Bobby Hurley expected to return as ASU basketball coach in 2025-26

Bobby Hurley is expected to return to coach the Arizona State men’s basketball team next season, a source tells Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro.

Hurley’s contract runs through next season after he agreed to a two-year contract extension in March 2023. Gambadoro does not expect ASU to extend Hurley heading into 2025-26.

ASU (13-18) went 4-16 in its first Big 12 regular season, with only Colorado finishing worse. The Sun Devils enter the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday with a 4 p.m. matchup against Kansas State on ESPN 620 AM and Arizona Sports 98.7 HD-2.

In 10 years on the job, Hurley is second for the Sun Devils in all-time program wins with a 168-148 record. Hurley passed his predecessor, Herb Sendek, with a win over Cal Poly on Nov. 20.

The Sun Devils’ struggles in conference play this season came after a respectable 9-2 run in the nonconference schedule. Injuries played a big factor in the dip once conference play arrived, but the Sun Devils also battled issues with turnovers and defense throughout the year.

The season reached a tipping point when ASU saw four ejections from senior leaders over less than a month’s time, with BJ Freeman and Adam Miller garnering two apiece. Freeman found himself dismissed from the team by the time the dust had settled.

Hurley’s strength was recruiting, where ASU will now be left with question marks. Will he be able to retain his players after he pulled in a top-10 recruiting class for 2024?

Freshman phenom Jayden Quaintance, who made All-Freshman and All-Defensive teams in the Big 12, has to play another season before entering the NBA Draft. Four-star guard Joson Sanon was likely unable to play himself into one-and-done territory, struggling through Big 12 play after an astonishing shooting display in the nonconference schedule (50.9% on five attempts per game).

There are also productive freshmen Amier Ali and Trevor Best, the latter of whom joined the team in January and is likely tied to Quaintance, as the two were high school teammates.

ASU is still in the running to land Gilbert Perry High School forward Koa Peat, a top-10 prospect in the 2025 recruiting class. He has ASU among five finalists that also include Arizona, Houston, Baylor and Texas.

Bobby Hurley’s ASU basketball tenure before his 1st season in the Big 12

Entering the Big 12 Tournament, which ASU begins Tuesday against Kansas State (4 p.m.), Hurley has four 20-win seasons in his decade-long run.

He is responsible for three of ASU’s 14 NCAA tournament appearances (eight since Ned Wulk’s departure in 1982), and he likely would’ve had a fourth if the 2020 tournament hadn’t been canceled due to COVID.

Hurley has never made it to the Round of 32, which the program last reached in 2009 under Sendek and star James Harden.

Hurley arrived at Arizona State in 2015 after two years at Buffalo, where he led the Bulls to an NCAA Tournament appearance out of the MAC in his second season.

He brought with him sharpshooting guard Shannon Evans II, who joined with Tra Holder and Kodi Justice to form a lethal trio. In its third season together, the trio earned the “Guard U” moniker following a 12-0 start to the 2017-18 season, garnering a No. 3 AP ranking that was the highest ASU has seen since 1980-81.

The 2018-19 season would give Hurley his only instance of consecutive tournament appearances, led by Lu Dort, Remy Martin and Zylan Cheatham. Martin and fellow key holdover Rob Edwards were unable to capture the same success the following season, and Martin would leave for Kansas (where he won a national championship) after leading the Pac-12 in scoring in 2020-21.

High-profile freshmen Josh Christopher and Marcus Bagley were expected to lead the Sun Devils through 2020-21, but both missed about half the season with injuries. Bagley would play 17 games in three seasons.

That 2020-21 season would see ASU stumble to a losing record. The Sun Devils had two sub-.500 seasons over the next three years.

A bright spot of Hurley’s decade on the job was a 2022-23 team featuring brothers Desmond and Devan Cambridge, as well as DJ Horne, Jamiya Neal and Warren Washington. ASU won two games in the Pac-12 Tournament to earn a spot in the First Four in Dayton, where it blew out Nevada to make the Round of 64.

It then lost on a buzzer-beater to TCU. That season also included an early departure from 13.5 point-per-game scorer Jose Perez just as ASU was nearing the end of its season.

Kevin Zimmerman and Damon Allred contributed to this story.

Related

Bobby Hurley focused on present after Arizona State's disappointing regular seasonArizona's Love makes All-Big 12, ASU's Quaintance on All-Defensive teamBig 12 Tournament bracket: Houston knocks off Arizona in hard-fought finalCourt rulings grant NCAA athletes from high school class of 2022 another year of eligibilityASU basketball to open Acrisure Series against LSU during Thanksgiving weekASU men’s basketball to face Oklahoma in Tulsa neutral-court matchup