jhleary,
Your recent post compelled me to share my thoughts. As one of the few people in the "Huddle" who care more about ASU hoops than football (or the other major sports), I can truly share your pain. And your passion is clearly evident in your post...and I can appreciate that.
As a long-suffering fan of Sun Devil basketball, I completely understand your desire to eventually become nationally relevant on a consistent basis, which hasn't been the case since the early 1980s.
However I'm cautiously optimistic the program is trending in the right direction -- and next year's team should be more talented, athletic and certainly deeper. I do think Hurley is the right man for the job, and thus far he has shown an ability to recruit, which at the very least, is more than his predecessors can claim. Of course, he will need to continue to attract talent to Tempe if he intends to turn around the fortunes of this beleaguered program. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will ASU's basketball program be.
Having said that, I do think the 2017-18 season--year three in the Hurley era--is a critical one for the coach and the ASU program as a whole. Logically most people would expect ASU to take a small step backwards the following season after the graduation of Evans, Holder and Justice. As a result, I think it's critical for the Sun Devil program to make considerable improvement next season, and ideally, make an NCAA tournament appearance.
And while I don't think Hurley's job rides on ASU making the Dance next season, an NCAA tournament appearance does show tangible improvement in the program and builds faith amongst fans, boosters, and recruits. For those reasons, I think next year is extremely important.
Now hitting on some of the points you mentioned in your post...
Regarding the NCAA transfer epidemic:
There's no other way to say it - the transfer epidemic in college basketball has become ridiculous. I think most of the Sun Devil fan base collectively rolled their eyes when Herb Sendek mentioned this a few years ago (in his attempt to gloss over some of the recruiting/coaching mistakes he made during his tenure). However the former ASU coach was clearly onto a burgeoning problem that has only gotten worse over the last decade.
Unfortunately, unless there is some major reform (in regards to transfers), I don't see this problem disappearing anytime in the near future. And yes, I know you want to only concentrate on how it effects the ASU program, but I don't think one can look at the transfer problem at ASU without taking into account the current state of the NCAA as a whole.
It sucks for ASU, and essential every other team and their fan bases, because transfers wreck any chance of seeing a group coalesce and achieving their full potential. Continuity amongst college basketball rosters is about as rare as Sean Miller in the Final Four. Okay, maybe it's not that rare, but you get my point.
Unfortunately that is modern-day NCAA basketball. Since the end of the season (which has only been a few weeks), Pitt has already had four players transfer out of their program. And even traditional powers like Virginia (3 transfers), UConn (3) and Duke (2) have been bitten by the transfer bug. The point is this: no program is completely immune from this epidemic. As much as I love college hoops (and it's easily my favorite sport), even I can objectively admit all these transfers are bad for the game...and so is the one-and-done rule but that's a different story for a different day.
Let's get back to the transfers, I completely agree that ASU's four departures (in one academic year) is a lot -- and it's certainly more than the national average.
However since it's virtually impossible to prevent transfers in today's landscape, I think it's more important that coaches ensure the talent coming in to replace the departing players is equal (or ideally, greater). We won't know for sure if Hurley has succeeded in this area until a year or two down the road, but I'm cautiously optimistic about the 2017 recruiting class and the addition of transfer forward Mickey Mitchell.
Regarding ASU's transfers this past season:
Of the four players who transferred out of the program – Sam Cunliffe, Maurice O'Field, Jethro Tshisumpa and Andre Adams -- only Cunliffe was likely to play big minutes. I won't go into a long-winded explanation about the pros/cons of Cunliffe, but I personally think this one was a major blow. Sure there were legitimate character issues and concerns, but he was a unique talent -- and likely would have only gotten better during his time in Tempe. Of course, if he's still around, there wouldn't be any need to look for an additional wing this offseason. But it's irrelevant now that he's gone. Bye Sammy.
O'Field was simply a case of Hurley scrambling to fill out his 2015-16 roster. If you remember correctly, ASU only had one player (Andre Spight) signed to its 2015 class when Hurley got the job almost exactly two years ago. It was late in the recruiting cycle, and the small pool of available players was drying up quickly. Since O'Field had already committed to Buffalo while Hurley was there, it made sense that he followed him to Tempe. However IMHO, O'Field had no business in a power-five conference. In his 1 1/2 years at ASU, he struck me as more of a low-to-mid-major player, which in retrospect, makes sense why he was being recruited to Buffalo in the first place. Not to be callus, but O'Field would likely be buried at the end of the bench next season, so his departure was a blessing because it opened up an additional scholarship.
Adams was simply a case of bad luck. I saw him play a couple of times in high school and I thought he was a very good prospect (long, athletic, and agile for his size). Even after his first knee injury at IMG (during his prep school year), I thought he was worth a flyer considering the potential he showed during his high school days. So I didn't mind Hurley extending an offer to him. Unfortunately, Adams sustained the second knee injury soon after he arrived to Tempe...and the rest is history. It's really a shame that folks won't get to see Adams on two healthy knees because I think he could have been a very good college player. However I can understand the staff's hesitancy and/or concerns about his long-term health...and if he was politely asked to leave (I'm not sure if he was or not), I could understand that reasoning.
Tshisumpa is a tricky case. On the one hand, he had the measurables and athleticism to be an elite defensive player in the future. However his fundamental understanding of the game was so far behind, I truly question how long (if ever) it will take him to reach his full potential. Furthermore even if Tshisumpa was a model teammate and student-athlete and ASU opted to keep him around, I don't think he would have played a substantial role for at least a couple of years, which doesn't help a team trying to make the tourney next season. As Hod as eluded to in other posts, his repeated displays of immaturity off the court ultimately made it easier for the staff to part ways with him, especially after Lake's commitment.
I'm not saying Tshisumpa is a terrible kid, but clearly the staff didn't think his potential out-weighed the baggage and the blatant deficiencies in his game. Another thing to consider: It now seems apparent that Tshisumpa was likely overrated coming out of high school (by most recruiting services). The perception of losing a "four-star" prospect after his freshman season looks bad, but after further examination, he probably should have been classified as a three-star prospect based on his raw offensive game and general lack of understanding for the game.
