It will be a whole lot of new at Desert Financial Arena this season when ASU women’s basketball steps on the floor.

Legendary head coach Charli Turner Thorne retired following last season, and numerous players from last year’s team transferred. Former Delaware head coach Natasha Adair is now the head coach, and she is tasked with leading a group of transfers, returners, and freshmen.

Adair discussed the process of growing the team’s chemistry with a hodgepodge of players.

“I think that’s been the biggest thing we focused on, especially in the offseason - in the summer when everyone got here,” Adair said. “It was just more about the culture of the team. You know, you had six players that were here, and there was so much change. And with the new players coming in, we still talked about why ASU, and I think if you keep everyone focused on why ASU, their love for ASU, then it doesn’t matter where kind of the players came from.”

ASU returns junior guard Jaddan Simmons, junior guard Sydney Erikstrup, senior guard Isadora Sousa, junior center Imogen Greenslade, junior forward Maggie Besselink, and sophomore forward Meg Newman.

Simmons, Besselink, and Newman are the most notable players returning. Simmons started 50 games over the past two seasons, leading the Sun Devils in assists both years. Besselink has battled injuries over the past two seasons, but when she has played, she has averaged a solid 4.6 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game. Newman might be the most significant player to remain committed to the ASU program following the departure of Turner Thorne. She was the No. 33 player in ESPN’s 2021 class before missing all of last season with a knee injury. It will be interesting to see if she can become the player she was considered to be coming out of high school.

Simmons talked about why she decided to stick at ASU when Turner Thorne retired, and Adair took the job.

“It all started when they first came here,” Simmons explained. “I didn’t know what I was going to do or what the plan was. But I know that I was going to see who the new coach was first before I made any decisions. And I think after just working out with them, it took me back to more of what I was doing back in high school as far as like ball handling and all that. So I think that was the one thing for basketball-wise but then also just mentally when I got to talk to (Adair) … really genuine and wanted to know more about me and not just all the basketball stuff.”

Transferring to ASU were former Delaware guard Tyi Skinner, former Kentucky guard Treasure Hunt, former TCU center Kayla Mokwuah and former UNC guard Morasha Wiggins.

Skinner, a junior, helped Adair and Delaware reach the NCAA tournament last season and averaged 10.9 points per game in her two seasons with the Blue Hens. Hunt, a junior, was the No. 28 player in ESPN’s 2020 class, and while she did not live up to her full potential at Kentucky, she did start 29 of the Wildcats’ 30 games last year. She posted 6.9 PPG and 4.6 RPG. Mokwuah, a graduate student, led the Horned Frogs with a 57.5 field goal percentage last season and 0.7 blocks per game. Wiggins, a sophomore, was the No. 18 player in ESPN’s 2021 class, but she played sparingly in her lone season at UNC.

The freshman for ASU this season are guard Jaylah Robinson, guard Trayanna Crisp, and forward Journey Thompson. Guard Tatum Settelmyer is a class of 2021 player listed on the roster as a sophomore. Crisp is the most prominent of these young players. The former Millennium High School star was the No. 73 player in ESPN’s 2022 class and committed to ASU under Turner Thorne. Adair being able to keep her in Tempe is a major vote of confidence for the new regime.

Crisp said she stuck with the Sun Devils because Tempe is close to home, and she already knew Adair from the recruiting trail.

The departures from last season’s team should also be mentioned. The biggest loss from a season ago was the departure of leading scorer Jade Loville to rival Arizona. Another crucial loss was 2019-20 leading scorer Taya Hanson transferring to Oregon. Also transferring were key role players in Gabriela Bosquez, Ayzhiana Basallo, and Katelyn Levings.

Simmons discussed her former teammates’ decisions to leave.

“We’re always going to be cool,” Simmons said. “They obviously talked to us before they did it. I mean, didn’t know what school they were going to and all that, but we knew they were transferring.”

While there were some major departures from this team, including its legendary head coach, the talent ASU gained seems to be enough to at least be competitive this season. However, both the coaches and media picked the Sun Devils to finish last in the Pac-12.

Skinner talked about if the ranking gives her a chip on her shoulder or if she does not pay attention to it.

“It’s a little bit of both,” Skinner said. “You don’t really care what people put you at the beginning of the season because it matters where you finish at. But also, yeah, there’s a chip on our shoulder. We got some things to prove, and it’s understandable we’re a new team.”

ASU begins the season on Monday at 8 p.m. MST at home against Northern Arizona.

Adair discussed what ASU has to do to beat NAU.

“If we play to the things that we know to do - we want to hold opponents under their average, we want to make sure we have 20-plus, 30-plus paint points, we want to get second chance opportunities, we want to get 20-plus free throw attempts and score about 80 percent from the free throw line,” Adair stated. “So there are measures that we have, under 12 turnovers, that if we are consistent with that game-by-game-by-game, then we’re doing what we’re supposed to do, and we’ll be in the win column.”

As for how the team is coming along in practice, Adair discussed how she is seeing improvements day by day.

“I think every day you see them understanding, you see that light come on - those aha moments,” Adair explained. “I know that it is different in the pace in which we want to play. My teams score 70 to 80 points a night, and that’s different. And so a lot of it has been in the offseason where there’s been conditioning. I think it’s more about the support staff around them, the trainers, strength coach, and just how we’ve worked together.”