Arizona State Basketball Transfer Portal: Will Saint Mary’s Top 3 Scorers Follow Randy Bennett to Tempe?

After 25 years, 12 NCAA Tournament appearances, and 11 conference titles, Randy Bennett walked into a team meeting on Monday afternoon and told his players he was leaving for Arizona State.

It would not have happened for any other job, he said. Bennett is a Mesa native who grew up watching Sun Devils basketball, and when ASU came calling after parting ways with Bobby Hurley, he could not say no. Arizona State left no stone unturned during its coaching search, interviewing 20 candidates before selecting Bennett as the answer.

Now the program he built from nothing faces its most precarious 72 hours in a generation. Because the question is no longer whether Bennett leaves. It is whether his three best players leave with him.

The Core Three

Before departing, Bennett noted that the Gaels could return four starters next season, including three first-team All-Conference players.

“I’m leaving the program in a great situation,” he said, then added the qualifier that defines modern college basketball: “In the era of the transfer portal and NIL deals, no roster is guaranteed.”

He was not wrong to hedge.

The three players Arizona State will pursue hardest are All-WCC guards Mikey Lewis and Joshua Dent, both sophomores, and junior forward Paulius Murauskas.

Paulius Murauskas

Paulius Murauskas is the most coveted name on that list and the most likely to go. 

The 6’8″ Lithuanian forward averaged 18.8 points and 7.7 rebounds this season. He led the WCC in total scoring and free throw percentage, and earned his second consecutive first-team All-Conference nod. 

His backstory makes the ASU fit almost too clean: he played his freshman year at Arizona before entering the portal and landing in Moraga, where Bennett turned him into one of the best mid-major forwards in the country. 

A move to the Big 12 under the same coach who built him is not a lateral move. It is a promotion.

His signature moment this season came February 14, his 22nd birthday, when he posted 32 points and 15 rebounds at Pacific. That is the kind of player Arizona State has been missing for years.

Mikey Lewis

Mikey Lewis is the piece that could hurt Saint Mary’s just as much. 

The Oakland native averaged 13.9 points per game, buried a team-high 64 three-pointers, and shot 37.1% from deep over 68 career games. 

He saved his best for the biggest stage, scoring 31 points in a comeback win over then-ninth-ranked Gonzaga to clinch the WCC title. 

Lewis is not yet a household name outside of the West Coast Conference. He will be.

Joshua Dent

Joshua Dent may be the most underappreciated of the three. 

The Australian point guard shot 40.4% from three, 92% from the free-throw line, and averaged 5.6 assists per game. 

He is the kind of connector guard who makes everyone around him better, and he would slot naturally alongside potential ASU returnees Noah Meeusen and Vijay Wallace. 

Losing Dent would be quieter than losing Murauskas but no less damaging.

Bennett’s Departure Could Create Chaos

Bennett’s departure alone would be enough to destabilize most programs. But Saint Mary’s faces a compounding problem.

Gonzaga is leaving for the Pac-12 next season, taking the conference’s marquee rivalry with it and stripping the WCC of its biggest recruiting pitch. Players who came to Moraga to test themselves against a perennial top-ten program every February now face a diminished landscape under a first-time head coach.

That is a hard sell, and everyone in the portal ecosystem knows it.

There is one more detail worth noting. Bennett is represented by the same agency as ASU freshman center Massamba Diop, giving him a quiet line of communication to existing Sun Devils while he recruits from his former roster.

The portal opens April 7. Bennett will be on the phone long before that.