Sun Devils’ season ends with a lopsided loss to Iowa State in Big 12 Tournament
Just four days ago, on the road no less, Arizona State was hanging with Iowa State for 24 minutes, even leading at halftime. But after committing 23 turnovers, Iowa State dramatically flipped the script, winning by 21 points.
That is a script that ASU (17-16, 7-11 Big 12) would have gladly welcomed today.
The Cyclones’ 29-point lead tied for the largest at halftime in a Big 12 tournament contest, but the writing was on the wall much before the halftime buzzer as the Sun Devils only scored the 10th point of the game with 8:48 left in the period, and ultimately, their season ended with 91-42 loss, the largest margin of victory in Big 12 Tournament history.
Needless to say, the bigger storyline of this defeat is the expected decision by Arizona State to inform head coach Bobby Hurley that his contract, which runs until June 30th of this year, will not be extended, officially ending his era in Tempe.
“It’s been a long road,” Hurley described. “It’s been a special time. I have two of my kids who have graduated from ASU. I’ve had the opportunity to coach some fantastic young men and have had some terrific moments over the years. It’s a great university. Great administration.
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen because I don’t know. I haven’t spoken directly about my future next year to this point. But I don’t have any regrets. I laid it out on the line to the best that I could every night. So, I told the guys I did, and I know they did it for each other this year, and I did it until the last buzzer sounded.”
There are plenty of stats to point to that would illustrate Arizona State’s struggles today, and one of the more prominent ones, which fully exemplifies the suffocating defense Iowa State employed (limiting ASU to 32% shooting) was the Sun Devils’ Moe Odum who averaged over 17 points coming into this morning and scored 2 points on 1-6 shooting, an uncharacteristic performance by one of the best players Tempe has seen this century.
“It was multiple things that were super fun during the season,” Odum reflected. Getting some upset wins, spending time with each other in Hawaii (Maui Tournament included), even going through the losing streak and bouncing back as a team when we could have given up.
“What I learned in my four years of playing basketball is the basketball game is never over until it’s zeros on the clock. You’ve got to have a strong mental attitude for seven, eight months. Your mental got to be as strong as you can be because it will get rocky. It will get hard, and to be honest, nobody is coming to save you. So, you’ve got to figure that out on your own. I learned a lot of life lessons in college.”
It may not be the narrative that most Sun Devil fans would want to hear at this moment after a one-sided defeat, but this was an ASU team that had all but one player return from last year’s squad. It wasn’t an enviable task to recruit and land over a dozen players from the transfer portal for a team that was coming off back-to-back losing seasons, with a head coach whose future beyond this campaign, even back in the preseason, was still unknown.
This is why ASU was picked last in the Big 12 Media preseason poll, and to their credit, they defied expectations.
“It was a pleasure to coach these guys, and they cared,” Hurley commented. “They played their hearts out for me every game. They showed up to practice with a good attitude, worked hard, and cared about each other. Those are the things that, as a coach, you have tremendous appreciation for.
“The guys that we put together were a lot of underdog-type guys. They fought for each other all year. We had the 10th hardest schedule in college basketball this year, and for us to have a winning record, I think these guys should be proud of that, considering just how good this league is and some of the things we’re able to do in a non-conference.”
