Junior guard Frankie Collins is the latest Sun Devil to enter the transfer portal after leading ASU men's basketball for two seasons and etching his name into the history books as the school's single-season steals leader.
Collins is the fourth Sun Devil to depart less than two weeks since the 2024 transfer portal's opening. The Michigan transfer has been an integral part of ASU basketball since arriving last season and was key in helping the Sun Devils make their push into the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
He averaged 9.9 points in 2023 and facilitated consistently, ranking in the Pac-12's top 5 in assists for most of the season, finishing sixth with 4.3 per game. After last season, Collins declared for the NBA Draft while keeping his college eligibility before announcing a return to Tempe a few weeks later.
Despite the Sun Devils' disappointing 2024 season and their omission from this year's NCAA Tournament, Collins elevated his game while finding more comfort in his role as a leader. This season, he increased his points per game to 13.3 and earned All-Defensive and Honorable Mention All-Pac-12 nods. He finished the season eighth in the country in total steals at 84 and sixth in the country in steals per game, at 2.62.
After the Sun Devils' loss to Utah in the Pac-12 tournament, Collins displayed leadership by attempting to take accountability and saying he "didn't do a good job of getting my teammates prepared and getting them ready to play."
"It's tough to lose like that," Collins said after the game.
With Collins' exit pending, head coach Bobby Hurley continues to see his lineup that opened the season dwindle one by one. This trend started with graduate student guard Jose Perez's abrupt in-season exit to join Plaza Valerio in the Dominican Republic.
Hurley also talked about revamping his roster after the Sun Devils Pac-12 tournament exit in preparation for entering the rigid league of the Big 12.
"It's for men," Hurley said. "Grown ass men."
Now, Hurley will be rebuilding from the ground up, as this major loss comes with the price of losing his most vocal leader and one of the best two-way players on the team.
Edited by Alysa Horton, Walker Smith and Shane Brennan
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