TEMPE – Before senior forward Paulius Murauskas even played a game for Arizona State, his teammates voted him a team captain.

On Friday, Murauskas scored 33 points against Northern Colorado, the most he has scored in a college game. After the 90-63 win, he rang the victory bell at Desert Financial Arena.

“We’re going to flip this thing and make this place great again,” Murauskas said after the game, referring to the announced crowd of 5,295 in an arena that seats 14,198.

Murauskas added 22 points in an 85-63 win against Hofstra on Tuesday, but he can’t lead alone. He won’t have to.

While Murauskas followed coach Randy Bennett to Tempe from Saint Mary’s, senior guard Bryce Ford chose to stay after former coach Bobby Hurley’s departure.

Together, they are hoping to lead a resurgence in the revamped program.

With just two players returning from last season’s ASU squad, Bennett had a captain in Murauskas who knew what the coach expected from players in his program, and a guard in Ford who had already played a season in the Big 12.

Arizona State hired Bennett in March after the Sun Devils went three straight seasons without an NCAA Tournament appearance under Hurley. Dramatic change is already evident. Four transfers started against Northern Colorado, including Murauskas and his former Saint Mary’s teammate, Dillan Shaw, who was also in the starting lineup against Hofstra.

Murauskas started his college career in Tucson, but averaged only five minutes a game as a freshman at Arizona. He started every game in his first season at Saint Mary’s then led the Gaels in scoring the next at 18.4 points per game. Two assistants who coached him there also joined Bennett in Tempe. It was enough to convince Murauskas to join them at ASU. 

“After not playing my first year, they helped me get through that and I trust them to keep making me a better player,” Murauskas said when ASU announced his signing in July.

Bennett said Murauskas was one of the first players his staff pursued after arriving at ASU, and he credited Murauskas’ commitment with helping the staff bring in other players.

Meanwhile, Ford started 20 of the 27 games he played in last season under Hurley, his first at ASU after transferring from Toledo. He decided to stay put after meeting Bennett.

“His vision for me on how he could get me to the next level stood out,” Ford told reporters at Bennett’s introduction in May.

The Scottsdale native played two seasons for the Rockets after starring at Pinnacle High School in Phoenix before transferring to ASU, where his older sister Alyse played volleyball. He told Cronkite Sports in March that he grew up watching the Sun Devils.

“I came back because ASU feels like home to me,” Ford said when the school announced his return during the offseason.

Ford played through hip pain last season and had surgery in the offseason. He returned to practice earlier than expected and said the pain is gone.

“It feels great, just knowing that I’m back and my hip is 100%,” Ford said. “No more nagging or none of that.”

He played just under nine minutes in the opener against East Tennessee State. Against Northern Colorado, he scored 17 off the bench and he added nine points in the win against Hofstra. Murauskas was on the floor for every minute Ford played against Northern Colorado.

Ford said his job during those minutes includes some different priorities than last season.

“Boxing out is a big key point of this program,” he said. “And if you don’t box out, you won’t play.” 

Three Sun Devils got into the opener with six seconds left. All three played at least two minutes against Northern Colorado as Bennett is already trying to improve the team’s depth.

“We’re going to need a full team, not a three-man band,” Bennett said.

ASU (3-0) has two more home games against Louisiana-Monroe and Oakland before taking part in The Acrisure Series in Palm Springs, California with games scheduled against LSU and South Carolina. Big 12 play begins in January.

Bennett has the next few weeks to learn about the squad – and the leaders – that he has assembled in Tempe.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.