ADVERTISEMENT

Transfer Portal Snapshot



Fresh off a historic Big 12 championship, head coach Kenny Dillingham and his staff did not have much time to relish in that achievement as they quickly rolled back their sleeves, seeking additions from the transfer portal. Let's go ahead and take a look at what the needs are position by position, the effect of the player departures to date, and examine the overall approach to the transfer portal and what we can expect in terms of the strategy the Sun Devils will employ.

STORY: Increased number of scholarships will elevate ASU Baseball

“To have the flexibility to go after the best talent in the country and bring them here is a message." ASU's decision to increase its scholarship allotment to 34 in 2026 will increase its competitiveness in the new landscape of college baseball


BJ Freeman

Apparently BJ Freeman was suspended for fighting with a teammate, which appropriately qualifies for conduct detrimental to the team even on a Bobby Hurley coached team.

In other news, Adam Miller was BJ's sparring partner...Two seniors duking it out in front of the three Freshmen to directly learn from observation. These are paid players nowadays. They are de facto professionals roaming the campus. Nice work fellows. It is fair to assume that BJ was the instigator in this case. There is nothing like a tightly connected team as long as the connection is not an upper cut or hook into a teammate's schnoz.

We'll find out Wednesday at Texas Tech which one of these two guys landed his punches. There should be some residual visual reminders.

Allegedly Bobby still maintains some level of control of the team on and off the court, including the locker room, so no worries there.

Sunday Walkabout

Mornin Mates...

Today's Topic = Super Bowl

Will Mahomes and the Chiefs win a third straight Super Bowl against the Eagles..??

Will Travis Kelce propose to Taylor Swift at Super Bowl..??

Is there a refs conspiracy to help the Chiefs win..??

Should all fans across the country get Monday off to take care of hangovers, etc, from the Super Bowl..??

Do corporations, who advertise during the Super Bowl, get their monies worth at over $70M for a thirty second commercial..??

What was the best Super Bowl commercial of all time, in your estimation..??

The over/under bet is 48.5 points...would you take the over or the under..??

The Chiefs are favored by 1.5 points but many expect the Eagles to prevail...how about you..??

There have been 53 former Sun Devils that have played in Super Bowls...can you name five of those players..??

Was anybody here in attendance at SDS for Super Bowl XXX that featured the Cowboys and Steelers that Pokes won..??

On this Super Bowl Sunday, does anyone here care much about what is happening in Sun Devil land..??

Does anyone care about what is happening at the Phoenix Open in Scottsdale today..??

Will anybody here be at the Phoenix Open today..??

Where do you think Dilly will be today..??

In the office working or enjoying a day off for a change..??

The Super Bowl questions are endless but the game will end at some point and we can all get back to what we normally do following any Super Bowl...

Enjoy the day and root hard for your favorite team...;)

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!

Where is all this money?

Where is the money for all this? Seriously, hear me out for a minute.

So, we want to get rid of Bobby Hurley. He hasn’t reached the heights we expect and demand. Ok, that may be valid but where is all this money coming from? We have a rising football program, our flagship program, that needs a ton of money and that is not even talking about NIL. That program should be a first priority for the majority of our dollars. We have a great young coach and we need to flood that program with the money needed to allow him to continue raising the program. Priority one by a huge amount. Once all that money is put there, you then can go after the other programs. I am not a Hurley apologist. He drives me nuts with the inability of his players to do the simple things like boxing friggin out. That is b’ball 101. We have allowed far more offensive rebounds by other teams than ever (18 vs the rats) and almost every game lose the offensive and defensive rebound battle. It isn’t hard, any guy shoots, you look for an opposing player and box him the heck away from the basket, THEN you look for the ball. It drives me crazy having played basketball for 50 years (yes I'm old...) as well as the offensive shooting stupidity of taking 3 points shots like they are good at it or something. Hey, I’m open, I should shoot it. No dummy, you are open because they want you to shoot it, they are playing the odds. Ok, you get my point so I am not an apologist BUT I am also able to understand simple math. Rossini only has soo much money, not an endless supply and again, Football needs everything they want as that is priority number 1.

