Tag: Bobby Hurley

Pac-12 men’s basketball report: Arizona State and Bobby Hurley continue downward spiral

It has been a miserable season for USC. It’s the same for Bobby Hurley and ASU down in Tempe.

The USC Trojans are enduring a difficult men’s basketball season. So are the Arizona State Sun Devils and coach Bobby Hurley. ASU’s season unraveled last week in blowout losses at Oregon and Oregon State. The Sun Devils could not bounce back on Thursday night in the Pac-12, losing to Stanford due to a late-game implosion.

Arizona State led 60-54 with 7:10 left in regulation and then scored just two points in the final seven minutes of play. Stanford produced a 17-2 run to beat the Sun Devils, 71-62. Arizona State is 11-10 and fully eliminated from the chase for an at-large NCAA Tournament berth. ASU will need to win the Pac-12 Tournament to make March Madness. It’s a bitterly disappointing result for a team which made the NCAA Tournament a year ago and won a First Four game before nearly upsetting TCU in the first round.

Bobby Hurley has done well to get ASU to multiple NCAA Tournaments, but it’s hard to ignore that ASU’s best seasons under Hurley have not produced anything more than a double-digit NCAA Tournament seed as a bubble team. ASU has won First Four games under Hurley but never a Round of 64 game in March. ASU will miss the NCAAs (barring a Pac-12 Tournament title) for the fourth time in the past five seasons.

Elsewhere in the Pac-12 on Thursday, Arizona blew out Cal in Tucson. UCLA fended off Oregon State in Westwood. Arizona’s win, coupled with Oregon’s win at USC, puts the Wildcats and Ducks at 7-3 in the league, one game ahead of three teams which are 6-4 in the conference.

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Pac-12 men’s basketball report: Arizona State blows 15-point lead at home to UCLA

In most years, losing to UCLA wouldn’t hurt a team’s NCAA Tournament resume. This is not most years. Ouch, ASU!

Normally, a win over UCLA men’s basketball carries great value, and a loss doesn’t carry that much of a sting. UCLA was a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament last year, a No. 4 seed the year before in 2022. Beating the Bruins usually elevates a resume by several degrees, and losing to UCLA doesn’t hurt one’s overall profile. Not this year!

The Bruins entered Wednesday night with a 7-10 record. They are a below-average team — some might say “bad” — and have already eliminated themselves from contention for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The only way UCLA gets in is if it wins four games in four days to capture the Pac-12 Tournament championship in March. That’s the same path for USC. It’s the only path for the Los Angeles schools, which have both had disastrous seasons.

Beating UCLA isn’t expected in most seasons, but it certainly was for Arizona State on Wednesday at home in Tempe.

Then the game started. ASU built a 13-point halftime lead and led by 15 early in the second half. Given how profoundly UCLA has struggled to score this season, that should have been game, set, match, Sun Devils. ASU plays good defense under Bobby Hurley and should have no problem locking down a bad offensive team.

The Sun Devils couldn’t do it. They lost their composure and let this game slip away in a 68-66 loss.

How bad was ASU’s late collapse? The Sun Devils committed two technical fouls in the final four minutes of regulation. Yes, the whistles were dubious and better officials would not have called those technical fouls. However, ASU — baited by UCLA — took the bait instead of showing discipline. The technical foul calls were bad, but Arizona State still did not maintain poise and composure.

The loss is a very damaging blow to Arizona State’s attempt to get an NCAA Tournament berth. ASU did not do well in nonconference games. The Sun Devils have wins over Utah and Colorado but not much else. Their seven losses include stumbles against San Diego and Washington. They are in trouble.

USC faces the Sun Devils next on the weekend in Tempe.

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Bobby Hurley era at Arizona State could end after brutal loss to Colorado

It’s more likely that Hurley will seek an open job instead of being fired, but just the same, it’s harder to see him at ASU in 2024.

A month ago, it seemed likely that Arizona State would be in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, which would have given Bobby Hurley every reason in the world to stay in Tempe and build a Sweet 16-level program. Hurley had been doing good work in December and January, getting a less-than-fully-talented team to buy in at the defensive end of the floor and grind out stops in the final minutes of games. ASU has made lots of comebacks this season — at Oregon State, at Colorado, at Stanford, versus Creighton in Las Vegas, and on other occasions. ASU had shown more toughness than in previous seasons. Maybe this was the positive turning point in Hurley’s tenure in Tempe.

Nope.

ASU barely beat Cal this past Saturday after losing at home to Oregon a week earlier. Was that a blip on the radar screen, or an indication the Sun Devils are losing steam?

