ESPN’s Jeff Borzello: Bobby Hurley’s job at ASU among those ‘that could open up’

The Arizona State men’s basketball program has been up against it this year.

Two years removed from ASU’s last NCAA Tournament berth, head coach Bobby Hurley’s team is currently staring down a 4-12 Big 12 record heading into a hosting of No. 25 BYU on Wednesday night.

Because of that record, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello lists ASU as one of nine college hoops jobs that could open up after the season.

ASU finds itself in a fitting modern conundrum: pay nearly $3.5 million to fire Bobby Hurley or invest that money into basketball. Hurley is the second-winningest coach in program history and has made the second-most NCAA appearances with three trips in 10 seasons. (It would have been four had the tournament been held in 2020.)

Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini has said publicly that reaching the NCAA tournament is an “expectation” for the program, a “minimum requirement” and “not a goal.” He also pointed to the onus on the greater organization for helping to accomplish that mandate.

Only the Colorado Buffaloes (2-15) sit behind the Sun Devils in the standings. As of Tuesday, landing an NCAA Tournament berth in 2025 seems like a pipedream — even though ASU’s NET rating actually is still carrying a NET rating of 60th.

The Sun Devils, who are coming off a 66-54 win over Kansas State, just snapped a six-game losing streak.

They’ve got BYU, Utah, Arizona and No. 10 Texas Tech left on the regular season schedule before the Big 12 Tournament.

ASU’s Bobby Hurley not the only coach on the hot seat

The other eight teams on Borzello’s list of jobs that could open are:

– Georgia Bulldogs (Mike White)
– Iowa Hawkeyes (Fran McCaffery)
– Minnesota Golden Gophers (Ben Johnson)
– Oklahoma Sooners (Porter Moser)
– Texas Longhorns (Rodney Terry)
– UCF Knights (Johnny Dawkins)
– Villanova Wildcats (Kyle Neptune)
– North Carolina Tar Heels* (Hubert Davis)

The list dropped on Tuesday before it was reported that the Tar Heels are extending head coach Hubert Davis.

Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd a name to watch

Aside from looking at the job that could open up, Borzello also dove into nine high-profile candidates to watch — one of them being Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd.

Lloyd is a West Coast guy who is content at Arizona and has led the Wildcats to a pair of Pac-12 regular-season championships and a pair of Sweet 16 appearances. But it wouldn’t be a surprise if Villanova, Texas or a potential domino opening such as UCLA reached out to gauge his interest.

While Arizona has lost three of his last four games, the Wildcats are still one of the toughest outs in the Big 12 behind a 12-4 record that ties them with Texas Tech in second place. The only team ahead the Wildcats is Houston, who beat the Wildcats on Feb. 15, at 16-1.

Arizona wrapped up the regular season against Utah, No. 9 Iowa State, ASU and Kansas.

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