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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.
David Howman (00:01)
Welcome one, welcome all to another episode of the Echo from the Bute's podcast. I am your host David Hellman joined by my two great co-hosts Austin Bundy and Andrew Hazlett and Tom Harden is not here and I don't think that this has ever happened in the history of the show where he's not been on here for one of our episodes. He's our constant, he's our man that's always here and no it is not a sign that he's entered the transfer portal like so many other Sun Devils that are doing it right now.
⁓ He will be back, but we just got to work out some NIL deals for him first. We got a good show though. got, you know, transfer portal madness. We got, you know, some football updates to talk about. Baseball is going strong. First, before we get into all that, Austin, Andrew, how are y'all doing?
Andrew Hayslett (00:49)
I'm doing good.
Austen Bundy (00:52)
doing alright, still here. That'll convince the folks back home.
David Howman (00:59)
Yeah, yeah. Blink twice if you're under duress.
Austen Bundy (01:01)
You
David Howman (01:05)
For those that are just listening, he did not blink at all. I don't know what that means.
Austen Bundy (01:09)
Hahaha
David Howman (01:12)
But we are starting off with with Sun Devil basketball though. ⁓ There's a lot in flux right now. They have a new coach, Randy Bennett, who we have not seen. Well, we've seen him. We haven't heard from him. ⁓ They, know, ASU put out their video of him coming off the plane, him seeing ⁓ seeing the facilities. Molly Miller gave him a big hug. ⁓ And then immediately he was too sick for his press conference and we have not seen him since.
That's, you know, some people are more concerned about it than others, but there's a new coach in town. He's added three new assistant coaches and Transfer Portal is open as of earlier this week. Sun Devils are losing players. They are talking to some players. They have not added anybody yet, but there's a lot going on right now. The biggest of them being their freshman phenom big man, Masamba Jop, entered the portal on Wednesday.
after giving some people hope with some of his Instagram posts, which if you're anything like me, you know that the moment you start feeling hopeful about something is the moment when that player is gonna leave. So Austin, how concerned are you at both Jop, but also some of the other players that have left like Santiago Trujillo who entered the portal on Thursday, Noah Mayucin, ⁓ and just in general where things stand right now with this roster.
Austen Bundy (02:42)
I would say I'm mildly concerned, but not surprised. ⁓ This was Bobby Hurley's roster. You really hoped that Rainey Bennett would be enough of a big name, enough of a successful reputation with St. Mary's to convince some of those bigger names to stick back, give them a chance, give the program a chance. ⁓ But you also can't blame guys like Jop and others who are leaping at more lucrative opportunities. ⁓
This is the era of NIL. This is the era of eventually revenue sharing. And we've seen it before where guys who really make a name for themselves here at ASU, they put their names on the map. They get the attention of some of these other bigger programs. And when they have an opportunity to go jump and go play for a team that, let's be real, can actually win a national championship, can compete for some kind of silverware, some kind of title. And at the end of the day, get them in front of the most NBA scout eyes as possible.
⁓ so it's not surprising it stinks for ASU, but you also kind of have to realize new coach, new regime. It's going to take a little time to build something that we're always going to be growing pains. He's got a new staff. ⁓ you're going to have to go out on the recruiting trail now and go and prove to these, these recruits, their parents, their agents, that this is ASU is the best possible opportunity for them under Randy Bennett.
⁓ and hopefully guys like James Harden, others can potentially step in with some some NIL funds and spice up that side of the deal to help bring more guys in ⁓ and I mean besides that I think I mean it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity for Randy Bennett now without having these big stars having more roster spots open to now and go out and maybe look at some of these
⁓ gems in the rough that he maybe saw on the recruiting trail, couldn't get to come to St. Mary's. Maybe they want to come with him now to a Power Four program. ⁓ You never know. So there's a lot of opportunity here too for ASU, and I'm confident that with a new regime, had this been Bobby Hurley, year 11, then I think this would have been a much different story on the recruiting trail. But now that we have Randy Bennett, somebody who
has a lot more proven success, better track record, a staff that is levels more respectable than what we've had before, which was no shade to Bobby Hurley. I mean, he did what he could, but this is just a whole new chapter in ASU basketball. And I think there's a great opportunity here to build something special.
David Howman (05:23)
Yeah, know, ⁓ it's funny because like this last year was not exactly a good year for Sunnival basketball. ⁓ But now it's like, know, Jop enters the portal and Meyusen enters the portal and suddenly everyone's like, my God, we're losing all these good players. it's like, that they're not good players, like it would have been nice, obviously to hold on to Jop. I would have liked to see Meyusen stick around, but it's not like.
