Two tournament hopefuls in a rocking pit-venue. Are we sure this is October and not March?

In a exhibition bout that had a little bit of everything, the Sun Devils were able to leave Albuquerque with a hard-fought victory, topping the Lobos 91-86.

Now just a week from the season opener, how is new ASU head basketball coach Randy Bennett and the Sun Devils feeling?

Here is everything they had to say postgame:

ASU HC Randy Bennett:

Having The Chance To Play Against a Team and In a Atmosphere like New Mexico:

It was great for us, and I think it's great for them too. But it's hard to get to play a good team in a exhibition, and ours happened to be on the road, so that was even better for us. That's why we did it. We want to get ready for next one counts. I wish this one counted, all good. We got to play our guys a little bit. Although I wanted to play some of our bench more, but they're well coached and they have things they have to work on. We have things we have to work on, and we know those things better now after we played a good team like that, so it helps us."

Shooting, Not Size, Being the Main Factor and Where the Big Men Go From Here:

"We just play offensively. We're going to play the guys we think can score, (they) take most of our shots, and that's the way it should be. And then defensively, I don't think the size helped us. We got outplayed at the five, so I don't think the size helped us, and it needs to help us, or we need to go a different route. And I think they'll step up, and that's what they heard in the locker room: we lost the boards, and that can't happen."

Big Games From Murauskas and Shaw, former Gaels. How Big Is It To Have Leaders Like That Late Into Games?

"Now you know do you know why we brought them,"

"It's big. It's important. We have a team, we have a lot of other good players, (but) these guys, they know exactly what I want. They played for us on a good team and played big roles last year. So the trust is there, both ways. They know I believe in them, and I know they'll come through."

ASU F Paulius Murauskas

Experience Play In The Pit, vs. The Lobos:

"It was our like main goal to play in this kind of environment to see where we are as a team, how tight our huddles are, how we can keep like our composure and play for all 40 minutes. I think we did a good job four about 32 minutes, and then the last eight we kind of just didn't share the ball. Especially, we played bad in defense in transition, and it kind of got loud, so we just needed to stay together."

Murauskas' Hot Shooting From Three (31 PTs, 7-10 3PTs):

"You have to figure out ways how to score. New Mexico, they gives a lot of threes up. They did a really good job in the post. Kind of played a strange defense, like jumping and sending everyone baseline and going to a sort of trap. Their weaknesses, they give a lot of threes ups, so I need to figure out how how I can score, and today was this way, but maybe another day it's gonna be zero threes, maybe free throws, rebounds. Whoever knows, you just have to figure out the ways how how the team will be."

Changes and Fixes For The Nov. 2 Season Opener:

"Defense, and rebounding also. We were minus one on the boards, and we want to be a real good rebounding team. So, practice hard and just be good, good defensively. We need to do a better job there."

ASU F Dillan Shaw

Experience Play In The Pit, vs. The Lobos:

"It was great, honestly. It was like our first time ever experiencing this with the live crowd, so I would say it was a great way for our team to get out there and just play someone at their place, and that was a crazy home advantage, I would say, because it gets loud in there. But I would say it was a great experience for us to see where we are, where we stand, and then we just got to close out the game better than what we did. So it was a great experience."

Shaw's Takeover (22 PTs, 5 Threes):

"It's just the nature of the game. I feel like anybody on our team can get high at any certain moment. We're just in the right spot at the right time. So I would just say we do a good job of swinging the ball, swinging the ball around, and getting us open shots."

Changes and Fixes For The Nov. 2 Season Opener:

"Being good in both halves, we did pretty well in the first half. We kind of stepped off of the gas, I would say, in the second half. But just being consistent through both halves, closing out and being better. Those are the two base keys"

ASU will now focus on their next opponent: East Tennessee State, opening their season at home against ETSU on Nov. 2