No team has lower expectations in this Big 12 men’s basketball season than the Arizona State Sun Devils, according to the Big 12 coaches.
The Big 12 preseason poll dropped on Thursday, October 16, and ASU was picked to finish dead last in the conference. The Big 12 coaches voted on the poll, and the coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team. The opposing coaches are not sold on ASU after its 13-20 (4-16) season last year.
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They are not buying Bobby Hurley’s program after the program responded to last season by signing the No. 93 overall recruiting class (recruits plus transfers) in the nation per 247Sports. That class ranks last in the conference.
Hurley has brought in just two recruiting classes ranked inside the top 27 in his last six classes. The team has not finished a season ranked since the 2008-09 season and has not made it out of the NCAA Tournament’s First Round since the 2013-14 season. Neither of those seasons were with Hurley.
Atop the poll, meanwhile, was a Houston team coming off a National Championship game appearance. The Cougars received 14 first-place votes. Others receiving a first-place vote were BYU (ranked second in the poll) and Arizona (ranked fourth in the poll).
None of the 10 preseason All-Big 12 team members were ASU players.
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The most productive returning player for the Sun Devils is sophomore guard Trevor Best, who shot 40.6% from the field and 40% from deep in 11 games (12.8 minutes per game) for 3.6 points per game last season. The highest-rated high school recruit or transfer portal addition (per 247Sports) coming into Tempe is four-star transfer Marcus Adams Jr., who is a career 52.1% shooter from the floor and 38.8% shooter from distance for 15.6 points per game. Averaging 28.3 minutes per game in his career (spent with BYU and Cal State Northridge), he has also averaged one steal per game.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU basketball expectations sink after Big 12 poll drops
