Arizona State is on the hunt for a new men's basketball coach, and athletics director Graham Rossini is whittling down his list of finalists for the job. One such name is longtime St. Mary's head coach Randy Bennett. Here's everything you need to know about him.
Proven success without elite resources
When Bennett was first hired at St. Mary's, the program wasn't exactly known for basketball. The Gaels reached the Elite Eight in 1959, but outside of that they'd had two other NCAA Tournament appearances. They also had just four regular season conference championships and only one conference tournament title.
In fact, St. Mary's had posted a winning season just 16 times since the end of World War II to the time Bennett was hired. By contrast, they had 17 seasons with single-digit wins in that same span. This was a program very much in the wildnerness.
In just four years' time, Bennett had the Gaels winning 25 games and getting back to the tournament. Three years after that, they won 25 games again and got back to the tournament; that kicked off a run of 17 straight seasons with 21+ wins, not counting the Covid-shortened season.
Bennett has taken the Gaels to the Big Dance 11 times, and they're on the verge of making that 12. Bennett has also been named the conference's Coach of the Year seven times, despite coaching at the same time as Gonzaga's Mark Few.
In fact, if it weren't for Gonzaga's dominance, Bennett would be a much bigger name.
Much like Few, though, Bennett has turned St. Mary's into a mid-major dynasty despite not having elite resources. In the time that recruiting rankings have existed, St. Mary's has never had a recruiting class ranked higher than 61st in the nation.
Bennett has only ever secured the commitment of six 4-star recruits out of high school, and he's never landed a 5-star. He's also been selective in the transfer portal, rarely going after big names despite the program's success.
The university didn't even establish an NIL collective until midway through 2024, putting them well behind the 8-ball in college athletics' financial arms race. In the two years since, St. Mary's has mostly been playing catch up.
Yet, the Gaels continue to win at the same rate.
A big part of that is due to Bennett's program building. He has a very specific criteria for what he wants in players, and his staff has consistently succeeded at identifying those traits in players who fly way under the radar. He's been especially effective at targeting international players that other programs hardly even consider.
Despite not bringing in high level recruits, Bennett has put six players in the NBA, including NBA champions Matthew Dellavedova, Patty Mills, and Jock Landale, all three of whom came to St. Mary's from Australia.
Arizona State is in the unique position of having more resources than St. Mary's while still not having great resources. Their NIL collective has been active for longer, with better results, and Big 12 membership brings in considerably more money than the West Coast conference.
At the same time, though, Bennett won't be rolling in NIL money in Tempe. The next coach of the Sun Devils will need to figure out how to identify hidden gems that can form winning teams. Bennett has already built that model, and it's time tested.
Schemes built for March
It's often said that the key to winning in March is being able to play slow. Due to the scheduling quirks of March Madness, teams often are forced to slow down their pace somewhat, which can cause uncomfortable growing pains for some.
Not Bennett and the Gaels.
Bennett's offense has been one of the slowest in college basketball for a while, intentionally so. They ranked 249th in fastbreak points this year, for example.
Bennett runs a variant of the Princeton offense, which typically operates from a 4 out, 1 in structure. The system features constant motion, with on- and off-ball screens helping to keep the flow consistent. The offense is designed to lull defenses to sleep while setting up multiple backdoor cuts to the basket.
It's led to some decrying the St. Mary's defense as boring, but they're also deadly efficient. The Gaels routinely rank in the top 40 in offensive efficiency, finding high percentage shots and converting them with consistency.
On the defensive end, St. Mary's has become elite over the past decade. Bennett's schemes are geared towards taking away the 3, almost religiously. The Gaels will press the arc and almost goad offenses into driving to the hoop.
They also make it a practice to send all five to the glass for rebounds often. This has led to opponents rarely racking up offensive rebound numbers. Most teams don't do this in favor of getting out in transition offense, but St. Mary's is already built on a methodical offensive pace, so there's not much downside to sending all five to the glass.
These schemes have evolved over the years to match national trends and player strengths, but the core principles have remained in place. To put it simply, Bennett's teams play every game like it's March, which gives them a leg up come March, when their competition level goes up significantly.
Strong ties to the Valley
Bennett was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona. He attended Westwood High School and began his college playing career at Mesa Community College, where father Tom Bennett was the head coach. Tom Bennett had an impressive coaching career, too, winning six Region I championships across 19 years, with 11 straight 20-plus win seasons.
The younger Bennett later transferred out from under his father to play at UC San Diego, which is where he later began his coaching career. Bennett hasn't coached in the state since then, but he's been an active recruiting presence in Arizona throughout his entire career.
At St. Mary's, Bennett has frequently made recruiting trips into the Valley, whether via connection through his father or just building relationships with the local high schools. Two players that are top 10 in program history for career assists, Tommy Kuhse and Mickey McConnell, both came from Arizona.
McConnell has since gone into coaching, too, and he's the associate head coach at St. Mary's the only place he's ever coached. A former standout at Dobson High School in Mesa, McConnell starred for the Gaels team that reached the Sweet Sixteen. Many have the 36-year old pegged as Bennett's eventual successor.
Concerns about longevity
Speaking of succession, the biggest knock that comes with Bennett's candidacy at Arizona State is his age. He'll turn 64 in June, which is enough for some to question whether or not Bennett has enough left in him to take over a program in as much need as Arizona State.
There are plenty of recent examples of coaches lasting into their 70's. Tom Izzo, Rick Pitino, Kelvin Sampson, and Rick Barnes are all about to coach in the NCAA Tournament as single digit seeds. Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim both coached well into their 70's as well.
Of course, only Pitino was older than Bennett is now at the time he took his current job. Pitino was also the only one to inherit a program in a bit of a rebuild, evidenced by his middling first year at St. John's.
Bennett would have his work cut out for him in Tempe.
NIL resources would ultimately be greater at Arizona State than at St. Mary's, but the money won't go that far. There's a level of buy-in that prospects have right now when they commit to play for Bennett at St. Mary's, and that will be fundamentally different with the Sun Devils.
Bennett will also be tasked with reinvigorating a fan base that's become wildly apathetic to the program in recent years. His understated personality and methodical basketball style would be polar opposite to Hurley, but it would also make it a bit more challenging for fans to embrace him. At least until the winning starts.
There's also the competition to consider. The Big 12 is the premier conference in college basketball. It is lightyears better than the West Coast conference, and also much harder to compete against its members. All things considered, Bennett has had his way with the West Coast outside of Gonzaga; that won't be the case in the Big 12, both on the court and in the recruiting space.
Having said that, there are also questions about the longevity of the West Coast conference.
Gonzaga is leaving for the Pac 12 next year, as are Oregon State and Washington State. While that would open things up for increased dominance for Bennett, it also weakens his program's resume. For years, St. Mary's has maintained relevance as a tourney-viable team largely because of their conference's prestige. Without Gonzaga, that prestige will take a massive hit.
And while wins will be hard to come by in the Big 12, the margin for error in getting to the Big Dance is considerably wider. The conference has sent at least seven teams to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four years.
Starting next year, a West Coast conference championship will likely be the only way for St. Mary's to reach the tournament. At Arizona State, Bennett really only needs to finish among the top half of the conference to be in the mix.
That should make it all the more appealing for Bennett, though Arizona State will still need to determine how much longer Bennett sees himself coaching. If he's truly up for the rebuild and all the rigors that come with trying to turn the Sun Devils around, this would be a no-brainer move for Rossini.