You know, it's not like you were a tournament team and you're losing all your guys and it's like, my God, now we're not going to. You know this team finished 11th in the Big 12 and honestly they were punching above their weight to finish 11th ⁓ given what the Big 12 has. So ⁓ for what it's worth the news a little bit before we hopped on here was that the two teams to watch that are most in on job right now are Gonzaga and Saint Johns.
this report specifically noting that Rick Pitino sees Jop as being like the premier defensive centerpiece for his team next year. ⁓ So like, you know, when you think about those two schools and the caliber that they have and the fact that like, unless something goes horribly wrong, either of those teams are going to be in the tournament. It's easy to see why Masamba Jop was not going to stick around. ⁓ You know, Andrew,
One of the big reasons that Randy Bennett had so much success at St. Mary's was he found those diamonds in the rough. He found guys that were not five stars, were not like on everybody's radar, but he found guys that fit into his system. And so I kind of go back and forth on this. like, you know, should we be concerned that he's not coming in and bringing big names with him?
Because you would think, know, obviously he's a high profile. He's a proven coach. He's got more resources now than he did at St. Mary's. But at the same time, like, why is he going to switch up what's clearly been working for him in terms of going after the type of player that fits him versus just going after, you know, who's got the biggest name?
Andrew Hayslett (07:33)
Yeah, I want to go back to your previous point David on the two schools job was looking at two former former sundial from the previous year's team went to those schools and Adam Miller going to Gonzaga and Joe Sunson and heading to st. John so those schools don't surprise me at all as possibilities for job ⁓ Going back to your question David to me at this point is we don't know
We don't know what he's going to do at this point because we haven't seen him bring in a player at this point. It's hard to say, yeah, he's sticking to strategy or not.
The question is, should he be? I don't know. It's very complex working something. It's a change of scenery. You're coming into a place where you've got to lay the foundation. And to me at this point, it depends how you want to do it. You could go get some big guys, but I think your diamond's in the rough. Someone's got to start.
building this theoretical house. If you want to win ⁓ big 12 championships and potentially national championships, you got to build that. I think with pieces, setting an identity is the better way to do that longterm. think short term, big names are fun, but I don't think that is going to relate to longterm success in my opinion.
David Howman (09:07)
Well, and I know like a lot of people on the interwebs have expressed some concern, especially that we're not immediately hearing, all these St. Mary's players are transferring over here. know, Mikey Lewis is in the transfer portal. Dylan Shaw is in the transfer portal. Andrew McKeever, their center. And then of course the big one is Paulius Morauskas, who, ⁓ a Lithuanian, like stretch four, who originally committed to the school down south. Wait a year there.
you know, thought better of his choices and went to St. Mary's. ⁓ You know, and Moralescus was always going to be a tough pull because he is one of the five highest rated players on the transfer portal right now, ⁓ depending on which site you look at. ⁓ And he's, know Kentucky is hard pursuing him. A lot of other, those blue blood schools with very, very deep pockets, they really want to get him. ⁓
Austen Bundy (10:05)
I'm surprised Illinois is not going after him. They love the Eastern Europeans.
David Howman (10:09)
I'm sure they are. He would fit right in there. But he's going to get a lot of money wherever he goes. And like the concept of him coming to Arizona State either means James Harden is writing him up, giving him his last game check basically, or he's taking a huge pay cut just because he wants to come play for this coach he spent one year under. ⁓ But like Mikey Lewis is also going to be
he's probably gonna get a good amount of money to go somewhere else. And so like, I know there's concerns about, why don't his own players wanna keep playing for him? I think part of it is they're gonna go get paid, but also why are they getting paid? Because they were in Randy Bennett's system. they were not, know, Moralescus was a pretty good get when St. Mary's got him just to go from a program with that, as much as it pains me that much prestige.
to St. Mary's, that was a big pull for St. Mary's, but most of these other guys were, you know, they were not huge names in the recruiting trail. They came to St. Mary's and then they blew up. ⁓ So again, that makes me feel a little bit better about, you know, these like guys are getting paid because they played under Randy Bennett. They're not necessarily, it's not that they're going to get paid to play under Randy Bennett.
it kind of goes a different, you works, doesn't work that way. It's very similar, I think, what Kenny Dillingham has talked about. You know, he said in the past, he doesn't want to use NIL just to get players in the door. He wants to bring a man, put him in the right situation, and then they get paid, hopefully here in Arizona State, but they got to earn their keep first. And, you know, obviously it's worked very well for Kenny Dillingham.
