Arizona State Basketball Faces Challenges in 2025

The 2024-25 season was of utmost disappointment for the Arizona State Sun Devils men's basketball program.

That could still be an understatement.

Arizona State began the non-conference season with an impressive 9-2 record - a slate of victories including Saint Mary's, New Mexico, and Grand Canyon also entailed this start.

However, Bobby Hurley's squad faltered due to injuries, chemistry issues, and other factors in their inaugural slate of Big12 games - as they went 4-16 to finish with the worst season record in the Hurley era.

Numerous challenges face the program in the season that is to be - here are the three that stand out.

Rebuilding Roster

The most well-documented failure of this season was that the basketball program was unable to retain key players to build around for another season - unlike the football program.

Prized freshman talents Jayden Quaintance, Joson Sanon, and Amier Ali all transferred elsewhere, while a large percentage of the remaining roster either followed suit in the transfer portal or ran out of eligibility.

Hurley has done an admirable job in an attempt to rebuild what was lost - signing a pair of four-star transfers and four-star 2025 recruits, per 247 Sports.

Will that be enough to compete in what could be another challenging season in what is considered a basketball superconference?

More on that below.

Competing in Year Two in Big 12

The Big 12 could see as many as eight programs included in the preseason top 25 poll that will drop shortly before the 25/26 season begins.

While the Sun Devils were competitive in several contests against high-level conference foes - such as the double-overtime loss to Texas Tech in February, they were often unable to seal the victory due to any number of factors.

Can the newly constructed roster that Hurley put together muster up enough conference victories to get in the NCAA tournament picture?

It remains to be seen, but there are reasons to be skeptical until the on-court product is actually seen.

Hurley's Future

Hurley is entering the final year of his contract and very likely needs to lead the Sun Devils to the tournament field to be retained.

Does Hurley's tenuous status create a distraction for the program during the season?

That is doubtful - Hurley is passionate about the program through and through. The new roster will hopefully work better together compared to last year's rendition as well.

Hurley's back is currently against the wall in terms of his future in Tempe, but that's when it feels like the coach does his best work.

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