Now Hurley is at least decent, has a name and gives us some excitement each year. Again, not saying I accept mediocrity, that isn’t the point. If you fire the coach, you will have to pay him his final year, then get a bunch more money to pay the new guy, start completely over because the recruiting class will disappear and we will be in a 2-3 year rebuild and likely in worst shape then we are right now. I know Mr. negative Denver keeps preaching Will Wade but like Sean Miller, he would pay players when others didn’t and Miller is finding out that without that advantage, he is just an average coach, and Wade may be the same. Oh, then other fans say just get some boosters to pay for it. Well, aren’t those boosters trying help the football team and fund the NIL? That is more important to be honest. Doesn’t seem like we have a Nike sugar daddy that has an endless supply of money so the question then becomes, is this the best way to spend our money because..,

We have 3 coaches that also have to be looked at to be fired. One of those has to be automatic.. The abysmal women’s basketball coach has to go. Her 3 year conference record is 6-40. 6-40 right now. Seriously? 6-40, let that sink in. For a program that had a perennial winner like CTT, this is just embarrassingly bad. We are a laughing stock in that sport right now. We all know she was not the right hire for this job. She didn’t earn it, just fit the right criteria for Ray Ray. The best choice was just 20 minutes away at Grand Canyon. Hmm, how is that GCU coach doing? Well, she is 20-2 this year (24-8 last year), has beaten ASU and Arizona as well as NAU (who also beat ASU and UA this year) this season so she legitimately is the state champion in women’s basketball. She also beat ASU last year. When I look at overall needs, this has to rank up there. This can not continue so Rossini will have to spend some money on getting a new coach. Now hopefully he just walks over to the GCU campus to get her but he needs some money to do that. In any case, I put this above the Hurley issue, not because women’s bball is more important, just because it is a bigger need.

Then, you have Megan Bartlett for softball and our alumni Willie Bloomquist in baseball. They need to show something as well. Our softball program was elite with 2 national titles since 2008 and we had a top level coach in Tricia Ford that Ray Ray let walk without even a moderate counter offer to keep her because we supposedly didn’t have the money but then Ray Ray got a $2.1M academic bonus a week later. I like coach Bartlett but she is not showing the signs of being elite. She is 42-57 in 2 years and just 9-39 in league play. Atrocious numbers, maybe not like our women’s basketball coach dumpster fire but still bad. Keep in mind that Arizona is a high level softball state. I have a daughter that played D-1 and I have coached at the club and high school level. There is always a ton of high end talent in this state in softball. Not super hard to recruit if you are good. She has to be on the clock this year as the first two years were bad. If she has another one like that, she has to be gone as well. More money needed.

Then throw in Willie. I love the guy, saw him when he played but he has to make the tournament and have a good year or is he the right guy? Now in his 4th year, the dance has to be a requirement, or this starts to feel like Tracy Smith all over again. He is 90-81 overall so hanging in there and is 46-43 in league play but this is ASU baseball. If there is a sport we expect more, this is it as we have a great history even if it is quite awhile ago. Never should have gotten rid of Pat Murphy. Ahh, I digress. In any case, hoping he shows something more this year. Crossing my fingers but if not, more money Graham Rossini may have to spend….

Oh, we do have an amazing 2nd year Volleyball coach so we hopefully have already extended that guy. Those type coaches and what he did his first 2 years do not come along very often, need to make him happy. Our Hockey coach as well, amazing coaches, need to support them because they are outstanding so money needs to be invested there.

So, back to my points, where is all the money to go do this stuff? We don’t have a NIKE guy funding us. Maybe we need to look at Hurley and hope that he will be like Baylor’s Scott Drew, who took 8 years to figure it out before he got it going. Do I think Bobby can get us there? Probably not but maybe? Still, I love his energy and his record is actually better than what we have had even if only slightly better. Not accepting mediocrity but I think it could be worse. What coach looks at ASU as a destination job? No rising star alumni out there so we either get a retread who was fired somewhere else (like when Crow tried to hire Tom Herman in football) or an up and coming guy who you don’t know whether they will elevate or not and if so, they will be gone in a heartbeat to a better basketball school. If you try to get an established winning coach like the guy at Creighton, that will take some serious money from what some believe is an endless supply but the reality is much different. Again, where is all this money? I guess this is the bird in the hand versus the 2 in the bush thing? It might make more sense to play out his contract or even give him a 2nd year at the same level and use the other money elsewhere because there may be more pressing needs for Rossini to deal with. Thoughts?
ADVERTISEMENT

Filter

ADVERTISEMENT