At least in California at St. Mary's it worked very well for Randy Bennett. We'll see how it works at Arizona State. ⁓ Andrew, do have to correct you though. He has brought in one player. He flipped the high school commit J. Rob Croy, whose recruit profile picture I love. If you guys haven't seen a lookup, J. Rob Croy on 24 seven sports. He's got a bandage on his forehead because I don't know, he must've
been in some fight right before the picture and he said, nah, just take the picture. ⁓ But J. Rob Croy, a combo guard, four star commit, ⁓ flipped from St. Mary's to Arizona State like the day after Bennett was announced. And that also brings me into the other thing I want to talk about, which is this coaching staff, because his father, Rick Croy, is now on the Arizona State staff. And Austin, you mentioned before this staff and its qualifications.
⁓ Rick Croy left his job as head coach at Cal Baptist right after taking them to the tournament to come beyond this staff. They also just announced David Patrick, who, know, if his first name is David, you already know he's great at what he does. So, ⁓ but he left LSU. He was their top recruiter there. He's been at LSU before. He helped land Ben Simmons at LSU back in the day. He is an Australian. He ⁓ was part of Randy Bennett's staff.
early at St. Mary's and helped build that Australian pipeline that has been so successful for St. Mary's. And then Joe Rehan, who's been ⁓ one of Bennett's right-hand men at St. Mary's for several years, played point guard at St. Mary's back in the day. ⁓ So they have a staff with three very experienced coaches, very successful coaches in their own right, all of whom have ties to Randy Bennett and
You know, in one way or another, that staff right there is very accomplished and again, no disrespect to Bobby Hurley and the staffs that he's put together, but you know, it knocks him out of the park in terms of what they have on their resume.
Austen Bundy (14:15)
back to the point you made about the fact that Randy Bennett has developed a lot of these players and then they go get paid and now they've got their names on the map. I think the problem may be when you look at that and you look at what Bobby Hurley was doing, Bobby Hurley was bringing in a lot of these big names. He's brought in lot of five-star. He's brought in a couple NBA lottery picks. I think the problem was getting all these big names together. Yeah, you have them all on the same sheet of paper now, but when they went out and hit the hardwood,
They didn't gel. did not play like a cohesive unit that knew or was developed in order to play off of each other's strengths. And I think people have to give Randy Bennett the opportunity and the benefit of the doubt here that he can bring whoever into Tempe, develop them and we're eventually going to be talking about them every day on this program. You know, like they're going to be guys that we're going to now realize like, ⁓ yeah, like this is
our star player like we didn't hear. We haven't heard anything about him before. College basketball world didn't know much about him before, but now everybody's talking about him. ⁓ To me, I feel like it's kind of got to go back to the day like the Remy Martin days. Nobody knew about Remy Martin until they went and blew the doors off Kansas, even though we knew about him for a year or two at that point. ⁓ But it's going to be one of those instances where Randy Bennett kind of has to work in the shadows here with a group of guys, a group of no names, quote unquote.
⁓ that are gonna eventually show up and beat a top-ranked team on national television and get everyone's attention
David Howman (15:53)
Yeah, know, and Arizona State hasn't landed any transfers yet since the portal opened up, but they also, it's not like they're doing nothing. You know, I think a lot of us kind of, you know, we get high on the energy of NFL free agency and like their legal tampering period where you get just an influx of news like every two minutes about this team signing this player and they're trading picks to this team.
you know, they gave this much guaranteed money and like you can't even comprehend that much money. ⁓ Transfer portal wasn't always like that. You know, a lot of times these guys, not to say that there's not tampering, because we know there is, ⁓ but a lot of these guys, especially nowadays, they're trying to maximize their playing time because the NBA is not that far away for most of these basketball players.
It's a little different in football, but in basketball, it's like, want to get to the team who I'm going to be able to play in March Madness ⁓ on a big scale. ⁓ people are typically going to take their time. mean, we were talking about Marascus and like he's this hot commodity and everybody wants him. He hasn't made a decision yet. And it doesn't sound like he's particularly close to making a decision. ⁓
close being relative, of course, but ⁓ he's got a lot of different teams to hear out. And a lot of these players that ASU is talking to are kind of in the same vein. They're talking to different teams. They're trying to identify, especially when weighing an opportunity like Arizona State, you know, there's obvious pros. ⁓ You're going to be in the Big 12. You're going to get to be coached by somebody like Randy Bennett, who has sent players to the NBA who
wins and wins and wins. It's been in the tournament the last five years. ⁓ But then also, like, there's the downsides of ASU basketball is ASU basketball. also kind of on the flip side, you're in the Big 12. So it's going to be tough. Every single game is going to be a NCAA tournament environment, just in terms of how hard you have to play to win that game. ⁓ Whereas, you know, you could go to
some other programs where you'll be able to start, you'll be able to play, and competition might not be as tough, but you can put up some really good film. Of course, this is a great time to shamelessly plug Devils in Detail, where we have a live transfer portal tracker, and there's a bunch of different names that ASU has been connected to. A couple of guys that piqued my interest is ⁓ Brady Hennage, who was the starting center for Cal Baptist this last year.
