Palpable excitement mounting for both Sun Devil basketball programs

Basketball season is upon us.

The NBA tipped off their new season Wednesday night, but earlier in the day in Kansas City, the Big 12 held its first of two days of their Basketball Media Days, presented by Monster Energy. And with that brought the overwhelming feeling of optimism for both Sun Devil programs.

On one hand, Molly Miller is entering her second season leading the Sun Devils with raised expectations. One of the winningest active coaches in women's basketball, Miller turned Arizona State around in Year 1, nearly tripling the win total from the year before and taking her team back to the tournament.

On the other hand, Randy Bennett is home leading a program he grew up watching and rooting for a long time ago. After 25 years and 589 wins at St. Mary's, Bennett finally left the mid-major he built into a perennial tournament team for the challenge of making Arizona State competitive in the nation's premier basketball conference.

Miller focused on avoiding complacency

If you ask Miller (we did), she wasn't the least bit surprised that last year's team made it to the NCAA Tournament. However, three of their starters from last year are gone, including lead scorer Gabby Elliott, and lots of new faces have joined the program.

The number one thing on Miller's mind heading into Year 2 is avoiding complacency and continuing to do the little things that got that team to Dayton.

"Everybody says losing is so hard, but sustained success is the hardest part," said Miller. She later explained that she's seen teams over the years have a hot start and then fizzle out over the next few years, unable to handle success and replicate it going forward.

Part of that starts with the returners from last year's team, headlined by McKinna Brackens. The forward spent the summer playing for Team USA in China, an unforgettable experience for the senior who was second in scoring on last year's squad.

Brackens is taking on more of a leadership role in the locker room this year and working to emphasize to her teammates the importance of Miller's culture. That culture is built on hustle, defense, and relentless energy.

Miller repeated one of her more common maxims that sums up this culture: "Playing against us should be like going to the dentist: nobody wants to do it."

With Brackens helping lead the charge, newcomers Rashunda Jones and Ruby Whitehorn - both in attendance in Kansas City, alongside Miller and Brackens - offer more juice and tangible on-court talent.

Jones, the expected starting point guard, was a defensive menace at Michigan State who is looking to fill the void left by both Washenitz and Last-Tear Poa, while Whitehorn is an explosive talent that Miller admitted to having made plans for since she joined the team midway through last season.

All of it comes together with what Miller calls "benergy," or bench energy. The relentless energy that her team plays with, which rubs off on the fans in the arena, helped propel the team forward all of last year. And keeping that benergy mindset in Year 2 will be a big piece of getting back to the tournament again.

Bennett confident in his team

Bennett's Gaels teams were known for their unique style of play, one that emphasized defense, rebounding, and toughness. They were also known for their slower, deliberate offensive pace, one that critics said was boring to watch but undeniably produced results.

In Kansas City, Bennett didn't seem too keen on deviating from that approach.

He acknowledged that the Big 12 is a different animal, and Bennett did hint at looking to up the pace offensively compared to his St. Mary's teams, but the Sun Devils still aim to defend, rebound, and avoid turnovers at a high rate.

"It's really not that different," Bennett said when comparing his old team to his new team. He believes the core principles that St. Mary's won so often with will continue to hold true in the Big 12.

Helping his case are two players he coached at St. Mary's - Paulius Murauskas and Dillan Shaw - as well as two players he coached against in the West Coast Conference, Emmanuel Innocenti and Joel Foxwell.

Foxwell figures to be the Sun Devils' starting point guard, and his All-WCC First Team honors last year as a true freshman reflect the offensive potency that will help Bennett speed things up a bit.

The other three, all of whom came with Bennett to Kansas City, are team captains looking to establish a winning culture in Tempe.

Murauskas was named the Big 12 Preseason Newcomer of the Year, hardly a surprise after consecutive All-WCC First Team honors at St. Mary's. Shaw was one of the best freshman scorers in the nation last year, alongside Foxwell, and Innocenti was a physical defensive enforcer for Gonzaga.

It's easy to see how all these pieces fit into what Bennett wants to do. The only question now is whether that approach can actually win on the Big 12 stage. But for the first time in a while, there is hope for men's hoops in Tempe.