Hurley: Sun Devils in ‘tough stretch’ but ‘not making any excuses’

The Arizona State Sun Devils will be welcomed home after struggling through a three-game road trip with a 9 p.m. tip-off Wednesday versus the University of Washington Huskies.

This season has not been kind to the 9-11 Sun Devils, but their coach Bobby Hurley believes that part of his team’s struggles can be attributed to an unfortunate draw in the scheduling department.

“It’s been a tough stretch for us and I’m not making any excuses, but we’ve played five of our first seven conference games on the road,” he said on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM‘s Doug and Wolf on Wednesday. “And it’s hard to project who’s gonna be good and who’s not, but we’ve played a lot of the heavy hitters in the league on the road consecutively.”

The Sun Devils recent road trip saw them play University of Arizona, UCLA and USC in a span of 10 days. These teams currently hold a combined 54-8 record.

Arizona State has played five teams that are currently ranked in No. 4 Kentucky, No. 7 Arizona, No. 8 UCLA, No. 16 Creighton, and No. 20 Purdue. The Stanford University Cardinal is the only other Pac-12 team that can say the same.

Although Hurley was pleased with in his team’s effort Sunday, with ASU narrowly losing 82-79 “on the road against one of the best teams in the country” in USC, it was yet another loss away from Wells Fargo Arena for the Devils, something that is far too common to ASU this season.

While they have gone 6-3 and outscored their opponents by 10 points per game in Tempe, the Sun Devils have gone 3-8 while getting outscored by 12.5 points per game on the road.

Hurley said the Devils got in about 2 a.m. Monday and despite the quick turnaround, Hurley believes that he has his team ready to face the 9-10 Huskies.

“We managed our guys physically – I think – well,” he said. “On Monday we watched film. We had more of a mental day. And then yesterday we got ready for Washington and had a good practice, so I think we’re in a pretty good frame of mind.”