It’s been six long months since the Arizona State Sun Devils walked off the court in Dayton, Ohio, after a heartbreaking NCAA Tournament loss to Syracuse.

That team accomplished a lot in one short season — it had ASU, at one point, near the top of the AP poll, and it earned the Sun Devils their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2014. It brought an energized crowd.

But the page turns. The group that took the floor for the season’s first official practice Tuesday afternoon looked nothing like the one that wrapped up its memorable campaign this past March.

According to head coach Bobby Hurley, they’re ready to add on to the progress made in 2017-18.

“We’re just trying to take steps as a program, I thought we took a good step in the right direction last year,” head coach Bobby Hurley said. “The guys are hungry to build on that.”

And they have the potential to be more talented.

“I think we have great depth,” Hurley said. “We’re bigger and more athletic than any team I’ve had. I think it has the potential to be the best defensive team that I’ve coached anywhere I’ve been.”

The most obvious difference between last year’s Sun Devils and the new iteration? Simply put, they’re significantly bigger. ASU graduated three guards, two of which were just 6-foot-1 — from a team whose tallest rotation player was just 6-foot-10.

Since then, they’ve added two guards that stand tall at 6-foot-4 — redshirt senior forward and SDSU transfer Zylan Cheatham made a reference to this year’s roster transitioning to “Big Guard U” — and four forwards taller than 6-foot-7, including Uros Plavsic, a 7-footer from Serbia.

The Sun Devils struggled against teams with a size advantage a year ago, including in their season-ending loss to the Orange. That won’t — at least, it shouldn’t — be an issue in 2018-19.

“Last year, we were obviously smaller at the guard position,” Cheatham said. “We’ve got some power guards that can take a different load. This is a definitely a different look, and I think Hurley has his work cut out for him.”

“It’s going to be awesome,” sophomore guard Remy Martin added. “Any time you have the size, it’s always a benefit. We have guys out there that can actually pass, move… It’s just a bonus.”

For redshirt junior guard Rob Edwards, who, like Cheatham, sat out last season after transferring from Cleveland State, he certainly saw areas where he could have made a difference.

In particular, when the Sun Devils’ offense hit major lulls during key Pac-12 slumps, his raw scoring ability would have been nice to have around.

“Yeah, I did think last year I could’ve helped, but I couldn’t,” he said. “Just go hard at practice.”

But Edwards said he and Cheatham made the most of their year off, putting in hard work outside of the public eye.

“We’ve been sitting out, but for the most part, we’ve been working out, like everyday, we just go hard,” he said. “Even last year, we weren’t able to play, so we were just trying to push the guys to go as hard as you can and now we get that opportunity, so we’re hungry.”

According to Hurley, both transfers will make big impacts for his team this season.

They’ve proven their level of talent at their respective schools — In their last seasons, Cheatham averaged 9.1 points and 6.3 rebounds while Edwards put up 16.5 points per game — and their new head coach expects both to take a step forward as leaders at ASU.

“They’re older and they played at a high level at other places,” Hurley said. “They have a real maturity about them and again just familiarity with our system and some of the things we do. They’ve been great leaders, very vocal, they’re going to have a lot to say and a big role on our team this year.”

With the pieces, he’s got and the momentum surrounding his program, Hurley’s clearly confident, and he has plenty of valid reason to be. The atmosphere around ASU basketball reached new heights at points last season, and he’s got his sights set on even more in 2018-19.

“The time is now,” he said. “We’ve made the strides, we’ve got some people excited about what we’re doing. Especially with how we started last year, this is when we’ve got to put it all together.”

Piecing together the Puzzle

But…

There’s still a lot to figure out with this roster. There’s a wealth of talent in Tempe, but a lot of it — two transfers and four freshmen — has never played a game at ASU.

And it doesn’t help that the Sun Devils have had their fair share of injury issues over the offseason. Freshman forward Taeshon Cherry and senior forward De’Quon Lake have both struggled with knee injuries, but Hurley expects the two of them to be back within the next couple of weeks.

The story for junior forward Mickey Mitchell seems less optimistic. Mitchell — who averaged 5.8 points and 5.2 rebounds in 22.5 minutes per game last year — has dealt with back issues this summer.

Bobby Hurley didn’t place a time table on Mitchell’s recovery but didn’t appear too positive about a return any time soon.

“I feel terrible for Mickey because he was a warrior last year,” Hurley said. “He’s working hard in rehab and his treatment, and we’re just hoping that we gradually get him to a point where he can get back with us. I don’t see that happening in the next couple weeks.”

With injuries sidelining a handful of players, Hurley hasn’t had the chance to get a good look at his full complement of Sun Devils. The true, clear picture of 2018-19 ASU basketball hasn’t entirely come into focus just yet.

“We’re still learning about each other,” he said. We battled some injuries through the summer, which I haven’t really dealt with since I’ve been here. I have not been able to see what the entirety of the team looks like, so as we get healthy and I get to see more and different combinations, I’ll have a better feel.”

But, at the very least, his team has plenty of depth. There are, arguably, at least 10 Sun Devils with a strong case to be a part of the playing rotation.

He may not be able to see all of the different pieces he’s working with, but when November 6 rolls around, he’ll have more than enough bodies on his roster to try and put together the winning combination.

“If you asked me who’s starting, I couldn’t give you that answer,” he said. “It’s not because I don’t have enough guys to figure out who I want to start, it’s because I have maybe too many.”

