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The only podcast covering all things Arizona State athletics! We bleed maroon and gold, and love talking about the Sun Devils no matter what sport.
Tom Hardon (00:02)
Welcome one, welcome all to another episode of Echo from the Buttes. I am your host, Tom Harden. With me as always, Andrew Hazlett and Austin Bundy. Our regular host, David Hellman, once again is unable to join us, but we'll carry on the show in his absence.
And guys, we finally have a resolution to the Sam Levitt story. Levitt committing to transfer to LSU following in the footsteps of Jayden Daniels from a few years ago. Closing the book on what can be considered one of the more headache-inducing transfer stories in a
that I can think of. Would you guys agree with that take?
Austen Bundy (00:50)
Yep, I would. It was unnecessarily elongated and too many twists and turns. bottom line, I'm not going to make any assumptions, but just my personal observation, feels like somebody in his camp was giving him bad advice or perhaps he was, I don't know, indecisive or just not necessarily.
as savvy in the portal as he probably should have been. We won't ever know, but I mean, it just seems like it was a lot of unnecessary twists.
Andrew Hayslett (01:23)
Yeah, at this point LSU rebuilding from what they were a few years ago. ⁓ Definitely one of the more, like you said, was just elongated transfers in college football. We'll see if he's successful or not. I mean, I'll be kind of curious from afar to see what he'll do at LSU with...
Lane Kiffin as his head coach and Pete Golding as his offensive coordinator looking at the development they've done with Trinidad Chambliss. We'll see if they can have something similar. I don't know. There's a lot of moving parts and pieces within.
where LSU is now. So, I don't know. I don't know what the expectations are. I don't know what the expectations should be for Sam Levin with all those moving parts and pieces. And let's not forget, he's coming off of the Liz Frank injury, which is a significant injury.
to quarterbacks and their performance coming out of that, it's going to be hard for him to recoup that regardless of the situation around him.
Tom Hardon (02:43)
Yeah, none of us own a crystal ball, so we can't really hazard any predictions as to what he'll do there in Baton Rouge, but I think it was only a matter of time before some SEC school scooped him up. And it'll be interesting to see if any numbers come out on what LSU
entice him with and you know what the you know whether that list frank surgery or at least Frank injury recovery will have any bearing on what he got versus you know maybe what he could have gotten if he was fully healthy and you know the point I always come back to with with regards to Sam love it you know no knock on on him he's you he did play well for as you for the season and a half that he was healthy but
You have to always remember that he did play at four different high schools before and before starting his collegiate career. This is not an unusual ⁓ an unusual path for him. I wish him all the best. That being said, and. Hope not self. I kind of hope he does not have a ⁓ Jane Daniels desk season where. He wins a Heisman immediately after leaving Arizona State, but.
The future is yet to be written. That story is yet to be told. We can only sit back and watch from afar.
Andrew Hayslett (04:11)
Yeah, kind of like I said earlier David or Tom you said that you don't have a ⁓ Crystal ball to see the future. I don't have a magic 8 ball to predict the future All I know is Sam Levitt's gonna be throwing a football
Austen Bundy (04:30)
we have no palantir, so we can't see what the Dark Lord of College Football has in store for us going forward. For any of the nerds out there.
Tom Hardon (04:38)
The force is not strong with us.
But what we do know is there are nine new incoming commits from the transfer portal for ASU since we last recorded our show last Thursday. And filling some pretty solid positional needs that we've been talking about. Most recently, the last update that we had was Tana'alo Tupeloa was the newest commit mid-show when we were recording since then.
Couple of linebackers in Owen Long and Ramir Davis from Colorado State and Northern Arizona respectively. Anthony Miller, tight end out of Tulane. Amarian Wilson from Baylor, edge rusher. Another tight end, Christian Ingman from Portland State. And then start getting into the line positions. Luke Buklenko, offensive tackle from Oklahoma.
and Josiah McGrew, tackle from Florida International and round that out with Antoine Belgrave-Shorter, ⁓ safety from Penn State and Jalen Thompson, Ed Rusher from Michigan State. Now guys that's a lot of positional needs that are getting filled, you know we're getting our checklist that we've been
mentally talking about for the last week and a half slowly ticked off, you know, I want to pivot it to both of you guys. Is there anything that is still glaringly unaddressed or could still use some beefing up?
