In a surprise move, Arizona State has opted to retain Bobby Hurley as their men's basketball head coach, per a report from John Gambadoro.
Hurley was widely expected to be dismissed, and we had reported earlier that the school had begun exploring the financial implications of moving on from him. Hurley, who just concluded his 10th season as the Arizona State head coach, has a 168-149 career record in Tempe and has posted losing seasons in four of the past five seasons.
Hurley was hired back in 2015 with much fanfare. He had just brought the Buffalo Bulls to the NCAA Tournament in his second season as the head coach. That success, combined with his high profile as a former star player at Duke, had many believing he could elevate the Sun Devils to new heights.
Early on, it looked like that might happen. After two challenging first years, Arizona State reached the Big Dance as a First Four team. The next year, they made the tournament again. Finising 20-11 the next season, Arizona State was widely expected to make it three consecutive March Madness berths before the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.
That kicked off a vicious downward spiral, with Hurley topping 15 wins just once. That was the 2022-23 season, where the Sun Devils made it back to the NCAA Tournament as a First Four team, winning one game before being eliminated by TCU.
That season offered hope that Hurley may have turned things around again, but it was followed up with a dismal 14-18 finish in the program's final year in the Pac 12. As they moved to the Big 12, the best conference in college basketball, Hurley - who has always been heralded for his recruiting ability - stepped it up a notch.
He added two 5-star freshman in Jayden Quaintance and Joson Sanon and also brought in 4-star transfers BJ Freeman and Alston Mason. After starting 9-2 in non-conference, with wins over Saint Mary's and New Mexico, it looked as if Hurley was ready for the Big 12.
Conference play proved to be a buzzsaw, though. The Sun Devils won just four games, the fewest conference wins in Hurley's career; two of those wins came against Colorado, a former Pac 12 foe and the only team to finish lower than Arizona State in the Big 12 this year.
The struggles this season weren't just about wins and losses, though. The Sun Devils saw a rash of injuries, but also suffered from undisciplined players getting ejected and suspended. Freeman, who had emerged as the team's top scorer, wound up getting dismissed from the team in February for disciplinary reasons.
All of this led many to assume Hurley was definitely out after the year. His contract having just one year remaining brought up a clear decision point for new athletics director Graham Rossini, but the financial impact of firing Hurley at a time when the university is actively pursuing a renovation plan for the basketball arena, on top of pumping more money into football, made things difficult.
Rossini's decision to fire Natasha Adair, the women's basketball head coach, after a similarly trying season offered a bit of a hint to the decision making process. Adair's buyout - believed to be around $1.5 million - is a fraction of Hurley's buyout and, together with the cost of hiring Adair's replacement, it will likely equal the cost to fire Hurley this year.
By opting to retain Hurley - and possibly give him a one-year extension with a reduced buyout - Rossini has made the unpopular but financially sound decision. He gives Hurley one more shot at turning things around, especially after the growing pains of moving to the Big 12, while also making it more affordable to move on a year from now.
On top of those considerations, we can also report that Hurley experienced a bit of a groundswell of support from basketball booster in recent weeks. The reason for this was largely motivated by the belief that Hurley's return would also see the return of both Quaintance and Sanon, as well as the Sun Devils' other stellar freshman Amier Ali.
Hurley has also had Arizona State firmly in the mix for local product and 5-star Koa Peat, the eighth-ranked prospect in the nation. If Hurley can, in fact, land Peat while bringing back Quaintance, Sanon, and Ali - along with some transfer players to beef up the rotation - then Arizona State should have plenty of talent going into next year.
Of course, they had plenty of talent this year as well, and it didn't do them much good. But Hurley's ability to convince prominent boosters of his plan and continued viability as head coach was ultimately the turning point for Rossini, it seems.
Now, all that's left to do is see if Hurley can actually follow through on all the promises he made to earn one more year in Tempe.