Arizona State basketball fans are very familiar with the 942 Crew and their world-famous "Curtain of Distraction." If you're not aware of this very important part of Sun Devil lore, we'll give you a quick rundown.
At Desert Financial Arena on ASU's Tempe campus, there are 942 seats at the West end of the court. Those are reserved for ASU students only and, in 2012, borne of that factoid was the name "942 Crew." The student-led organization has a reputation for being very boisterous and in 2013, it came up with the idea for the curtain.
During the second half of home basketball games, ASU's opponents will attempt to score on the basket in front of the student section. Whenever a foul is committed and free throws awarded at that end, the 942 Crew will bring out one or two curtains on either side of the hoop. When the free throw taker receives the ball from the referee, the curtain is whipped back to reveal some sort of costumed bit or skit that is designed to distract the player and subsequently force them to miss.
In recent years, due to its growing popularity, more than just students have participated in the curtain. The most notable cameos include Olympic champion Michael Phelps, actor Charlie Day and Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Archie Bradley.
Pablo Torre and Mina Kimes offer distractions for the 942 Crew's Curtain
Wednesday, former ESPN contributor Pablo Torre released a clip of his podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out where he spoke with two members of the 942 Crew's Executive Board and associate athletic director for student engagement Bill Kennedy.
Torre and his former ESPN colleague Mina Kimes participated in the 942 Crew's "writers room," pitching ideas for how the students could best distract free throw takers during the team's Feb. 18 game against Houston.
Their idea: Print out giant pictures of Houston's players aged up 40 years by artificial intelligence.
.@SunDevilHoops infamous Curtain of Distraction agreed to give us the unprecedented honor of joining their writers' room.
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) March 12, 2025
So, with a little help from @minakimes, we made a giant mask of the opposing free-throw shooter's face and aged it 50 years. 😂
More with the @942Crew:… pic.twitter.com/seLZqNVJQA
To their credit, the 942 Crew actually used Torre and Kimes' idea. They printed out the faces and with 47 second remaining, sent out two students dressed as Marty McFly and Doc Brown from Back to the Future carrying the face and shouting as the free throws were taken.
Unfortunately, both shots were made but historically, the curtain has been proven to be rather effective. In 2019, ESPN reported that there was a one-to-three point swing directly attributed to missed free throws in the second half by ASU opponents.
The curtain hasn't been particularly effective over the last couple seasons, however. ASU finished the 2024-25 season with a 13-18 regular season record and lost in the first round of the Big 12 Conference Tournament on Tuesday to Kansas State.