Andrew Hayslett (06:25)
I'll go first here. I think it's pretty close to being done if not done. I think you might still see a few more defensive guys taken out of the portal. At this point I don't see them going many offensive guys. Maybe another receiver, maybe another lineman.
I feel like you can never have enough alignment that you feel are ready. Same thing with receivers. We saw last year outside of Jordan Tyson there wasn't a guy that was consistent.
each and every week. You'd see Derek Eusebio have a few good games. saw Jared Hamilton have a few good games. You saw Shaman Mateer have a few good games as a tight end. You saw Jalen Moss sold a few good games, including that last game and the Sun Ball as well.
Among other receivers as well, I'm probably forgetting Malik McLean had a few good games as well. But just just that rotation of guys that could step up at any given week, but they could also be also be ghosts. You want to have guys in that room that are.
going to be there every week. guy that will replace Jordan Tyson and a guy that will be on the outside, on the other side as well. So if you can, I don't know if the Sun Devils have that yet, it's just too early to tell with all these positional needs, but you might just want to get another guy because the next guy could be that guy as well.
Austen Bundy (07:59)
Yeah, I think Andrew really hit it on the head there. This entire team, as we saw this this season, was so resilient because they really based everything off of the next man up mentality. If you're going to live and die by that, you need depth. So you need to be able to pull a lot of not just a lot of bodies, but a lot of quality bodies out of the portal. And I trust Kenny and the staff to have done that to be able to reach across different ⁓ tiers of college football going. We've seen a couple of power five ⁓ guys come in. We've seen a couple of group of six guys come in.
and they've been reaching through the dirt and the FCS to pull out some potential studs. You never know what you're going to get out of there. But ⁓ I am confident that they have pulled enough from the portal so far in order to fill the holes, the glaring holes that we knew were already there and be able to say, who else can we potentially just kind of
Tom Hardon (08:47)
I think we might have lost Austin mid thought. Andrew, I don't know if you can still hear him.
Andrew Hayslett (08:53)
No. I his lips moving, but now he's silent again.
Austen Bundy (08:58)
pick and choose. there anybody who you have a hunch on to be able to go and try and pick up at all? I'm most excited about Miller, the tight end out of Tulane. I think he's, I mean, we're all Shaman Mateyar fans over here, big tight end you guys. So we'd love to see someone like him step up and really take over that.
Tom Hardon (09:00)
uh, there is moving for me as well. think, uh, while we're, while we're waiting for Austin to recover himself, I, you know, he does bring up a very, very good point with that next man up mentality. Uh, gotta have that depth. Gotta be able to have guys that are, uh, that are ready to step up at a moment's notice.
Austen Bundy (09:24)
that tight end one spot and bring in lot of experience from
Tom Hardon (09:24)
You saw it with, uh,
Austen Bundy (09:27)
a team like Tulane that was in the college football playoff. So we've got a long ways to go until camp, but I'm excited to see what a lot of these guys can do.
Tom Hardon (09:28)
just about every meaningful possession on the team last year and still getting to the Sun Bowl and winning record
Granada down season compared to 2024, but still an admirable effort by the 2025 Sun Devils, all things considered.
Andrew Hayslett (09:48)
Yeah, it's definitely for sure with everything that went on this season, with all the depth. I think Commissioner Yoramarka might've got him. That's the joke with this show. Whenever we lose someone mid-thought, that's what happens.
Tom Hardon (10:10)
He's got his eye on the eye on Mountain America Stadium. So hopefully hopefully we can fly under the radar just enough next year so that we don't get the ⁓ the strike from the from the offices there in Texas, but you know speaking of the depth I'm gonna I'm gonna reshuffle some of my original schedule for this episode. I want to bring up a I want to bring up the hockey team and
that depth that Coach Powers has been really preaching all season long, how this is the most, ⁓ this team has the most depth of any team since going up to the Division I level, and that's really being put to the test. Andrew, you and I were both in Mullet Arena over the weekend, and not only did we see Jack Beck already out for the season that we knew about, John Lee Waldron was...
ruled out for this weekend, but saw Lincoln Keane, defenseman, go down with an injury in practice during the week prior to ⁓ Friday's game. Saw Bennett Schimick go out after taking a big hit on Friday. He missed Saturday's game. Colin Potter took a hard hit midway through Saturday's game. His status is uncertain at this point. ⁓ Andrew, you watch this team as closely as I do.
