ASU Rivalry With Arizona Only Growing Over Time

Arizona State-Arizona Has Become More Competitive Lately

Arizona State has won only two games against the powerhouse Wildcats this decade, but Hurley's teams have been tightly contested in most of those games.

Now, the stakes are raised - with Bennett's efficient, no-nonsense philosophy placing a sharp decline on Arizona's margin of error in the two matchups - next season and beyond.

Bennett is quite familiar with Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, who served as an assistant at Gonzaga for over two decades. The two elite coaches will almost certainly be locked in a chess match every time they face off.

Despite what each side says at the surface, the state of Arizona will be better off if these two programs are on a relatively even playing field moving forward - and this is quite possibly what we will receive under the leadership of Bennett.

This Will Be Recruiting Battle As Well

The rivalry seems to be making a transition into a war of attrition on the recruiting front just as much as a rubber match on the hardwood.

Former Arizona PF and current NBA Draft prospect Koa Peat is likely the best example of this war of attrition. Peat had been heavily targeted by both programs for multiple seasons and was torn between choosing the Wildcats or Sun Devils, according to a source close to Arizona State on SI. He ultimately went with Arizona, and the rest is history.

Arizona has quietly become one of the go-to states for producing NBA-level talent out of high school, and Arizona State's full-on push to target these elite talents directly puts them at odds with the school down in Tucson.

The Sun Devils have experienced some victories as of late, as Bryce Ford chose to return to the Phoenix area this time last year, while Paulius Murauskas has an undeniable chance to "get back" at Arizona after spending his freshman season with the Wildcats.

Arizona State president Michael Crow perhaps said it best in the eyes of Sun Devil fans by exclaiming, “We need to quiet the barking dog to the south,” during Bennett's introductory press conference on Thursday.