Outlook: To all my business-savvy friends out there, I take it you’re familiar with the concept of ‘Earnings Management’, right? If not, or if you didn’t sell your soul to the almighty corporate dollar during your collegiate years and studied something other than business, no worries at all - we’re all capable of grasping the concept of what I’m hereby coining as ‘Resume Management’. This is the politically correct way to describe the art of distorting or ‘dressing up’ the components of actual work experience to look far more impressive and important than it actually was. For example, when I was 16 years old, I didn’t work a cash register at a local concessions stand; I managed inventory at a local concessions stand…

Don’t act like you haven’t done this before. We all have. Yet, none of us hold a candle to what Bobby Hurley and his Arizona State Sun Devils pulled off in each of the last two seasons with their own version of ‘Resume Management’ - that is, ‘NCAA Tournament Resume Management’.

I’m convinced Hurley hired a Watergate-esque operation to go into the NCAA Selection Committee headquarters overnight and remove embarrassing loses from their team cheat sheets, allowing the sexy big wins over Kansas (twice!), Kansas State, Xavier and Mississippi State over the past two seasons to outshine their hidden blemishes. If you scroll to the bottom of that same metaphorical resume, you’ll find “Washington State at home”, “Princeton at home” and “Stanford at home” buried down in the footer of the page in size 6-font.

Putting that tangent to bed, Arizona State has been one of the most bi-polar, unpredictable teams in college basketball over the last two years. Look no further than that circus of a game against St. John’s in the NCAA tournament last season, in which ASU did everything in their power to lose (and almost succeeded). The reckless abandon in which Hurley’s teams play is somewhat of a double-edged sword. While it’s prone to highly erratic decision-making, it also feeds an irrational sense confidence that allows guys to play with an unrivaled sense of swagger (or ‘drip’, as the kids say these days).

I mean, how else do you go into Allen Fieldhouse and take down the big bad Kansas Jayhawks. Junior Remy Martin has been with Hurley every step of the way over the last two years, and encapsulates this mindset to a T. He’s been a human Red Bull the last two seasons, routinely infusing the Sun Devils with an instant spark when they needed it most. After deferring to Tra Holder and Shannon Evans as a freshman, and then to Luguentz Dort last year, Martin will now finally get to spread his wings as the unquestioned floor general and primary playmaker.

The eye-test tells me that giving Martin the keys to the offense could be problematic, but the data debunks this completely. Despite Martin’s frenetic pace of play and occasional knee-jerk shot-selection, he’s maintained a 2.35 assist-to-turnover ratio throughout his career and posted respectable shooting splits last year, which spiked substantially during league play. From January 1st onward, he shot 50%, 38% and 70% from 2PT, 3PT, and the free throw line, respectively, and was one of five players in the Pac-12 with a usage rate above 20% to post an Offensive Rating higher than 115. Maintaining that efficiency going toe-to-toe with the opposing team’s top perimeter stopper on a nightly basis will be tough, but Martin isn’t alone in the backcourt.

5th year senior Rob Edwards is back to support Martin at the off-guard spot, a durable catch-and-shoot floor spacer with a sturdy physical build at 6’4, 200-plus pounds. Last season was a big leap for Edwards after transferring up from the ever-declining Horizon League, and he struggled to finish over the superior size and strength inside. In fact, both Edwards and Martin were borderline atrocious at converting at the rim last year, but this was partially mitigated by either: 1) a whistle and a subsequent trip to the charity stripe (Edwards and Martin are both 75 – 80% career free throw shooters) or 2) an easy put back finish from one of ASU’s rim crashing brigade, comprised of Zylan Cheatham, Romello White and De’Quon Lake.

After missing all of November early last season with a back injury, Edwards ended up replacing 6’7 jack-of-all-trades Kimani Lawrence in the starting lineup. Despite playing a full workload for the latter half of the season last year, it was reported by the AZCentral (part of the USA Today network) that Edwards was never actually fully healed:

No longer does he think and worry about his back while on the court, Edwards said this week before the Sun Devils left for a road trip to play Oregon and Oregon State. But as good as Edwards has been the past two weeks, he’s not fully healthy. His back is still an issue, and he spends a considerable time stretching and receiving other therapy under the guidance of sports performance coach Daniel Marshall.

With how much stock Hurley puts in his guards, Edwards could be the X-factor this season and the calming presence alongside Martin the Sun Devils need. And when you add Finnish wing Elias Valtonen to the equation, there should be enough long range firepower for Martin to dish to.

Another backcourt weapon who could easily play his way into the starting lineup is highly anticipated JUCO star Alonzo Verge. Per a report from Cronkite News, the news division of ArizonaPBS, the former JUCO All-American has already gotten the coaching staff’s attention with his playmaking and table setting for others:

“Alonzo Verge has already stood out for me with just his creativity and making guys better on the floor,” Hurley said. “Our guards are going to be very vocal this year, between Remy, who’s a natural communicator on the court, and Alonzo who’s the same way. He talks constantly in a positive way.”

Verge averaged a casual 30, 8 (assists) and 4 last season, so don’t be surprised if he shoots right to the top of the offensive pecking order, just like Dort did as a freshman last year. Verge headlines a sneaky strong class of newcomers, including top-15 JUCO prospect Khalid Thomas, and a pair of 4-star freshmen Jaelen House and Jalen Graham.

The Sun Devils only played one side of the ball during Hurley’s first two seasons in Tempe, and it wasn’t until Hurley decided to invest in his frontcourt that the Sun Devils became a serious NCAA tournament at-large candidate. This is where Romello White, Taeshon Cherry, and Mickey Mitchell, along with the aforementioned newbies Thomas and Graham, have their work cut out for them this season. Zylan Cheatham was a one-man-wrecking-crew on the defensive glass last year and one of the top shot-swatters in the Pac-12. Per hoopslens.com, ASU surrendered 0.90 points per possession with him on the floor, compared to 1.07 PPP when he sat.

Bottom Line: Losing Cheatham’s activity inside is a crushing blow, but White really came into his own down the stretch last season. He isn’t much more than a rim runner and rim diver offensively, but his work on the glass is far more important than lighting up the scoreboard. Both of the JUCO forwards are elastic athletes (Thomas and Andre Allen), and the rookie Graham is on a fast track to becoming a human eraser: