I mean there's going to be a rebuild of
the roster, right, this is going to be a completely
revamp brought Do you do you think there's going to
be any retention. Will there be a point of creative
strategic retention on this roster at all? Any key players
that that that Randy's going to really try hard to retain.
Speaker 2: Well, So a FU has one of the top big
men in the country who's a freshman Masamba job.
Speaker 3: I think what ultimately, you know come.
Speaker 2: Down to is the money. I've heard the job is
probably worth two million or more if he decided to
transfer or look at transferring. So you got to make
decisions based upon how much money that you have available
to give the players.
Speaker 3: Now there's a positive thing, which is that they have
the same agent.
Speaker 2: Randy Bennett is repped by the former Washerman agency, so
is Masamba job so that might be able to help them.
Speaker 3: And then there's some other players that I.
Speaker 2: Think as you that would like to probably keep with
Randy Bennett. Noah Mayhusen was a good guard six to five, versatile, skilled, smart,
a lot of a lot of positive attributes. And Santiago
Truett is a forward who you know, he had a
lot of double doubles, somebody who's probably one of the
best rebounders and compete on the defensive ends. And Andreas
Gerbovich is a six foot ten guy. You can stretch
the floor as a stretch four man or five man.
So there's players that probably would like to try to
consider keeping. I don't think it will be that many
that will be on the roster from the season to
next maybe three or four, and then I wouldn't be
surprised at all if there were even more.
Speaker 3: Than that who transferred from Saint Mary's.
Speaker 2: To ASU or at least that many, and then probably
you've got to go out and get a third of
your roster from the transfer portal. They already got a
switch of a commitment or at least a signee. Jay
rob Croy, he's a four star recruit from California who's
a combo guard six foot five. Because he's ranked in
the top twenty combo guards in the country. He already
announced be switching from Saint Mary's as so, but yeah,
I think it'll it'll be mostly new players. I would
just say that a lot of them are going to
probably be from Saint Mary's. Remember Kurt Signetti when when
he when he you know, it's crossport analogy, but when
he was at.
Speaker 3: JMU, he went to Indiana.
Speaker 2: He brought like thirty guys on his roster and that
was a huge part of what jump started his success there.
And you wouldn't be surprised to see Randy Bennett lean
on his former players bring him over.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I want to just stick here with the
transfer port discussion. There's a familiar face that entered the
transfer portal from Arizona State that that by fans would
recognize and and Marcus Adams junior and or Marcus Adams
and and we'd like to keep track a little bit
of players that transfer away. But I mean, say he
transfers to a new school and he sticks in the
transfer portal, that'll be his fourth school in four years.
Is there anything that you any insight that you have
on why it's been hard for him to find a
place to stick around and really make his impact.
Speaker 3: Well, he was kind of unlucky at ASU.
Speaker 2: He had an injury that sidelined him for like the
months or more than a month before the season started,
and then even into the season for several weeks, and
then he wasn't really in great basketball shape. When he
finally you know, kind of got up to speed, then
you know, it just he wasn't playing, and then he
had another sort of a thing where he got dinged up.
So I think he had a bad luck time in ASU.
It's hard for me to really go back and look
at what happened in his three prior years. Obviously, he
had been very successful at cal State Northridge and that's
what enabled him to.
Speaker 3: Be a higher profile guy, one of the two high
profile guys that was added. So I no, no, we'll
have to see what happens.
Speaker 1: This is another faux segment brought to you by Central
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or eight to one six or four nine eight won
six four two nine one nine. I got a SU
insider Chris Carman on the line talking some ASU football
and basketball. State of the athletic department. How you feeling about?
How is uh? How is the sun? How's sun devil nation?
Speaker 3: Right now?
Speaker 1: Feeling about the trajectory of the athletic department overall?
Speaker 2: Oh, well, things are a lot better than they've been
in in years. If you went to a really bad
demoralizing time with the and Souble investigation in the Foo
for recruiting violations that occurred during the covid UH period
that led to eventually the athletic director and head coach leaving,
really leaving in disgrace. And the synergy that's happened in
the first two years with Graham Rassini as the athletic director,
coinciding with this success of Kenny Dillingham and Molly Miller
and basketball making the NA Tournament in her first year,
one of the best turnaround jobs in the country. ASU
Baseball is now ranked twenty second nationally and having what
maybe it's best season under Willie Bloomquiss in his first
four years. And now you got Randy Bennett, which I
think most people would agree is a somewhere between a
good and a excellent hire. So you know, generally speaking,
you have more fan buy in to what's.
Speaker 3: Going on right now in the flex department than anytime.
Speaker 2: In a number of years. Probably got to go back
to when Todd Graham had things really rolling in the
twenty fourteen twenty fifteen a time frame probably the best
overall state of the program in about a decade.
Speaker 1: Chris, we appreciate you talking ball with us. It sounds
like ASU is trending in the right direction. Can't wait
to see what they bring to the heart with this
next season with Randy Bennett. Thanks so much for hop
best way to support you? What you do, how you
do it for all of our listeners. Thanks, what's the
best way to support you? What you do, how you
do it for all of our listeners. Chris, All right,
there you go. That's Chris Carman twenty four seven Sports.
Make sure you're following him and reading off his content
at twenty four seven Sports. By the way, some news
on the twenty four seventh Sports Front. I don't know
if you guys saw this or not, but on three
making some moves, they were able to require Brandon Hoffman,
longtime insider for all things recruiting, and so twenty four
seven made sure to solidify Blair and Guloh nice move
from them, Adam Steinkop pointing it out, we have signed
twenty four seven Sports national recruiting analysts Blair and Gulo
to a multi year extension. Blair is a rising star
in the industry and his in depth coverage of the
West Coast has been outstanding. He is exceptional on camera
and the best teammate anyone could ask for. So there's
been a lot of moves kind of in the recruiting
department and between on three in two four seven, uh
and so uh still some competitive environments there, but shout
out to two four to seven.
Speaker 2: Rivals also take twenty four seven's Greg Biggins as well.
Speaker 1: Over Yeah, I think Greg Greg Biggins, Yeah yeah. Rivals
on three took Greg Biggins over, who had been a
long time twenty four seven guys as well, So definitely
making some moves right now. A lot of competition in
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