ASU’s crying tourney kid was more than an average Sun Devil fan

Mar 15, 2018, 10:31 AM

A post shared by Busted College (@bustedcollege) on Mar 14, 2018 at 8:48pm PDT

Last year, it took a few rounds and upstart Northwestern’s loss to Gonzaga for a Wildcats fan to let his emotions roll down his cheeks. This year, it only took until the second day of the tournament — before the round of 64 even began — to find a new NCAA Tournament crying kid.

And he was more than just a casual Arizona State fan.

It turns out the young fan wearing a Sun Devils jersey and caught on truTV’s cameras in the waning moments of ASU’s 60-56 loss to the Syracuse Orange on Wednesday was the son of an athletic trainer for the team.

After the game, ASU’s digital media team grabbed a picture of the young boy, Jacob, hugging Arizona State guard Kodi Justice back at the team hotel.

The young Sun Devil fan who appeared emotional at end of tonight's broadcast is Jacob, the son of our athletic trainer. Jacob has been friends with Kodi for the past four years. Jacob gave each of our student-athletes a hug as they returned to the hotel tonight. pic.twitter.com/hOTNeWrnUR

— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) March 15, 2018

Sun Devil fans certainly share Jacob’s emotions.

Arizona State took major steps forward in 2017-18 but will lose their senior guard trio of Justice, Tra Holder and Shannon Evans.

With Jacob’s emotions in mind, head coach Bobby Hurley released a statement to Sun Devils fans on Thursday thanking them for the special season, looking ahead to the future and expressing his love for the outgoing ASU players.