of course, as we mentioned, the Cal Baptist head coach is now in Tempe. ⁓ Jordan Ross, a point guard who just finished this last year at Georgia, but before that he was a star at St. Mary's. He transferred out of St. Mary's again, another guy that Randy Bennett helped get paid. He went to Georgia, but you know, Georgia basketball is Georgia basketball. Now he has an opportunity to come back to, to play for Randy Bennett where he was doing really well.
but also be on a higher stage than what St. Mary's has to offer. ⁓ And then one other guy that I'm, you know, kind of keeping my fingers crossed on ⁓ is, his name's Victorious Miller, which right there, great name. ⁓ This guy just recently entered the portal. He's a shooting guard. He, ⁓
Originally, he played his high school ball in Arizona in Chandler at AZ Compass Prep, which is one of the premier prep school basketball programs in Arizona. Ended up getting or committing to LSU. And at the time, the guy who recruited him was David Patrick, who's now part of Arizona State staff. He was, he averaged 8.9 points coming off the bench his freshman year, transferred to Oklahoma State because they guaranteed him a starting role.
Average 10.8 points a game, shot 37.5 from 3 point ⁓ arc. So good player, very much a score first type of shooting guard, but has connections to Arizona, has connections to David Patrick. And now that he's in the portal, seems like that could be a very, very, very good fit ⁓ for this team.
Austen Bundy (20:40)
Sounds like he's destined for Oklahoma coastal then. But on a more serious note, the thing I want to add about with the transfer report with a lot of these guys that are, haven't committed yet. A lot of people were worried that we haven't seen a lot of big names go to ASU just yet. ⁓ There's a lot of guys that enter the portal with a do not contact tag. And a lot of people mistake that for they're entering the portal with that tag and just want to like.
David Howman (20:43)
Yeah
Austen Bundy (21:07)
see what their options are and then not really have to deal with any of the craziness that comes with it. But in more cases than not, entering the portal with a do not contact is essentially the big flag of I've already been speaking to somebody and I know where I'm going. So don't try. It's the illegal tampering period, as we would probably call it, that happens behind the scenes. No, for sure.
David Howman (21:31)
Stefan doesn't happen.
Austen Bundy (21:36)
But a lot of those guys, especially with Jop going in with a do not contact tag, mean, that should just automatically tell people, right, he already knows where he's going. He's already picked Gonzaga or St. John's. Or it's just those two that he's speaking to and doesn't want anybody else to make an offer at this point. ⁓ So there could be a couple of guys who are in that same situation right now with ASU and maybe another school they're having to decide between. And at this point, the reason we haven't heard from them is because they're just taking their sweet time.
considering what their options are and they're more than likely gonna get a hefty paycheck wherever they go or they're gonna, they're these guys that want their next opportunity to prove and then get paid. So hopefully they decide Tempe is that proving ground for themselves.
David Howman (22:22)
Yeah, one other player that has been connected in the portal to Arizona State, and I want to bring this guy up just because I like his name, Johan Munch. He's in the portal from Oregon State, which, I mean, I feel like we all miss an opportunity for a guy named Munch playing for the Beavers. I'll keep it PG. This is a family show.
Austen Bundy (22:45)
Hahaha!
David Howman (22:48)
I think that should have been a bigger story and if the Pac-12 still existed, it would have been a bigger story. ⁓ So I'm really upset about that. But having Johan Munch on your team at Arizona State, there's also a TCU player whose last name is Punch and I think whoever gets these two players should be the same team so you can have Punch and Munch just for the rhyming. ⁓
Austen Bundy (23:13)
Munch Punch.
David Howman (23:14)
And he's a good player too. He averaged 7.9 points, 5.1 rebounds at Oregon State. He's a sophomore. A lot of people think his potential is much higher than that. ⁓ So, Johan Munch, great name, good player, probably better than a good player, but ⁓ somebody else to keep an eye on. ⁓ Sticking with the same...
Austen Bundy (23:33)
For all
those, all of our German listeners, our Eastern European listeners, they're probably yelling at us, it's MUNK you idiot! It's MUNK!
David Howman (23:44)
Well, this guy is Danish, so I don't know how they pronounce that in... ⁓ Is it? Okay. You know, I'm cultured, so I obviously don't know pronounce it. But sticking in the same category though in college basketball, men's basketball, we'd be remiss if we didn't bring up the conclusion of March Madness, specifically the Final Four.
Austen Bundy (23:47)
Same-same way, monk. Johann monk.
Hahaha
David Howman (24:10)
and a certain team out of the state of Arizona that did not do very, well in the Final Four. ⁓ Was anybody else just as thrilled as I was watching that Michigan Arizona game?
