ASU hires Mesa native Randy Bennett to coach men's basketball team

Arizona State University announced on Monday that Randy Bennett will be the new men’s basketball coach.

Bennett, a Mesa native, became one of the top coaches in men’s college basketball by building Moraga, California-based Saint Mary’s College into a mid-major powerhouse that routinely battled Gonzaga for supremacy in the West Coast Conference.

Over 25 years, he led the Gaels to 589 wins and 12 NCAA tournaments.

After graduating from Mesa’s Westwood High School, Bennett played basketball for two years at Mesa Community College under his father, Tom Bennett, the winningest coach in program history. From there, the younger Bennett transferred to the University of California, San Diego, where he completed his collegiate career.

John Mulhern, MCC’s athletic director, said he thinks it's awesome to see Randy continuing Tom’s legacy of coaching in the Valley.

“It shows hard work, dedication, discipline, commitment — not a typical but an atypical story where somebody you know goes through the junior college ranks,” Mulhern said.

Mulhern said MCC was just one step in Randy's journey to coaching at a major university. Before becoming the head coach at Saint Mary’s in 2001, he served as an assistant at the University of San Diego, the University of Idaho, Pepperdine University and Saint Louis University.

“For any young aspiring basketball coach, whether it's men's or women's or … whatever the sport is, it can happen because Randy's showed that it could happen,” Mulhern said.

Bennett, 63, is replacing Bobby Hurley, who had served as the Sun Devils’ head coach since 2015. Hurley’s contract was not renewed after finishing this season 17-16.

After back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2017 and 2018, Hurley’s teams missed out in six of the next seven years — and finished with a combined record of 44-54 over his final three seasons.