Do you think this is a worrying point for the hockey team with these injuries starting to mount up?
Andrew Hayslett (11:43)
Absolutely, you lost what you didn't mention is it too is that two guys Left for various reasons to go back to the CHL. So that depth is tested even further from what it was so Yeah, so this depth is getting tested ⁓ It's one game so if you few of these these Duluth and Dartmouth games
I were surprised that they did win them. I didn't expect to go up to Duluth and take one to be honest. I thought they were probably going to lose both games. Dartmouth, I thought that was closer to being a split than getting swept. But then again, losing one game to Miami is... They lost a must-win game, in my opinion, because Miami...
I, we, we've said that they're not a pushover, but they should be, you should take three out of four from Miami if you're legit. And so either ASU hockey isn't legit or they just had a bad stretch against the Miami, these, these Miami games going two four at the, at the end of the day. So guess this depth is getting tested.
⁓ I for no Dak. We obviously don't know but it's it it sounds like at least Lincoln Keen will be back help that back end if defensively Bennett shimek, maybe well as what kind of Greg Powers alluded to he said he could be back, but he wasn't sure more confident about Waldron, but Then shimek
At this point, would be the likeliness of coming back for North Dakota powers with the Slots felt most confident and keen than Waldron and then Shimmock and then Potter. He had no clue on, but these seem to be short term at least. I don't think they'll be long term, but they seem to be short term.
Just the injuries have piled up at, I don't want to say a good time right now against Miami, as they did lose one of the games, but coming with Miami and then a bye week, that's generally a better time to have injured guys, I would say, than playing your gauntlets of North Dakota and Duluth.
Tom Hardon (14:34)
Absolutely in the by week really couldn't come at a more opportune time to to get some of these guys back to back to full health I want to want to go back to the Miami series that was a series that Coach powers alluded in post game comments was a series defined by winning ugly both Miami and Arizona State pulled out ugly wins respectively Miami pulling out a gritty two to one overtime win on Friday
and then Arizona State getting the one nothing win on Saturday behind a shutout effort from Samuel Arbonne, his first career collegiate shutout. But from my vantage point, it was not a ⁓ clean series by either team. Far too many penalties taken by Arizona State. Miami had their share of penalties as well, but neither team was able to convert on
on their respective power plays. You love seeing Arizona State being perfect on the kill, but the inability to convert on the man advantage was a concern for me and maybe a relapse into early season tendencies of not being as aggressive on the puck and not forechecking really playing
back to that perimeter style and ⁓ very outside, not getting the traffic in front of the net like has been seen over the last few series against Duluth, against Dartmouth like you were mentioning, Andrew.
Andrew Hayslett (16:15)
Yeah, and I think I don't want to go back to injuries are the excuse for everything, but I do think Jack not having Jack back is a key piece here because he was on the power play and we talked about early season struggles dropping to Penn State dropping to on the road at Augustana. Jack back didn't play those games and now he's he's out.
They've had a bunch of different guys on the power play in place of him. They've tried various defensemen. They've tried forwards coming in. They've tried going back. They've tried the forward one defenseman on the top power play unit. They've tried the five forwards. Nothing has really clicked for any substantial time.
With within the power plays so far Maybe we'll see some sort of shakeup Because I think that's coming without Getting any power play goals last weekend including one on a five-minute power play I Thought when ASU didn't convert that five man a five-minute power play on
Saturday I thought okay this team has lost their chance because I just saw the previous game Matteo Droboc limit the Sun Devils to one goal in regulation. That's a guy who at least at in that series didn't make mistakes. So
I thought that was the time to capitalize and they failed to do so. So the Sun Devils eventually did capitalize later in the game with Noah Powell to take the only goal in the game, which was crucial. But power play is something that if you're a Sun Devil fan should be a bit concerned about.
