ASU basketball is still trying to get it right | Greg Hansen

Wulk, then 62, had coached the Sun Devils to nine NCAA Tournaments (three Elite Eight appearances) in 20 years and won 495 games. His ASU career had been so successful that the school named the court at Desert Financial Arena “Ned Wulk Court.”

All these years later, it's unclear what Nelson was thinking in 1982. Wulk had been 24-4 a year earlier and ranked No. 3 in the nation. He wasn't a magnetic personality, but he was a winner.

The Sun Devils have never recovered.

They replaced Wulk with 42-year-old Bob Weinhauer from Penn. He was fired after three seasons. It would get worse. They replaced Weinhauer with 37-year-old assistant coach Steve Patterson, who had been a three-time NCAA championship player at UCLA. He was fired four years later.

Then came ex-Michigan coach Bill Frieder, who lasted eight years before being fired for, among other things, a point-shaving scandal. Then came Ole Miss coach Rob Evans, who went 55-89 in the Pac-10 before being fired. ASU then hired NC State coach Herb Sendek, a personality bypass. When that didn't work, the Sun Devils hired Bobby Hurley, a “can't-miss” coach from Buffalo with elite DNA from Duke. In 11 years, Hurley went 90-115 in conference games and was let go last spring.

That's four decades of failed basketball.

Now the Sun Devils have changed paths. They hired 64-year-old Randy Bennett from Saint Mary's, where he had a 72.1% winning record with 12 NCAA Tournament appearances in 25 years.

Bennett is a homegrown Phoenician, son of a legendary local high school coach. Bennett won seven NCAA Tournament games in the last quarter-century. How good is that? ASU won five, never advancing to the Sweet 16.

He may not be the next Ned Wulk, but he's a proven winner, back on home turf, and, on paper, a much better hire than most of the seven men who couldn't live up to Wulk's legacy.