Cohesiveness is always a necessary ingredient for potential success, but when you have a team with nine newcomers, it’s a mere necessity. June practices that preceded a European tour have not only provided that vital component for the team but have aided the Sun Devils, who were picked sixth in the Pac-12 preseason poll, to be ahead of schedule in their preparedness for the 2023-24 season.

“We had a really good summer,” head coach Bobby Hurley said at the Pac-12 Media Day event in Las Vegas today. “I think it starts there. We got back in June and took a foreign trip for the first time in a number of years, with COVID and everything. It was a great experience for our players getting a chance to play two pro games in France and Greece. Just a great bonding experience, a great educational experience for our players.

“It’s huge. Nine new players and a good core nucleus with (guard) Frankie Collins, (guard) Jamiya Neal, and (forward) Alonzo Gaffney. But just to see the guys interact off the court, getting along, laughing, and having a good time, it really accelerates the process of bringing a group together.”

Neal, a junior, was a key player down the stretch for an Arizona State team that did win 23 games. He averaged 8.2 points over his final eight contests and was a key player in the road upset win over Arizona (12 points and a team-high five rebounds), as well as a 16-point effort on 6-of-7 shooting in the 2023 NCAA Tournament win over Nevada. Hurley believes that Neal had done well to build off of that late-season performance as he will compensate for losing the top two scorers from last season.

“He was cut out to have a better season last year,” Hurley recalled. “Injuries derailed the first part of his season; he had a setback and kind of fell behind some guys in the rotation. As the year went on, he really gained a lot of confidence and momentum. (Former ASU guard) Austin Nunez was out with an injury late in the year, and that provided an opening for him to go get more playing time, and he took full advantage of it. He was, as you said, one of our best players down the stretch.

“So I feel like he’s taken another step. He’s been a great leader this summer. He’s going to cushion the blow of losing Des Cambridge and DJ Horne, who put a lot of points on the board for us last year.”

Neal feels is not only buoyant in his abilities but also for the prospects of what he and Collins can provide in unison on the floor.

“I think we’re very confident in ourselves,” Neal commented. “Coach is confident in what we can do, and I think if we bring it every night, we can show everybody that we will be one of the best backcourts in the Pac-12 this year. Me and Frank are both willing passers, and we want to see each other do great. This summer, we played a pro-am together to get some more reps together. We like playing with each other because we both like seeing each other do well.

“I’m never jealous of what Frank’s doing. He’s never jealous of what I’m doing. Our games complement each other because we both can shoot, we both like to get downhill, we both like to make the right plays and we both guard. We both can guard 1 through 3. I like the combo of me and Frank because we’re so similar. We have everybody stepping into a bigger role, and I think that’s what’s going to help us because we all have each other’s back because we’re all doing something we haven’t done before.”

“They were two of the better guards in the league late in the season,” Hurley noted. “I think they could be a devastating combination at both ends of the floor just with their creativity, their athleticism, and their ability to impact the game at both ends of the floor.”

Collins feels that even as a player who only arrived last year in Tempe, he’s familiar with his head coach’s philosophy, which allows him to be the quintessential coach on the floor in his point guard role. And as a returning player, he also knew that he had to set an example.

“I think just understanding how Coach Hurley operates and being that voice and taking that next step in the leadership role and helping everybody out there on the court,” Collins described. “We have a very inexperienced team, so just getting them all on the same page and understanding what we’ve got going on. He was one of the best college point guards to play, so just understanding how he approached the game and how he would have me approach the game. He always makes sure I’m ready, and I’m on my feet, ready for whatever’s coming.

“Since the end of last season, I’ve been on like a diet, a no-sugar diet. So I kind of just cut out a couple of things that I shouldn’t be eating for me to up my muscle mass and lower my body fat. I don’t eat anything with over about 4 grams of sugar. That was really the hardest part.

“As a teenager, as young men, like we like to eat candy. We eat candy. We eat cereal. You eat a whole bunch of other stuff that’s unnecessary. Me cutting all that out, eating more fruit, making more protein shakes and stuff like that.”

“I think Frankie is a great leader,” Hurley stated, “and you could hear his voice in practice. I think that’s where it’s taken another step. He’s really worked extremely hard on his perimeter shooting, and I think you’ll see improvement in that area. He’s a physical, downhill guard who could defend and make an impact on the game in multiple ways.”

Hurley said that when constructing this year’s roster from the portal, he wanted to find players who were undervalued and, in the process, found the paint presence needed to replace Warren Washington.

“Shawn Phillips has been outstanding in our workouts,” Hurley said of the sophomore. “7-footer, 7'5" wingspan. He was a top 75 player out of high school, played his first year at LSU, and transferred back to Arizona, where he went to prep school. He’s had a major impact in our workouts with playing above the rim and shot blocking and all those things.”

“We have to be very strategic about what we’re doing, and it may not be ideally the group that you envision that you want to put out on the floor, but we’re doing the best we can to get the players in the program that have something to prove. I think we’re bringing in some guys that are coming from some places where they didn’t have a lot of success last year. I have two players transfer from LSU, one from Louisville, and hopefully, they’re hungry to be a part of winning basketball.”

Hurley admitted that with so many first-year players, consistency has at times eluded the team as they try to put together multiple practices where sustained high level of play is demonstrated. Breaking bad habits and avoiding a decline in practice quality is an ongoing mission.

“I’ve tried to remind our team of that because I think with us, we had two games last year, our Texas Southern game we lost at the buzzer, and obviously San Francisco,” Hurley explained. “Those games impacted our ability to be straight in the NCAA Tournament, where we don’t have to go to Dayton and win a game. I would have loved to see our first game not be played in Dayton the way we played against Nevada in that first round (a 98-73 win).”