Andrew Hayslett (24:26)
I was not watching. was busy calling the baseball game that was happening between Arizona State and Arizona. So,
David Howman (24:35)
That
is a reasonable, that is a valid reason to not be watching.
Austen Bundy (24:40)
Yeah, we'll get to that in a second, but I was watching and I was happy with the results from an ASU standpoint, but as I said prior to us coming on air here, ⁓ I did pick Arizona to win it all in my office bracket pool. I did it to jinx them and eventually it worked. Eventually we got there, but I was the only one in the office to have picked them. So I got to a point where I thought, wow, the Wildcats might actually get this done for me.
David Howman (24:42)
Thank
How would you have felt?
Austen Bundy (25:10)
Pretty, pretty icky.
David Howman (25:12)
Yeah. Yeah. I was on Cloud 9 watching that game. I was having so much fun. It's one of the best hate watches I've ever had in my life.
At one point they put up a little banner at the bottom that said like, is the largest deficit Arizona's had all year. And I started just clapping. I was just having so much fun. ⁓ We said before, before we started recording, I said like Michigan is my new favorite Big 10 team. They've done so much for us recently, hiring Kyle Whittingham away from Utah, destabilizing both the Utes and the BYU Cougars and how they do this to Arizona basketball. You know, they spent all the
those
years trying to get back to the final four they finally do it and they just lay an egg for everybody to see it was such a great and the best part was the Tommy Lloyd their coach negotiated that big contract extension doesn't even report to the AD anymore the day before he gets just absolutely mollywopped man
It was a great time. and I had a lot of fun watching it. Andrew, as you mentioned, you were not watching it. You had more important things to tend to, including similarly, another L for the team down south. Tell us about Sun Devil Baseball.
Andrew Hayslett (26:28)
Yeah, Sun Devil Baseball over the weekend took two out of three from the Wildcats in Tucson, which is... Right now, again, the BloomQuest and Hale timeline, because they were both hired in the same year, now it's an even split in terms of wins and losses for each team at 500. So that balances out. First Sun Devil Series win in Tucson in a long time. ⁓
15 runs is the most runs scored in Tucson since I want to say in the late 2000s. That's last time they've scored that many runs down there. Sun Devils get a season series victory right now 3-1 over the Wildcats. There's a game next Monday, that's the final game of the year scheduled. Possibly they could meet in the Big 12 tournament, but by the way, the Arizona's playing, they're not going to make the tournament, but
That could change. yeah, a good weekend. The guy that kind of caught my eye the whole weekend was Matt Polk.
It's been kind of a revolving door at center field. You've had Dean Toygo play right field more often than not. And then you've had Landon Harrison play left field more often than that. both had time at center as well. But that third outfield position's kind of been a revolving door. Matt Polk has appeared to get it as of late. Easy's been getting a lot of contact, had a pinch hit appearance ⁓ late in the
the Friday game because that was the second game in the series. Converted there, got a hit, played pretty well on Saturday, had a good game Tuesday, I'm not quite sure when, Wednesday I wasn't able to catch that game, but he's been a hot bat for the Sun Devils to kind of shore up that final outfield position because we all know what Landon Harrison's doing.
He's been on the tear, arguably the best hitter in college baseball right now. And then Dean Toyo, who is to me emerged as arguably the next best batter. He's had a lot of home runs this season too. 13 only six behind Landon Harrison, who is...
last I checked one off the lead that was after Tuesday I don't I do know that the the leader did play on Wednesday I wasn't sure if he got a hit or home run or not but just just shows you he's having a good season no PS over one so he's he's done really good and the the
The one thing that does concern me about this team is what we saw on Friday night, bullpen pitching. Cole Carlone, he threw the ball well, no runs in six innings, had a lead of, believe.
or runs if memory serves me correctly and then immediately they throw out three different guys seven run score in the seventh inning and all of sudden you're down you lose that game that's concerning to me I don't know about you guys but that's something that is if something derails it's probably going to be that
David Howman (30:00)
Yeah, I mean, that's been the story the last few years is, you know, even when they've had good solid starting pitchers, it's what happens when they sub out. And I think overall this year we've seen a lot more moments where it holds better than it has in the past. And like, it almost got me to a point where I felt like, like, yeah, we're beyond this. And then of course, because that's just life as a Sun Neville fan,
the moment you think you're past it, it comes back to get you. ⁓ And so it definitely is concerning. ⁓ But the thing that I keep going back to is they just have such depth this year in the bullpen that ⁓ it feels like they're gonna have an answer. We're kind of at the point where they should have.
a better understanding of who they can go to, who they can rely on. ⁓
I don't know, I feel cautiously optimistic there. Andrew, to your point about Lynn and Hairston, I looked it up. still second for home runs, but he's second in ⁓ batting average. He also leads the nation in slugging percentage, which is not even the least bit surprising. He's having a heck of a year. ⁓ Reminds me of the golden days of Spencer Torgelson going back to just how ridiculous he was. And ⁓ it's crazy how much
Landon Harrison has grown from last year because you could always see the power in how he hits but it was just the consistency and now he's just I mean I expected some growth from him but I didn't expect this so it's been really it's been a treat to watch him play so far this year.