We got our answer on Thursday against Colorado. ASU ran out of gas in a brutal bubble-harming loss, as Buffaloes Wire noted:

“Colorado ended the game on a 17-3 run aided by a pair of Javon Ruffin 3s and 11 of Tristan da Silva’s game-high 23 points. KJ Simpson also chipped in 12 on the night and fellow starter Luke O’Brien nearly had a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds,” wrote Buffs Wire’s Jack Carlough.

We noted earlier in February that college basketball insiders are speculating about Hurley’s future. The St. John’s and Georgetown jobs are likely to come open soon. Hurley could seek one of those jobs or another opening in the East. ASU probably won’t fire him — Hurley has made a few NCAA Tournaments at the school, and that will probably still buy him another year if he wants to stay.

However, why would he want to stay if there are other, better options? Does Hurley really want to stick it out in Tempe? It certainly can’t be fun to relive the same patterns over and over again, with Hurley’s Sun Devil offense bogging down late in games and late in seasons.

Hopping to a new job would give both Hurley and ASU a fresh start.

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Speculation swirls around Bobby Hurley as Arizona State fades away in 2023

Coaching carousel speculation is already in high gear. Bobby Hurley might want the St. John’s or Georgetown jobs.

Arizona State is an NIT team right now, and the Sun Devils’ path to the NCAA Tournament is narrowing. The Sun Devils will definitely need to beat either UCLA or Arizona in the coming weeks, and they will probably need to grab at least one other high-value win while avoiding bad losses. ASU doesn’t have much breathing room in the pursuit of an NCAA bid. If the Sun Devils miss out, coach Bobby Hurley might think about a change of scenery.

(h/t Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated)

“Hurley is in a unique spot,” Sweeney wrote. “He could realistically be fired or extended, or leave for another job this coming offseason. Conventional wisdom was that Hurley cooled his seat with a 6–1 start in Pac-12 play, but since then Arizona State has lost five of six to fall to the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble. It’s an all-too-familiar script for the Sun Devils under Hurley, who’ve often gotten out to hot starts before fading late.

“ASU’s résumé is still in decent shape, so sneaking into the Big Dance is well within the realm of possibility. But should he fall short, it’d be hard to justify an extension with his contract set to expire in 2024. And regardless of whether he saves his job in Tempe this spring, don’t be surprised if Hurley tries to get involved with jobs back East.”

Those jobs: St. John’s and Georgetown. St. John’s could fire coach Mike Anderson. Georgetown and Patrick Ewing are almost certain to get a divorce at the end of the season. This will be a fascinating set of plot points to monitor.

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USC’s attention turns to Arizona State in crucial bubble game for Trojans

USC didn’t measure up against Arizona. Now the Trojans have to quickly reset, turn the page, and prepare for Arizona State’s tenacious defense in a critical game.

The USC Trojans were hammered by Arizona on Thursday in Tucson. To be honest, when Arizona got pounded by Oregon last Saturday, the Trojans’ chances of winning in the Old Pueblo went way down. It was highly unlikely Arizona would play terribly two straight games. It was also very unlikely Arizona would play poorly at home after a recent slump in which it lost to Washington State by 13 in the McKale Center. Arizona was bound to play better. It did. USC had no shot.

The game the Trojans realistically can win in the state of Arizona this week is the game which is next for them on Saturday evening in Tempe.

Arizona State is a good team. It has lost only four times this season. Coach Bobby Hurley has gotten his Sun Devils to play strong, consistent defense. Arizona State has been a comeback artist, erasing a 15-point deficit to win on the road at Colorado and coming from 16 points down to win at Oregon State one week ago.

However, ASU ran into the ultimate comeback king in the Pac-12, the UCLA Bruins, on Thursday. UCLA trailed late in the second half against Washington State on December 30 and won. It trailed late against USC and won. It trailed by nine points midway through the second half last Saturday against Colorado and won. UCLA and ASU were both very good at making comebacks in the first half of January.

Thursday night, the Bruins had the answers down the stretch. They trailed 55-50 with 9:20 left and then allowed just seven points the rest of the way, en route to a 74-62 win over the Sun Devils.

USC fans don’t enjoy seeing UCLA succeed, but in truth, the outcome isn’t a bad one for the Trojans. They would like to be the non-Arizona Pac-12 team which beats UCLA first. ASU is now 0-2 against Arizona and UCLA. If the Trojans can beat Arizona State on Saturday, they would make up some (not all) ground on the Sun Devils in the attempt to become the third NCAA Tournament team from the Pac-12, with UCLA and Arizona being the two obvious locks from the conference. If the Trojans finish with a better resume than Arizona State, their odds of making the NCAA Tournament would go way up.

It’s time for the Trojans to make a statement. We’ll see if they can speak forcefully against Bobby Hurley on Saturday in Tempe.

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