It wasn’t the smoothest ride, but Bobby Hurley can finally celebrate after beating Arizona for the first time as ASU basketball’s coach.
If someone counted the facial expressions Bobby Hurley manifests during Arizona State basketball games, the number would likely exceed double digits.
After the Sun Devils’ 95-88 overtime win over Arizona – its first in seven tries under Hurley – Remy Martin and Zylan Cheatham discussed just that. Specifically, a moment in the second half where the ball deflected at Hurley’s face, causing the fourth-year coach to fall against the scorer’s table and argue with officials like he got fouled.
“He’s a warrior,” Martin said. “You see, he bounced right back up. He’s amazing.”
Little did we know the extent of Hurley’s intensity.
“You guys should’ve seen him earlier,” Cheatham said. “Oh, my God.”
“It would make you want to play today,” Martin added.
Wait, what?
“I don’t know if we should say what he did,” Cheatham said.
No, please do.
“Alright, so, he’s a lunatic. He’s crazy. He brought us in pre-shootaround, and we’re all confused because we always watch film before we go to shootaround. We’re on the court, and we’re like, ‘What are we doing? We’re not dressed, what’s going on?’
“He makes us read each game, from the moment he got here, each ASU-U of A matchup and read the score. And (for) every point differential, he ran a line for each point.”
Woah.
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Following some calculations, that number of strides is as absurd as it seemed – 92. That includes ASU’s 38-point loss on Feb. 17, 2016 – Hurley’s infamous first road matchup against the ‘Cats.
The reason behind the sprints?
“The suffering is over,” Cheatham said. “He’s going to suffer one more time, and he’s going to go through what he has went through in these last couple years (one last time). And he said, ‘it stops tonight.’”
That it did.
While Hurley didn’t comment about his baseline-to-baseline escapade, he did voice his condition when Thursday’s game was over.
“I’m exhausted, to be honest,” he said.
And why wouldn’t he be? He doesn’t like to lose, as his faces and mannerisms indicate, much less lose six straight times against a rival. For the 47-year-old, the Arizona win was long overdue.
Before the game began, it became his best chance to win it. The Wildcats didn’t have a top-20 program or a prospect capable of making NBA scouts drool. And its top current assets – Chase Jeter and Brandon Williams – were playing hobbled and sitting out entirely.
Meanwhile, ASU was fully healthy, sporting arguably its most talented team of this century. The Sun Devils were 5.5 point home favorites, and conversations about taking the ‘over’ grew faster than money could count.
But with seven minutes remaining, it looked like ASU – and Hurley – were blowing it. A corner 3-pointer from Ryan Luther extended Arizona’s largest lead to six in a game, theoretically, they had no business being in. The following thought grew:
‘If Sean Miller can beat Hurley with these conditions, will Hurley ever be able to beat him?’
Yet like his pregame track session, Hurley’s competitive fire wouldn’t let suffering persist. He switched Cheatham on Arizona’s Justin Coleman, taking away Arizona’s success with post entry passes and offensive rebounds. He left the game in the hands of his veterans – Martin and Cheatham – who did their part in erasing the deficit and building a seven-point advantage in the first 2:52 of overtime.
And after exorcising the demons of 92 reasons why ASU couldn’t get over the hump, Hurley finally took a stroll out of Wells Fargo Arena with something he hadn’t been in three years associated with the rivalry – a winner.
So, were all those lines worth it? It appears so. But more than the sweat, weary legs or rivalry win, his players understand his dedication.
“He makes you want to go to war for him,” Cheatham said. “He pushes you to the limit. He makes you feel like you’re capable of more than you are. Like I said, we just try to come out and do our jobs.”
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.