Andrew Hayslett (31:50)
I said before on this program, but he's put on weight and I think that's the muscle has shown because this point last year, I don't think he had a home run. It took him to April. I know that for sure. I'm not quite sure where the dates lined up when he did have his first home run. And I believe that Cincinnati series, but he's broken.
out this year in his power. He isn't just hitting home runs, he's hitting doubles too, he's still getting his singles, he's strong his walks as well. He's had a few triples even. So he is a complete hitter. He isn't fast, but he moves quickly. He can steal bases for you when you need it.
A real or truly a well rounded hitter at this level who can do everything which ⁓ as someone who enjoys baseball and I see a guy who
has multiple paths of being successful at the professional level. He could be a guy who hits a lot of home runs or he could be a contact guy who steals bases. I don't know yet or it could be in the middle of these two. I don't know, but he has a path to all three which is really key for him.
David Howman (33:15)
Yeah, and going back to the pitching questions too, I looked it up in terms of team, ⁓ team ERA, they're 99th in team earned run average. Which is not necessarily where you want to be, but it's also not terrible. ⁓ but in strikeouts per nine innings, they're tied for 12th. So they're, they're kind of like, it's, it's a little bit of feast or famine of they're, they're either striking you out or.
they're going to give up some runs here and there. And when you see guys like Cole Carlone, Cole Klecker, like some of these guys that they have up on the mound, ⁓ I mean, it's not entirely surprising. We saw that last year too with Jack Martinez and Ben Jacobs. were, they had heat for days, but then, you know, they would get into ruts where they give up four runs in an inning. ⁓
And so that makes it frustrating because it feels like there's so much more potential there. You throw just a 100 mile an hour heater and there's nothing that the hitter can do, but the very next play gets blasted out to right field.
I don't know, I'm not a pitching expert so I can't necessarily offer any tips, but that's where, that kinda I think illustrates the issue is they're really great at getting strikeouts, but beyond that, it's kind of been a mixed bag. But when you have some, the hitters that they have and you play in a ballpark like Phoenix, Muny, you're gonna be able to make up for a lot of that, most of the time.
Andrew Hayslett (34:56)
What that last point you said when you play in a ballpark like Phoenix, Muni, David, you're going to hit home runs, but you're also going to give up home runs. That's just the nature of the beast. And that isn't super concerning to me. Which I do want to kind of segue into these midweek games here that ASU played. They played two. And it was kind of two different.
two very similar stories with different results. ⁓ GCU ⁓ down early, pitching struggled. They were down 7-0 at one point, came back, rallied, hit home run after home run after home run, scored all 12 runs that they scored off the long ball. David, that's something. And this is at GCU, away from your home stadium, I might have won 12 to eight at the end of the night.
How do you?
Good performance. ⁓ As you can guess, Landon Hairston hit a home run, Dean Toygo hit a home run, Dom Smaldino hit his second home run, and at that point has many games. You also had PJ Moutsiritis hit a home run, but the guy that was the hero of the game once again against GCU, Cohen Niklai, ⁓ pair of home runs with one being a grand slam.
I remind you that in the midweek at Muny earlier in the year, Niklai hit the game.
tying home run and game then the walk off single so he's a guy that's if you were to ask him he might want to play gcu 50 times a year by the way he the way he's hitting the ball and then against unlv a five to seven loss got down early and just couldn't come back ⁓
David Howman (36:45)
you
Andrew Hayslett (36:57)
There actually guy can get down in middle of the game allowed they allowed six runs in the third through fifth inning and Couldn't quite from back from that Matt Polk did have an RBI Single he's been hitting the ball. Well, like I said ⁓ Austin Musso started ⁓ gave up two runs that would in three innings which is fine ⁓
That's what you wanted. That's fine from a freshman pitcher But Josh Butler who had been one of the more consistent arms gave up four runs only three of them were earned in one and a third before the rest of the bullpen Only gave up one run
David Howman (37:29)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Hayslett (37:42)
Which is interesting, if you'd have asked me going into this last week, I would have felt more confident in the bullpen than I do now because I see Sean Fitzpatrick give up a few runs. Finn Edwards, Colby Guy, Josh Butler. Your four biggest guys, your best guys out of the pen, kind of struggle, which...
