ASU coach Hurley: It’s my job to coach with passion, fire

Arizona State University hoops coach Bobby Hurley did not cautiously dip his toe into the water that was the Territorial Cup rivalry.

No, the first-year Sun Devils coach dove right in, with his team playing a competitive game but faltering late, and the coach picking up a pair of technical fouls before being ejected with less than a minute to go.

“I thought we played well in the beginning stages of the game and were able to get a nine-point lead, and then we struggled for five or six minutes on offense and really allowed them to jump back into the game,” Hurley told Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Wednesday morning. “And then they have the experience, the guys like (Gabe) York in the second half, hit some big shots to really get them the cushion that they needed.

“I liked the fact that we fought and continued to pursue them and got ourselves within striking distance late in the game, but we just couldn’t make enough plays down the stretch.”

The 94-82 loss to then-No. 8 Arizona dropped the Sun Devils to 10-4 on the season, with a 0-1 mark in the Pac-12. While disappointing, it was a solid performance that gave more evidence that Hurley has the program heading in the right direction.

However, while the fact that ASU built a nine-point first-half lead, had the game’s high scorer in guard Tra Holder (24 points), or rallied back from a 15-point deficit late in the second half to get within six, most of the talk following the game was of Hurley and his ejection, which was courtesy of referee John Higgins.

The coach was visibly emotional and fired up at the time, as he was upset over a handful of calls, including a blocking foul against Holder, who was defending York as the latter player dribbled up the court. On the way off the floor, Hurley implored the crowd to get loud in their angst toward the officials. It was a side of the coach no one had seen yet.

Hurley said his wife and daughters were supportive of him, adding he received a number of phone calls from people who were close to him who stood by him and how he handled the ending of the Pac-12 opener.

“So that helped because it was tough after that game,” he said. “It was a heated game — it means a lot to a lot of people, and you just don’t like to see it end that way.”

Asked if he was baited into the argument by the officials, Hurley said he cannot directly talk about what transpired but noted there are a lot of things “that I would love to say and get off my chest.”

However, one thing he did say was he did not go into the scenario hoping to get ejected. Instead, he was contesting what was happening late in the game.

Hurley, who has picked up four technical fouls this season, said there are times when his emotions can get more heated due to his players not playing well and he can direct some of his frustration toward the referees, adding it was something that happened early in his career and did seem to inspire his players to play harder and better.

That was not necessarily the goal Sunday, though, and while his handling of the situation may have earned him a lot of fans in maroon and gold, the fear would be that it may have cost him some in the black and white stripes.

And with Pac-12 play just beginning, that could be problematic for a team whose margin for error does not appear to be rather large.

“I’m going to treat each game as its own and I’m going to coach passionately and with a lot of enthusiasm and it means a lot and my kids put a lot of work in — they work their butts off, like every school does, I’m sure, and the investment they make is unbelievable,” Hurley said. “So it’s my job to coach with passion, coach with fire, and that’s my personality when I coach so I’m going to be aware of things that are going on but I’m going to be myself and coach the best game that I can coach each time I’m out there.”

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