Tom Hardon (18:20)
And I want to give all due credit to Matteo Drobac for his performance in net for Miami. ⁓ He had a ⁓ rough last five games entering this past weekend, 0-3 and 2 with goals against over 3 in those five games. And he absolutely stood on his head. ⁓ And also credit to Miami's top line.
being without Mateo Giampa, having an all freshmen top line going up against the highest scoring line in all of college hockey, and going toe to toe with them. It was a very, very knockdown drag out series. And when you see only four goals combined in a series, that is the definition of winning ugly. Austin, I want to pivot to you now that you're back and hopefully we have audio for you. ⁓
What did you see from afar from ASU hockey this weekend?
Austen Bundy (19:19)
Well, I saw some grittiness. mean, you never want to play down to your opponents. I actually think Miami was playing up. They were punching up a little bit more. ⁓ And as much as ASU lost in overtime in that first game, you come back out and you're resilient. You play your game. You still grind something out. I mean, to me, I look at that series and as much as you didn't
You didn't beat a Miami like a three nil or a four one or something that you would kind of expect them to have done even with the injuries. ⁓ Still getting three out of four points there is a pretty big deal. I mean, that's something you pat yourself on the back for. mean, you're escaping with the majority of the points. Even if you split, wasn't ⁓ a terrible ⁓ split. The points, I should say.
it wouldn't have been a terrible, ⁓ the terrible outing, but getting three out of four there is gigantic, I think, because you still took care of enough business to where you gained in those standings. You were getting points, getting some points instead of no points is always better. ⁓ So only missing out on one standing point on the weekend is, I don't think it's anything to kind of...
have to lick your wounds over. mean, with the amount of injuries they did have and to be able to come away with that, that's pretty impressive from my angle.
Tom Hardon (20:44)
I'll give a little fact check on you. It's actually four out of six points. Each game carries a maximum of three points, but your points still remains. Four points out of six. And it happens, but four points out of six at the end of the day isn't exactly, while you wanna have sweeps at home, getting the majority of the points at home is the next best thing.
Austen Bundy (20:53)
I'm still used to the NHL standings.
Tom Hardon (21:13)
At the end of the day, Arizona State did not slip in the conference standings, still sitting in fifth place in the NCHC, punching up now at Minnesota Duluth, who sits four points ahead of them in the standings and just ahead of Omaha. Those two teams do play each other this weekend and with Arizona State on a bye week, that is my series that I'm watching keenly. Hoping that both teams
beat up on each other a little bit and there's minimal movement in the standings. ⁓ That way when Arizona State returns to play ⁓ next weekend hosting North Dakota, not sitting in sixth place or not sitting impossibly behind fourth place, also trying to get that home ice advantage for the NCHC tournament.
Andrew Hayslett (22:05)
At the end of day something to look at is when I think it was the same thing last year or when it was the opposite last year where Arizona State's bi-week was the last week in the season if memory serves me right. You kind of had to say, okay, you have to knock Arizona State's points down a few because all these other schools haven't played the games that Arizona State has. So those two extra games this year, it's kind of the opposite. You can kind of say, okay.
Going down the line here say all right Arizona student has played two less games. Let's Give them three four points on everyone else and see okay That's kind of to me how I would look at the standings At not necessarily at face value. Just kind of add add those points up just to say okay. This is where the this team averages versus What they are?
And by the end of the season, you'll make those three points up when other teams have off weeks as well.
Austen Bundy (23:13)
Yeah, having two games in hand is going to be extremely helpful down the stretch. That's something you're going to want to not necessarily rely on. You want to take care of business elsewhere, but it's going to be nice to have in your back pocket when everybody else is having to stay a little idle down the crucial stretch.
Tom Hardon (23:31)
And I'm actually going to correct myself at St. Cloud State that Minnesota Duluth plays next weekend. But point remains, both of those teams are directly around Arizona State. So it's going to be a dogfight down to the wire for the Penrose Cup for NCHC regular season champion and seating in the postseason tournament. We're to flip over to the hard court now.
We talked about women's basketball having their their biggest game of the early season at TCU this past weekend and that was a tough one to catch back up on. The biggest defeat of the season so far, hopefully will still stand to be the biggest loss, but a 31 point loss on the road at the hands of TCU, 77 to 46.
Where do we start with what went wrong in this game, guys? Austin, I'll kick it over to you.
Andrew Hayslett (24:36)
It's all part of growing pains.