David Howman (37:58)
them.
Andrew Hayslett (38:08)
is unfortunate to see. And Taylor Penn who is your other guy, he's moved to your starting role at this point I would imagine moving forward. So it'll be interesting to see how the Sun Devils kind of reshape their Penn if they do because you move Alex Overbay into things, of throw some of these other guys around. Jaden Alba has been pitching well as of late.
I don't know what the answer is, that's something you want to address. And only two losses for the Sun Devils in midweeks so far, they got four left. Last year they had six total, which is something they struggled with. The midweek improvement has been good for the Sun Devils. Midweeks are always chaos.
David Howman (39:00)
Yeah, it's always especially from the pitching standpoint because you know you're not necessarily going with your aces in those games and and you know even the guys that do start you're probably not counting on them to provide a whole lot of innings pitched ⁓ and then that was the case in both of these games and ⁓ you know like you said they're
they're mixing things up, they're shifting it up. Which again, the fact that they have so many guys that they can kind of be mixing things around at this point in the season is a positive, but I also wonder if maybe there's too much change going on and you gotta get to a point where guys can settle into their roles a bit better. ⁓
But all in all, ⁓ mean, I feel like we're too doom and gloom talking about the pitching right now. It's been good. And they're doing pretty well as far as they're standing in the Big 12. ⁓ As of right now, they're ⁓ tied for fourth, ⁓ tied with TCU and Baylor, but they have a slight tiebreaker right now. They're right behind West Virginia. Then UCF and Kansas are at the top. ⁓ Of course, Eric
Arizona all the way at the bottom. Tied for bottom with Houston in terms of conference record, but their overall record is pitiful, 11 and 21. Just felt like I had to point that one out. But I think ASU's in a very good spot. They're 24 and 10, seven and five in the big 12. And they haven't played an easy schedule by any means. think Arizona's probably the...
quote unquote lightest big 12 team they've played thus far, but they've already gone up against some pretty good teams in this conference and it's a better year so far for the conference than it was this time last year. Plus they had a really strong non-conference schedule so.
I feel pretty confident about where they're at in terms of being battle tested already and where they're at in the big 12 standings. Of course, they played Utah this upcoming weekend that we were kind of talking a little bit before the show about. That also seems like one where they should be able to clean up a little bit. ⁓ But, you know.
Again, you've got these offensive players that any given night they can explode for double digit runs. It's just a matter of can the pitching keep it together and just provide just enough relief to be able to get the win. More often than not, the answer is going to be yes.
Andrew Hayslett (41:43)
Definitely. The pitching has been better, I think, this year and it's taken steps each year under Jeremy Accardo from what it was in these two years from what it was three years ago, or I guess two years ago, but it's the two seasons before this year. Math is hard as a journalist, but...
David Howman (42:08)
you
Andrew Hayslett (42:09)
Which is something that you need is to take steps forward. You're not going to flip everything overnight. It's very hard to do that. As long as you keep taking steps forward, you're fine. I think that's something that to reiterate, it was the pitching was great. And now it's kind of gone to good. I would say and if it stays good.
And your hitting, your hitting is going to stay great. You're going to make some, do some damage in the postseason. Get to super regional, which is ⁓ where you ought to be more often than not. It feels like if you're the sun devils. So we'll, we'll see if they can do that. I do think this team is the, their ceiling, they can reach a super regional ⁓ for sure, but
Will they? That's the question. I'm not certain of that. I do think they're a lock for the tournament. I think they'll make a regional final. I just don't know if they'll win that game.
David Howman (43:22)
Well, and a lot of it, I mean, I go back to last year's tournament and honestly, I think that they, I think they were better than what they showed in the tournament last year. They just happened to be in the same bracket as UCLA, who was an absolute geninat. And that definitely didn't do them any favors. So we're definitely getting ahead of ourselves talking about that part, but I agree with you though, that they, at this point, if they were to somehow miss the tournament,
it's something's gone horribly wrong. They're playing at a very high level right now. Of course, they're ranked right now. D1 baseball has them as the number 20 team. And they've been ranked for a couple of weeks now. So they're getting national recognition, which is always a good thing. And very, very hard to not be excited about where the program's headed right now. But again, like you said,
super regional is where they should be. ⁓ And relative to the historical expectations for this program, realistically College World Series is where they should be. ⁓ Now, you know, what they aspire to be versus where they're at right now, it's probably somewhere in between. But this is a team that still needs to figure a few things out before we can confidently say like, more or less, super regional or bust. ⁓
But we are, like you said, we're heading in the right direction, which is always positive to see. Speaking of things heading in the right direction, Sun Devil Football continues to ⁓ hold their spring practices. They're working, they're growing, they're getting better. Clayton Smith, who we've spent time talking about, because they listed him on offense and they were trying him out as a pass catcher. ⁓ Kenny Dillingham did reveal he's still going to be a defender. He's still going to be an edge rusher.
