Randy Bennett’s roster at Arizona State is coming together quite nicely.
It isn’t quite complete, but the veteran coaches’ additions have ASU’s basketball transfer portal class ranked ninth overall and, impressively, first in the Big 12 by 247Sports. The schools rated higher are Louisville, Texas, Indiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, Providence, Miami, and Michigan. Right behind ASU in tenth? Duke.
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As for transfer class rankings of other Big schools, Cincinnati is 17th, West Virginia 18th, and Houston 20th.
It is the first class for Bennett, who replaced Bobby Hurley after spending 25 years at Saint Mary’s, building that into a strong mid-major program.
Two of the newcomers are players following Bennett from Saint Mary’s — 6-foot-8 power forward Paulius Murauskas (18.4 ppg, 7.6 rpg) and 6-7 small forward Dillan Shaw (7.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg). Murauskas, a native of Lithuania, was one of the top 10 players in the portal by multiple recruiting services and is now the highest-ranked player ASU has ever landed out of the portal.
Another player, combo guard JRob Croy, had ties to Bennett. He is the lone newcomer from the high school ranks and had previously committed to Bennett at Saint Mary’s. He also follows his father, Rick, who is on Bennett’s coaching staff after previously leading the program at California Baptist.
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Most of the newcomers have ties to the coaching staff. Center Nate Garcia is following Croy over from Cal Baptist, while power forward Marcus Vaughns is coming over from LSU, where one of Bennett’s assistants, David Patrick, was on staff.
Bennett has some familiarity with the other newcomers because he played against them. Those include point guard Joel Foxwell (15.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 6.5 apg) out of Portland and small forward Emmanuel Innocenti (6 pp, 3.8 rpg) out of Gonzaga. Innocenti is noted for his efforts on the defensive end of the floor, something ASU was missing last season. He also turned the ball over just twice in his team’s last 15 games and had just 17 on the 35-game season.
The most recent addition is 7-footer Ben Defty, a native of Germany who started 33 games last year at Boston University, averaging 15.1 points and 6.8 rebounds. He was rated as the No. 21 center and 134 overall transfer by On3.
The transfer portal closed on April 21. While players cannot put their names in, schools can still sign those players who are still in it.
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ASU had nine players enter the portal. Of those nine, four played little or not at all. The most notable is freshman center Massamba Diop, whose two biggest suitors appear to be Gonzaga and St. John’s. Players who have found a home include guard Noah Meeusen (DePaul), forward Andrija Grbovic (Oklahoma State), and forward Marcus Adams (Hawaii).
ASU has just two players who will be returning. They are guard Bryce Ford and forward Vijay Wallace. Wallace did not play a regular-season game after sustaining a broken leg in the exhibition game against Texas A&M. Ford, a local product out of Pinnacle, was also slowed by an injury and missed six games.
Guard is the biggest position of need. Of the nine players in the fold, just three are guards.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU basketball boasts top Big 12 transfer portal class
