Despite recent skid, Bobby Hurley feels confident in his ASU team
Feb 7, 2018, 7:13 AM
Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley yells out instructions as his team plays Stanford during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018, in Stanford, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
It’s gut-check time for Bobby Hurley and his Arizona State Sun Devils.
They have failed to sweep a pair of games in Pac-12 play all season, and are 5-6 in conference play.
Once the country’s last unbeaten, they now lie in the bottom half of the conference standings as the key portion of the season begins.
If it continues to go wrong for ASU, they could be on their way to a historic slide out of the NCAA Tournament field after being ranked No. 3 in the country at the end of 2017.
Related: Up-and-down ASU could test NCAA Tournament selection committee
Despite that present storyline for the team, Hurley doesn’t sound all that worried.
“I just like the fight that our guys have shown,” he said on the Pac-12’s teleconference call Tuesday. “We’ve been in every game. We’ve had chances to win every game we’ve been in.”
The good news for Hurley is that five of his team’s seven remaining games are at home. The bad news is that the first three games are against USC, UCLA and Arizona, three of the top-four teams in the conference.
The games come at a time when his team desperately needs to grasp some real momentum to get back to where they once were, but there is no sense of that desperation from Hurley.
“There’s still a lot of basketball left to be played in the conference and I like where we’re projected still in terms of firmly being looked upon on our entire body of work as an NCAA Tournament team,” he said.
The Sun Devils take on the Trojans at 9 p.m. on Thursday on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station and the Bruins at 5 p.m. on Saturday on ESPN 620 AM.
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