The injury bug from last season continues to plague the new-look Sun Devils this year

Arizona State is coming off a season to forget, finishing with a 13-20 overall mark, including a 4-16 conference record in its inaugural Big 12 season. It was a season marred by multiple injuries to its star players, and a disappointing campaign led to a mass exodus of players. 

Despite seeing a significant roster turnover that saw all but one scholarship player return, the 2025-26 Sun Devils have already dealt with health struggles. On Thursday, head coach Bobby Hurley announced that junior guard Vijay Wallace, a player that the Sun Devils were set to rely on heavily, will miss the entire regular season after dislocating his ankle during a scrimmage last Sunday against Texas A&M.

“It was really heartbreaking to see it,” Hurley said. “It was probably one of the worst ones that I’ve seen. His prognosis is very good to get better in a couple of months following the surgery. But just the players were really emotionally beat up, just seeing that it was hard to even finish the game. Really feel terrible for Vijay, but he’s a great kid, a hard worker, and he’ll get back to where he was prior to the injury.” 

In the wake of Wallace’s injury and an ankle sprain that will sideline sophomore guard Noah Meeusen for a few weeks to begin the season, Hurley has decided to take the edge off in terms of practice intensity before the first game of the season.

“But just been a lot on the injury front,” Hurly noted. “(Thursday) wasn’t as many live reps. There won’t be as many live reps, so we could get to the game in one piece on Tuesday.”

On a positive note, graduate Allen Mukeba and sophomore Marcus Adams Jr, who missed several weeks of preseason practices due to injuries, have both improved in recent days and will see action in the November 4 season opener, giving Hurley another reason to take it easy on his guys with the impending matchup with Southern Utah. 

“Allen Mukeba looked very good in practice today,” Hurley commented. “He’s been out probably six weeks. Last week was his first week to go non-live, and this week he’s gone live, and he’s doing very well. So he’s trending to get back. 

“And the same thing goes for Marcus Adams. They were both on very similar timelines to return after lower leg injuries. Masamba Diop, we didn’t have him play in the (Texas A&M) exhibition. He probably could have, but he rolled his ankle in our Irvine exhibition, so we were very careful with him. Just making sure he’s 100% and he’s been in practice all week as well.

With a few days to go until the first game of the season, Hurley aimed to digest the differences between the previous season and this revamped squad. Although the 2024-25 ASU was flooded with talent, boasting three top-50 recruits in the class of 2024, the experienced team that’ll be sporting the Maroon and Gold in 2025-26 has the edge in team camaraderie and tangible attributes.

“Last year’s group, I enjoyed coaching them. They had a very high upside, but we never reached it. This team, I don’t know if the upside is as high, but like the coachability,” Hurley explained. “The attitude, how to conduct themselves every day, they’ve been very push-button to work with, and very enjoyable to coach. They, I think, genuinely like each other.”

The Sun Devils showed their quality on the court despite falling short 95-88 to Texas A&M, leading 45-40 at halftime. The team’s leading scorer was senior guard Anthony “Pig” Johnson, the NAIA transfer scored 27 points on 9-of-15 shooting, using his handle off the bounce to get into the paint with ease. 

“They pressed the whole game, and they trapped. And I thought, you know, we handled it well,” Hurley said. “The guards did. We took care of the ball. We didn’t turn it over. Got some guys that could shoot the ball, and we have an interior presence. We have multiple players that I think we could throw the ball to in the post. So I think we got a pretty good mix.” 

Pepperdine transfer, senior point guard Maurice Odum had just five points but registered six assists in 26 minutes against the Aggies. Odum finished fourth in the nation in assists per game last season, averaging 7.5 assists per game last season. 

“He’s a true point guard, he’s a leader, he plays to win,” Hurley said. “I think his teammates really enjoy playing with him, because of his feel for the game and his ability to find the open man, and it’s why he was fourth in the country in assists.

Odum has adjusted well to his new teammates, including his international constituents; seven of the ASU players are from outside of the U.S., which means he’s having to learn how to communicate in a whole new light. A man who does speak his language, however, is his fellow tri-state native, Hurley. 

“When he first recruited me, he didn’t call me like a recruiter. We kind of spoke about where we grew up at so he kind of related to a lot of things, Odum said. “So it wasn’t so much of a recruit. It was more like connecting together.” 

One of Odum’s new international teammates is Mukeba, a Belgian native, who uses his 6-foot-8 frame to become a physical presence inside. He didn’t play against Texas A&M; however, in his time on the court with his teammates, his ability to communicate in multiple ways has helped. 

“It’s more for the American guys for real,” Mukeba said. “Other than that. Now it’s just cool to have them all, you know, different nationalities and origins. It’s just really cool.”

Hurley’s enjoyed coaching a new batch of international players —one for their skill and coachability, the other because it’s good for cost and roster expenditure. 

“Older guys, experienced players,” Hurley described, “guys that played at a good level in Europe, that played against really good competition. It’s underrated how well coached some of those guys could be when they get to you, like they’ve and they haven’t disappointed in that regard at all, like Massamba Diop has had two years in Spain, where he can be pretty special stuff he could do. You don’t have to teach him a lot. He intuitively knows to do certain things. Same thing with Andrija (Grbovic) Noah —these guys have really been very good at picking things up, and their coachability is very high.

“I’ve spoken to more agents than I ever have in the past, the last two years, especially this year overseas. We saw that, and that’s just my opinion. The international guys cost less money, too. It’s not like you get them for free, but like they were, in my opinion, less expensive relative to American players this year.”

Meeusen struggled in the scrimmage, shooting 0-3 and scoring just two points in 20 minutes. The issue Hurley has seen with international players is the pace at which the game is typically played overseas.  

“Noah in particular talked a lot about that,” Hurley remarked. “Like the European game is a little more half-court oriented, and now all of a sudden, Noah is playing against Texas A& M, that’s trying to play 1000 miles an hour.”

Regardless, Hurley is excited to see his players improve over time as they adjust to life as a team. The culture has been reset in Tempe, as expected when the squad completely turns over in one season. For the Sun Devils, the emphasis will be on improvement over time, without judging any one game too harshly. 

“I could see us being way better, in December or January, than we are in November,” Hurley stated. “But along the way, we just got to keep battling and keep showing up, and keep guarding and keep playing unselfishly, and a lot of things we did versus Texas A&M.”