Martin taking starting point guard role in stride

If anybody’s anywhere close to having a starting position sewn up, odds are it’s Remy Martin. Martin played the role of sixth man behind three senior guards a year ago, and still put up quality numbers in 23.8 minutes per game.

His strong freshman season culminated in Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year honors, not to mention high expectations entering his second year.

“It just took over itself,” Martin said of his strong 2017-18 campaign. “I just rely on controlling what I can control. I just wanted to do anything I could to help this team win. That’s all I wanted to do. No matter if I was scoring zero points, or stat line zero, I just wanted to affect the game as I much as I can for us to win.”

In his first year at Arizona State, Martin averaged 9.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.9 assists. The last of those three statistics was good for third among all Sun Devils.

Those assist numbers are going to be a key in a season where ASU has so many different individuals who can score in a variety of different ways. As it did at times last year, the Sun Devils’ offense will start with Martin, and he’ll be fully focused on setting up teammates for success.

“Obviously, I’m the point guard, and if I’m taking the shot, that means nobody else is taking the shot,” he said. “I have so many weapons, but it’s no good if I don’t use them.”

“Remy does the right things,” Hurley added. “He’s a great leader, and he’s getting better like you’d hope he would.”

If there’s one major part of his game that Martin’s been looking to fix, though, it’s his pace of play.

Last year, Martin came to be known for his high energy on both ends of the floor. He’s got speed, but he’s grown to see the benefits of harnessing it in order to become more of a facilitator.

“I’m always downhill,” he said. “But what I learned throughout the summer is that you’re more effective when you change gears because everybody’s expecting you to go as fast as I possibly can. So when I slow the game down, and when I have the ball in my hands, it’s my world.”

His own role aside, Martin doesn’t hold back with his expectations. When asked what ASU’s ceiling might be this season, he didn’t really seem to see a ceiling at all.

“To win everything,” he said. “That’s what we play this game for, that’s exactly what we want to do. I don’t go out there and try to lose anything.”

‘Iron Sharpens Iron’

Multiple ASU players made it clear Tuesday afternoon that competition in practice has been at a very high level this preseason. Perhaps, no one-on-one matchup pits together as much talent and defensive energy as that at the point guard position.

Remy Martin put his defensive prowess on display a year ago, but so far, he noted that freshman Luguentz Dort seems to be going toe-to-toe with him in that regard.

“He’s one of the best players I ever played against,” Martin said. “Going against him is a privilege; not many people could go against that type of guy. I take it as a challenge. At the end of the day, we’re here to help each other.”

“We’re on the same team, but at practice, when we get in between those lines, he’s my enemy,” he later added. “He’s going to get my best shot, and I’m going to get his best shot, but iron sharpens iron.”

According to Martin, the two aren’t afraid to fight hard on every play when given the opportunity. Like Martin, Dort is quite the nuisance. As a result, they’re consistently elevating one another.

But Martin and Dort aren’t the only ones engaged in daily competition. Martin briefly referenced the likes of Zylan Cheatham and redshirt sophomore forward Romello White, or Edwards and sophomore wing Kimani Lawrence, as a couple of one-on-one battles that take place in practice, but ultimately described the full vibe of practice as quite competitive, in a positive way.

“We have so many competitors, that we get into some battles,” he said. “We definitely get into some battles. It only ups our level of intensity and it only makes us great players. It gets the best out of each other.”

Martin wasn’t the only one with praise for Dort; Bobby Hurley spoke very highly of the freshman from Montréal, noting his ability on defense as one of the standouts he’s taken away from workouts.

“I think Remy has had a great offseason, and just like most freshmen will improve, he’s going to improve, and he’s had Luguentz every day to go up against,” Hurley said. “And (Dort) is, when all’s said and done, for me, I don’t know if I’ll coach a better defensive guard than he is, and you’ll see that this year.”

Lawrence primed for a strong season after a rocky freshman campaign

Kimani Lawrence came into the ASU program with high hopes, having been rated as a four-star recruit and the 54th best player in the 2017 class, per Rivals.

Things took a turn for the New Hampshire native when an early-season foot injury kept him out of ASU’s first 13 contests. He ended up averaging 3.1 points and 1.7 rebounds in just under 10 minutes per game in 19 games, but he didn’t have quite the impact many expected in his freshman season.

Martin, Lawrence’s classmate, saw it unfold first hand. He knows last year wasn’t an easy one for Lawrence.

“That’s my brother,” Martin said. “That’s definitely hard to do, especially him having a great high school career, to have an injury and to sit and watch his team play, I know it’s hard and it takes tremendous ability to say, ‘You know what, I’m still going to be here, I’m still going to be here for my team, and I’m still going to watch and cheer,’ even though deep down, when we go home, I know that he’s hurting.”

Put all of that in the rear-view mirror. Lawrence is fully healthy now, and his head coach had very positive remarks about the kind of summer he put together.

It’s yet to be seen how he’ll specifically fit into the Sun Devils’ rotation, but Lawrence’s versatility on both sides of the floor should make him a real weapon in year two.

“Kimani has had as good an offseason as anybody in the program,” Hurley said. “Just made a huge jump, his body’s right, his shot looks great, he’s making a lot of plays off the dribble. He’s defensively making an impact, I think he’s taken more charges than anyone else has so far, just doing a little bit of everything.”