That's where I want to start is you're in a first year head coach. Doesn't matter the sport. Doesn't matter who it is. With Molly Miller being the first year head coach at Arizona State, you're still, this is a rebuilding year at the end of the year. It's, the goal is to start, lay the foundation to start to build a program.
that can compete at the next level from where it was. And I see a good foundation. You're gonna have games where you lose big and TCU is a great team. is, I don't wanna, kind of what was expected losing by a lot is, I don't think it's something any of us predicted, but I don't remember. But I wanna.
Compared to what Kenny Dillingham's first season was, you saw lot of blowouts against teams like Oregon, Arizona, among others.
But we know what Kenny Dillingham is today. We saw the foundational pieces getting laid down again against teams like UCLA winning that game in the Rose Bowl, among other wins. You see a foundation. with women's basketball, with Molly Miller doing, the foundation is a lot more clear and I think is getting in faster.
think that this team is a borderline tournament team and in the first year that's really good at the end of the day but still losing by 30 it stings but it's also expected you're gonna have games where you just lay an egg you gotta it's about how you pick up on the next one
Austen Bundy (26:38)
Yeah, I think Andrew hit on the head there. This was bound to happen. First year head coach in a rebuilding year that are already wildly exceeding expectations. So to have a game like this is to really have only have a game like this once so far out of the amount of games they've played already. Like this is that's pretty good. Like you would want something like this, especially this early in the conference ⁓ schedule, because now the most important game of the season.
is the next one because how does Molly Miller have this team rebound if they can answer with a big win if they can answer with any any win at all really then you know that she's doing something right and that we have a coach that can build a strong enough resilience in a roster can get people to buy in enough to know that yeah you're gonna have stinkers like this but what do get to do about it and hopefully they come out and they they rebound and and they're come back stronger from this and learn from any of the mistakes that they made.
⁓ I to lose by that much. Yeah, not ideal. But I mean, you would rather somebody like Molly Miller make a not even make a mistake, but just have this type of stumble now so that especially when you have a little bit more grace in your first year, I still think this team, like Andrew said, has got a solid foundation. It's going places ⁓ as long as you don't have any significant amount.
more games like this that's what's important but i think the the biggest thing now is just how do they rebound from this how do they play in the very next games that's all it's going to matter
Tom Hardon (28:17)
on that next game is always gonna be the most important. Next game coming up will be at home from Desert Financial Arena on Saturday, January 17th at 2 p.m. Arizona time. Where Arizona State is 10 and 0 at home. So a little bit of home cooking never does the soul bad here. Get that rebound win and get back climbing up the big 12 sand dunes.
Looking ahead, looking over to men's basketball. I think we had a polar opposite of what we were thinking the weekend outlook would be for ⁓ men's basketball after the blowout loss against BYU where Austin was sure this was going to be the ⁓ surprise steal win for ⁓ Bobby Hurway's squad. ⁓ Had a very narrow nail biting win.
at home against Kansas State 87-84 final. Kansas State actually had a chance to tie it. did put up a three pointer at the buzzer that would have hoped to send it to overtime, but did not come to pass. What kind of a win is this for Arizona State? Either one of you guys want to take this one.
Andrew Hayslett (29:41)
I'll take it to start off here. I think it's a win, but for me it's how does this team respond in the next game because if the next game it's if you can start to stack wins you might say hey maybe Bobby's got something going here but
I tend to believe this will be one of the few conference wins this season. I've been pessimistic about men's basketball. But at the end of the day, it's a win. You have to relish wins. Always.
And at the end of the day for me, that's what I take away. It's a win. Can you get a couple more to stack wins? And then now we're talking. Now business is booming.
Austen Bundy (30:35)
Yeah, I think I mean, if I remember correctly, I think I said that the Kansas State game was a must win game after the type of loss that they took against BYU. And I mean, they got the win. A win is a win wasn't very pretty, but they did respond. And that's a good thing, especially when we had that much doubt about Bobby Hurley's team this year. Like Andrew said, how are they going to take carry this into the next game? As much as it wasn't pretty, mean, you take.
your wins and you try to build upon that. Hopefully they have a good week of practice. You try to build upon the things you did right, fix the things you didn't, ⁓ and hopefully they can stack some more wins. But I with Andrew on this. This may be one of ⁓ the few wins we see them have down the stretch here. It may be another one of those seasons where they looked adequate in non-conference, and now we're hitting conference play, and it's just going to be too much of a gauntlet for them.
