Hurley: ASU men’s basketball has earned its national attention

TEMPE, Ariz. — Bobby Hurley isn’t trying to shield the Arizona State men’s basketball team from the increased attention it is receiving as the nation’s No. 5 ranked team.

“I think they’ve earned it,” Hurley said Wednesday after practice at ASU’s Weatherup Center. “They weren’t anointed prior to the season with anything. They’ve had to earn all the credit they’ve been given, every win, so I want them to enjoy it; appreciate the success.”

Hurley’s words will have to serve as a guide for everyone in the Sun Devil community. Nobody in these parts has any clue how to handle such a situation. The Sun Devils haven’t been ranked among the top five in nearly 37 years.

Arizona State (9-0) is one of just six unbeaten teams in the nation as it prepares for its final three nonconference games against Vanderbilt, Longwood and Pacific.

“I feel like we’re doing a good job with it and we’re having fun with it as well,” said guard Shannon Evans, who was named Pac-12 Player of the Week. “Guys are active, talking on social media. At the same time, we’re also still putting the work in when the cameras are not there. We’re in the gym at night time, getting better, working out with ourselves, working out with each other, trying to find ways to get better, having individual film sessions.

“We feel like what we did [to get from No.] 16 to [No.] 5 isn’t going to get us from 5 to 1 and at the end of the day, we want to be 1 so there’s more steps we’ve got to take to be No. 1.”

Sun Devils leading scorer Tra Holder said he is largely unaware of the national hype because he doesn’t see or hear it.

“I’m a humble guy,” he said. “I don’t have social media outside of Instagram which I don’t have on my phone. I don’t pay too much attention to it because as fast as it comes, it can go as well.”

Hurley admitted he had no idea that success would come so quickly for ASU.

“I knew we had the balance with our inside game, which we just lacked last year. I knew the success was going to be better,” he said. “You just don’t expect necessarily when you look at a schedule to run the table up to this point and beat the type of teams we’ve beaten.”

At the same time, Hurley and the players all noted they haven’t accomplished anything more than a hot start — one that will be tested when they hit Pac-12 play, starting with a Dec. 30 game against Arizona at McKale Center in Tucson.

While some college basketball analysts have suggested Hurley is a year ahead of schedule in building this program, he shrugged off that notion, both because of its nebulous nature and because the season is still so young.

“There are teams in the Pac-12 that are considered below us because their record isn’t what ours is but they have every opportunity once we get to Pac-12 to be the team that people had a vision for them being,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work before we can even determine whether we’re ahead of schedule or not.”

Hurley said the Sun Devils are not straying for what got them here.

“These guys are still very hungry, very motivated and that’s every indication I’m getting from what I see being around them and in practice,” he said.

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