ASU’s Hurley: Similar losses ‘getting a little old’ to diagnose

TEMPE — Saturday wasn’t the first time Bobby Hurley entered a postgame press conference with little explanation for why ASU men’s basketball had lost, this time an 81-72 loss to rival Arizona.

“When you look at the stat sheet, virtually the same field goals made from both teams. The big difference was 21 out of 22 from the foul line and 10 of 14 on our end. You lose a game by nine and you get out shot by 11, there you go,” Hurley said postgame. “Otherwise, it’s really hard to find a lot separating the two teams.”

The coach was maybe the most frustrated he had been all season after the game came to a head with an altercation late, where ASU guard BJ Freeman headbutted Caleb Love and both were ejected. Earlier in the game, Hurley had ripped off his tie after he was assessed a technical foul.

After the altercation, Hurley sent his players to the locker room early and decided against a handshake line before saying postgame Arizona won “with no class.”

It was the seventh conference loss for ASU (12-9, 3-7), and four of the last five have come by single digits. The Sun Devils have been competitive in games but have consistently come up just short for some of the same reasons: free throw shooting and turnovers being the biggest ones.

ASU was well on its way to its first game with fewer than 10 turnovers this season. It had just four in the first half but the Sun Devils struggled in the second half, with five over a 3:30 stretch as Arizona’s press defense forced back-to-back turnovers.

“I don’t want to have to diagnose every time why we lose. Eventually, you gotta do the things necessary to win, it’s just getting a little old to walk in there after the game and explain why we just lost,” Hurley said. “Part of it was that stretch where we were up five and turned the ball over twice, they got a dunk off one and they got a lot of life out of those couple of possessions.

“You can’t do that. You have a team down, we had a really good start to the second half and we built a lead. Then we give the ball away a couple times, so it wasn’t great.”

“I’m bad with press offense design, I guess,” Hurley said shortly when asked why the press became an issue.

Senior guard Adam Miller, who hadn’t practiced in recent days due to illness, had a different take on why the Sun Devils couldn’t weather the storm.

“It wasn’t tough, we made it tough on ourselves,” Miller said postgame. “I turned it over once, Joson turned it over once. We made it tough on ourselves, that was it, literally. I was a step slow, and I should’ve just dribbled through it.”

The Sun Devils were also outrebounded 52-38, with a -14 margin that’s the worst they’ve had since -19 against Florida in December.

a frustrated bobby hurley breaks down what he saw as uncalled moving screens from arizona, leading to an 18-11 result on the offensive glass pic.twitter.com/ifeBfExvYk

— Damon Allred (@iamdamonallred) February 1, 2025

Miller said a players-only meeting will come on Sunday in response to the loss. He emphasized a desire to play knowing everyone’s a part of a bigger picture with fewer players “trying to be Superman.”