Arizona State basketball's Randy Bennett voted best hire by his peers

Arizona State basketball head coach Randy Bennett was hailed as the top high-major coaching hire of the 2026 cycle by a majority of Division I coaches. Responding to a CBS Sports survey, 32% of the coaches voted Bennett the best. Jerrod Calhoun of Cincinnati and Michael Malone of North Carolina followed, with 30% and 16% of the vote respectively.

Will Wade of LSU tied for fifth place. Bennett's reputation as a program-builder was evident, having led Saint Mary's to significant success over 25 seasons. Notably, the surveyed coaches praised his ability to develop and sustain a winning program. ASU demonstrated improvement under Bennett's leadership, with six of the last seven NCAA Tournament appearances compared to two in the previous seven.

Additionally, Bennett has led Saint Mary's teams to the AP Top 25 poll in four of the last five seasons, a marked improvement from their last appearance in 2008-09.