Tom Hardon (31:30)
On that next game coming up as we're recording now tomorrow night down the road 110 miles down I 10 in Tucson against the Wildcats. Well, this game is. I'm hoping that we can invoke some. Some memory of the 2014 game from from Desert Financial that was a.
That was that was a thrilling Buzzer Beater win for the Sun Devils. I think also 2023 the half court shot with Des Cambridge. Can we invoke some of the memories ⁓ of that game to pull up a positive result for the Sun Devils tomorrow night down at McHale?
Austen Bundy (32:21)
Just keep it close. That's all I'm asking for. Just keep it close. If they can lose by less than 30 points, that's a win in my book.
Andrew Hayslett (32:34)
reminds me of the saying, good teams win, great teams cover. So are you asking them to cover Austin?
Austen Bundy (32:42)
Basically
as long as it's not embarrassing. We already know they're probably not going to win the game. But if they don't, if they can avoid getting absolutely trounced and laughed out of the building, that's fine with me.
Tom Hardon (32:56)
I think in a rivalry game, they're going to get left out of the building no matter what. looking at this Arizona team, they are taking little to no mercy on their opponents. Looking back at their last five games, winning margins of at least 20 points or more, this team is proving that they are deserving of that number one vote in the AP poll.
and it's this game has it's got all the all the makings of
Insert whatever you want to put here, but there are going to be historical events that were more competitive than ⁓ this game. That's my go-to hyperbole when I'm giving my outlook on this game.
The point remains, Austin, I think you hit it perfectly. Keep it competitive, or maybe not even competitive, but just keep it marginally not embarrassing. If you can escape with ⁓ a 20-point defeat, there's no column in the standings for moral victories. But I think that would definitely qualify as a moral victory.
It would certainly be a far cry better than the last time I went down to Tucson for a basketball game in 2024. I believe that was pushing a 40 point defeat. That's a memory I'd rather not revisit when watching this game far tonight. But fans, anybody who's listening, anybody who looks at our coverage on Devils in Detail, get your voodoo doll, get your
Cross your fingers, do whatever you need to do. Get those good vibes out there for the Sun Devils to make it a game that we can not hang our heads too lowly about.
Austen Bundy (35:09)
We need Jobu.
Tom Hardon (35:12)
Just don't steal his rum. It's very bad to steal his rum.
Austen Bundy (35:14)
You
Tom Hardon (35:20)
But I want to close up the show with a couple of unique points that we don't know typically get to cover. Men's tennis got started for the springtime sports. as we were talking pre-show, Austin, our resident tennis box score reading expert, filled us in on one, how to read the box score, and two,
just how good it was and it really was good. Men's tennis came away with a sweep, winning all six singles and winning two out of the three doubles matches to take all seven possible points in the, what do call it, match, tournament.
Austen Bundy (36:10)
Me,
yeah, I don't know what they've formally call it in college, but it seems like they go with six singles matches and then you have one doubles match where they play it between ⁓ two or three different pairs. So you have one pair takes the first set. Next pair will come on for the second set. If you don't sweep, then you go to a tie breaking third set with a different pair and ASU won two out of three sets in the doubles match. So that got them the single point towards the seven sweep in the
overall team versus team match.
Tom Hardon (36:45)
Having not played tennis since I was in grade school, I'm always entertained and it's always fun to look in on these sports that don't get as much attention as football, as basketball. And really seeing some of the athletics represented in all forms.
That's what I'm all about. That's what we hope to continue to bring and we'll continue to look in on tennis and provide updates as we have them. But a one-to-no record for men's tennis to start off the season. Women's tennis will be getting started. Looks like there are a couple of matches, a couple of tournaments, meets, whatever. I don't think we came to a firm definition of what we call them, but...
hosting UC Davis and GCU coming up on January 17th. Men's tennis will be back in action against both Wichita State and New Mexico State. Also tomorrow, all those matches will be played from the Whiteman Tennis Center on campus. And then my last note, Andrew, I'm interested to get your thought on this as well.
Arizona Diamondbacks fans will be excited to hear that Nolan Aronado was traded, was acquired in trade today. And I came to the knowledge that he was a former Arizona State commit, never played an inning for the Sun Devils, instead signed with the Colorado Rockies after getting drafted in 2009. gave an interesting perspective to
Just how many players have committed to Arizona State over the years and never played an inning. I dove deep down the rabbit hole and we'll have an article coming up on Devils in Detail. Should be online on Wednesday as you're listening to this with my pick of the best players at each position who committed to the Sun Devils and never played, but.
I want to get a thought from you guys. One, how many players can you think of who want that route? And two, can you pick one of your top players that fits that category? Andrew, I'll start with you. Or Austin, it looks like you're ready.
Austen Bundy (39:24)
I can only think of one. So I'm just going to fill out all of those questions, which is the one I can think of in Spobas. The only reason I know that is because of the Blue Jays being in the World Series and knowing that just from a few years ago that he was a commit and never ended up playing for the Devils, but he ended up being real successful ⁓ in the big show. And so that's somebody that I feel like ASU's baseball team would have really loved to have, especially in the years he potentially would have been in college, because those would have been years where the program
desperately needed a little bit of star power.
Andrew Hayslett (39:55)
Yeah, I couldn't think of anything else in the short time here that comes to mind so I'll just say Nolan Aernado for both. I think the real interesting point of the trade for me is from the ASU standpoint is actually former ASU pitcher who just graduated or
last season and was drafted by the Diamondbacks. Jack Martinez was the other piece in this trade. Martinez is a ⁓ solid pitcher that can be used as a starter or reliever. He was mixed use throughout his college time. Real funky delivery process with a different arm angle for him. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Paul Seawald's in a way, but
I think he can be a solid pitcher if he can harness what I saw at end of his time at ASU. Because on his day, he was a guy that would get you six innings with only two runs up on the board, that type of pitcher.
I liked what I saw out of him, so Cardinals fans could potentially see him at some point in the major leagues, probably as a reliever, at least to start. And it makes the second Sun Devil that was drafted in the 2020... I can't talk. 2024 draft class that has been traded. Obviously Isaiah Jackson, the other one, going from the Angels to the Red Sox.
I both of those guys, especially Isaiah Jackson, can crack the major leagues at some point. So that's another interesting note as well.
Tom Hardon (41:52)
Well, they don't call Arizona State MLBU for nothing. Austin, can tell you that Bubba Shet was not on my list of best players at each position. I won't give away my list. You'll have to go to devilsindetail.com tomorrow to find that article and give it a read through. Give me your thoughts on if I hit it right on the best players at each position who were committed Sun Devils but never played in any...
for never played knitting in Tempe. That about wraps up everything that I had for the night. I wanna open the floor to you guys. Any last minute topics that you wanted to address before we sign off.
Austen Bundy (42:35)
How much of my commit rant did you guys hear before I realized I dropped off?
Tom Hardon (42:42)
think we've probably heard about half of it if you want to close up with ⁓ your last thoughts going back to football.
Austen Bundy (42:47)
Yeah, so think the only thing I had mentioned, I think they've filled just about everything they can. ⁓ I trust the coaches to know things that they want to maybe nitpick a little bit, try and look through what's left in the portal, bring somebody in who can, you can potentially develop maybe a project player. But I'm excited about the tight end from Tulane Miller. I mean, we're all tight end you fans here, big Shimon Mateyar guys, nobody can replace our guy, but. ⁓
We'd love to see somebody like Miller come in, take that tight end one spot and really develop into something for the Sundells. think ASU fans have really been, I don't know if anyone's clamoring, like actively clamoring, but I think we all would love to see ASU get in on that tight end game and really come away with a solid number one tight end that could make a lot of versatile plays and emerge as a big star here in Tempe.
I like to see what Miller is going to be able to do. I got a lot of ⁓ hope for him.
Tom Hardon (43:49)
Yeah, I'm really excited to see just how these guys start to work into the program. Really excited to be down there at spring practice, see how, get our first look at the new transfers and who's going to getting an edge for themselves in those positional battles. All right, Andrew, any last things for you?
Andrew Hayslett (44:14)
Nothing for me.
Tom Hardon (44:16)
All right. Well, thank you. Thank you again for everybody who listens. As always for Austin Bundy and Andrew Hazlett, I'm Tom Harden and give them hell devils.