Arizona State Sun Devils Host Northern Colorado Bears in Second Game of the Randy Bennett Era

TEMPE — The Arizona State Sun Devils (1-0) play their second game of the season Friday night, hosting the Northern Colorado Bears (1-0) at Desert Financial Arena. Tipoff is 7 p.m., on ESPN+, with radio on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. It’s the first meeting between the schools, and ASU’s annual Salute to Service Night.

Randy Bennett won his ASU debut on Monday, 75-65 over East Tennessee State, and said afterward the newness of it all got to even him. “There’s a lot of new that made me a little nervous going into it, more so than usual,” Bennett said. “But all good. It’s a great experience, great atmosphere. We can get it popping.”

What he wants fixed by Friday is plain. “I thought our rebounding has been bad and we’re inconsistent,” Bennett said. “We’re usually a very good rebounding team — we should be, we have good size — but we’re just not there yet. Our habits aren’t where they need to be. Defensively, same. We didn’t defend the three well. We just make errors that we shouldn’t make. We’ll get better.”

 The boards finished 34-31 and the paint points 30-30 against the Buccaneers — not good enough, in his telling, against a team ASU should handle inside. What he liked was the composure: “Our guys kept their composure. I think we have good depth — we just have to get some more reps, more games.”

Paulius Murauskas, who followed Bennett from Saint Mary’s, led the opener with 21 points and nine rebounds, and Bennett explained why he leans on him: “Paulus knows I’m going to roll with him and I trust him, because I know he’ll play big games, little games — he’ll show up. And he did.” Joel Foxwell, the transfer from Portland, added 15 points, and the players’ own verdict on the opener matched their coach’s: a win, and not one they were satisfied with Northern Colorado is not a team to sleep on — this is the contested part of the night. The Bears were picked second in the Big Sky preseason coaches’ poll behind Montana State, they led their conference in scoring last season at 82.5 points a game under coach Steve Smiley, and they opened Monday by hanging 117 on Colorado College with 16 three-pointers. Freshman Jeremiah Hammond scored 17 in his first college game and Chiante Tramble scored 13. A team that shoots like that makes Bennett’s point for him: defend the three, own the glass, and look like the more complete team he’s been asking for since Monday.