TEMPE — Paulius Murauskas trusts Randy Bennett. That’s why he transferred, and that’s why he’s gotten better every single year.
“It’s pretty special, that’s why I transferred, because I trust the coach,” Murauskas said Friday night after the Arizona State Sun Devils beat the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks 92-62 at Desert Financial Arena. “I got better, like I said before, multiple times, every single year, and I think I will get better this year as the season goes on. I just really trust coach. I think he’s really great at making the guys better.”
Murauskas had his second straight double-double — 31 points and 13 rebounds, two points shy of his career high — his fourth 20-point game in four games as a Sun Devil.
Bennett said Murauskas has grown into a good leader, and leadership is where he’s gotten better most.
“He really wants to be good, he really wants his team to be good,” Bennett said. “Everybody asked me, where’s he gotten better? That’s by far number one. He’s gotten better in other areas, he’s gotten stronger, he’s just really has grown up into a good leader, as far as basketball player, dad, husband.”
Joel Foxwell had 16 points and nine assists, and he did the easy work — getting the ball to the fellas, and they did the hard job of putting it in the rim.
“I think it’s just more about settling into the game,” Foxwell said. “I’m trying to get guys the best shots possible. Once you get into the flow of things and you start figuring out their defense as well, it becomes much easier to get the guys in their spots where they like it.”
The Sun Devils had to settle in. Louisiana-Monroe came out in an aggressive zone, and ASU hadn’t seen a lot of zone so far this year.
“We knew they were going to switch it up,” Foxwell said. “We didn’t know they were going to come out in zone straight away, and it was a pretty aggressive zone. It’s just all about getting settled from the jump, not rushing anything. We had really good looks, so we were really happy with how we were playing in that first five minutes, we just weren’t making shots, and we knew that was going to come. We’re a really good three-point shooting team.”
ASU crashed the offensive boards — 17 of them — and got open layups and easy points early.
Bennett said the defense started to gel, and rebounding, defending, taking care of the ball and being efficient offensively are the big deals.
“Yeah, important,” Bennett said. “That’s one of our big deals — rebounding, defending, taking care of the ball, and being efficient offensively. And we weren’t happy about it slipping.”
The Sun Devils were stunned at the beginning by the changing defenses, Bennett said, but they got it fixed pretty quick and took over on the boards.
“We pounded on the boards and, yeah, eventually kind of wore them down,” Bennett said. “We did what we were supposed to do in the game.”
Bennett also acknowledged what Louisiana-Monroe was up against. The Warhawks played TCU to double overtime on Tuesday, and they were missing arguably their best player — guard Quaran McPherson, who averages 16.8 points and scored 14 against TCU, but didn’t play Friday night.
A big key was keeping Louisiana-Monroe off the three, which ASU has not been doing a great job of. The Sun Devils did a pretty good job of it Friday night.
Foxwell also talked about the bench — Jared and Bryce, both coming off injuries, bringing confidence every day in practice.
“If you pass the ball, it’s most likely going to go in, and if not, they’re going to make the next one,” Foxwell said. “It’s just really good to play with guys like that, who are flat-out scorers who can really, really help the team win.”
“It’s more fun when you see teams break,” Foxwell said. “Even on the floor, when your guys are all happy and we’re all up in it, it’s more enjoyable that way — more enjoyable when you win games.”
The Sun Devils are 4-0, and they host Oakland on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m.
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