They'll use him in situations potentially on offense, but he is primarily going to be an edge rusher for them. Also, I could see the happiness just drain from your eyes when I said that.
Andrew Hayslett (45:31)
you
Austen Bundy (45:32)
Well, you know, not drained from my eyes. I his place is on defense, but I'm looking forward to some surprise packages this season. think we're going to get a couple ⁓ instances where he's going to line up on offense. I'm hoping they're going to do the trick where he potentially wears a different number of jersey to fool ⁓ defenses. ⁓
David Howman (45:35)
Hahaha
Austen Bundy (45:56)
But yeah, no, I'm excited. I would be more concerned if this was a harder transition as in like he's going to be primarily playing on offense. But we talked about in the previous episode that he's got a Shaman Mateur-esque build to him where he can fill in better on those ⁓ pass on ⁓ run blocking and still have the ability to get out there and be physical on these passing plays. So I mean,
Who knows, I mean, maybe they design a Sparky package with him. you could go a whole lot of different ways with him on offense. So I'm excited to see what Kenny cooks up.
David Howman (46:34)
Bring back the swinging gate.
Austen Bundy (46:36)
Right? Or like Red Foreman says, if executed properly, the jet sweep is unstoppable.
David Howman (46:47)
Exactly, but it's always it's it's good though because I was a little worried at at the whole like, you know convert one of your best edge rushers into a tight end but As soon as Kenny said that I was alright. I knew I knew you were still smart I'm excited to see what they what they get cooking up there. Of course the other thing that that Kind of made headlines that I want to close on to is Kenny Dilliam talking about his son will be
this weekend at Pat's Run, at least according, depending on when his T-ball game gets scheduled for, so I'm sure Kenny Dillingham has some pull somewhere. You know, he's getting paid however much money, you know, he's got influence. I'm sure he can talk to some people, but how many of us have participated in a Pat's Run? I'm just curious. Not to out anybody, but.
Austen Bundy (47:47)
So I haven't participated in an in-person Pats Run, but I do it virtually every year. So I run 4.2, I log it, I'll post about it. I wear either my PT-42 shirt or jersey when I go run. But I never made it to any of the Tempe runs. Or, I mean, the DC chapter, I never made it to the couple when the DC chapter existed and then it went away for a while and now it's back. ⁓ But no, I didn't do any of the in-person runs.
Andrew Hayslett (48:15)
I haven't either.
David Howman (48:17)
Andrew, this is your year.
Andrew Hayslett (48:20)
I will be there though covering it. So I will not be running by that. We'll be covering it. So there's something.
David Howman (48:23)
Yeah.
Yeah,
I've done a paths walk. Not so big on the running, but I've done the paths walk. ⁓ Did it, I wanna say twice when I was in school ⁓ and haven't hop on the virtual train. But I did recently find out that the chapter out here in Tulsa does an actual paths run. ⁓
So it's not in the cards for me this weekend, but one of these years I'm gonna ⁓ do the Tulsa Pats Run and have that moment of solidarity. There's a surprising amount of ASU fans, alum, whatever they are out here in Tulsa. I'm always surprised. The other day I saw somebody pull into my neighborhood and they had a ASU license plate cover. I wanted to like follow them and like follow them to their house.
and figure out who they were, but you know, I obviously decided against that because it's Oklahoma and you never know what is gonna happen in Oklahoma when somebody is worried about their security. you know, we Sun Devils, we are everywhere and that's the takeaway to have. So whether you're running this weekend in Pat's Run or whether you're walking or...
Austen Bundy (49:33)
You acted normal.
David Howman (49:58)
virtually participating. I just, laugh at the idea, the concept of virtual running. I just think it's a picture of somebody like on a PlayStation, holding down the right trigger, you know?
Andrew Hayslett (50:09)
you
Austen Bundy (50:10)
I
should clarify that it's just coming with a different term, but just like I do the run. I I record it on Strava or whatever, and then I'll post it.
David Howman (50:19)
Yeah. Okay. No, I hold down R2 and my
NBA, my player just runs really fast.
But whether you are participating in Pat's Run or not, there's always different ways to honor Pat Tillman's legacy, show your Sun Devil pride, and just in general, be part of this amazing Arizona State community that obviously we all love and we love covering it and we will continue covering it here at Echo from the Buttes on devilsindetail.com as well. So for Austin Bundy, for Andrew Hazlett, until next time here at Echo from the Buttes.
Give them hell devils.