by Craig Morgan, www.thesundevils.comThank you Sun Devil nation for your incredible support all season long. pic.twitter.com/QRDXdXxgLb
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) March 3, 2018
Sun Devil men's basketball coach Bobby Hurley took a break from his camp (grades 1-12) for some adult time with local media at Wells Fargo Arena on June 20. Hurley provided some context to last season's unexpected NCAA Tournament berth, as well as some thoughts on his 2018-19 roster and the upcoming season. Here is a selection of quotes from that 35-minute media session.
How are you using last season's success to propel the program forward?
"That's kind of the standard. We set the tone with what we want to do, how we want to compete, year in and year out, to put ourselves in a position to play in the postseason, play in the NCAA Tournament. I think the experience of that was very valuable, again, to set the tone and for younger guys in the program to gain that experience. Hopefully, it will pay dividends. We have the new crop of guys coming in and they saw what happened last year. That's the challenge, to stay hungry, to stay motivated, to want to break new ground. If we're not hungry and getting better as a program and pushing to advance ourselves then someone is going to be ready to knock us down. Last year, we were under the radar, especially initially. Now we're not anymore. The secret is out. We have good players, we had a great season last year. We've got to make sure we're ready to do it again."
Nov. 6 mark it down OPENING NIGHT when we host 2018 Big West Tournament Champion Cal State Fullerton to open the 2018-19 season https://t.co/FhQuSFppx4 @ASU @ASU_Alumni @Pac12Network @SunDevilTix @sundevilclub pic.twitter.com/G1l3tnR5T1
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) June 18, 2018
On paper, is this your most talented team?
"I looked at it like this was going to be the year maybe before last season. I had a pretty good suspicion that we would exceed expectations from what people thought for last year, but really deep down, I thought this was the year in terms of having the size on the front court and then having a high-level recruiting class. It's been anywhere from [No.] 7 to [No.] 10 in a lot of publications, where our recruiting class has shaken out for 2018, but then you add Rob Edwards and Zylan Cheatham to that class, that has made it a lot stronger. We lose three guys that were critical to what we did (Tra Holder, Shannon Evans, Kodi Justice), very critical players to what we're building here but we're replacing them with six guys that I think are very capable."
What do you think of your schedule?
Hurley: "We're very close to wrapping it up. We're still one game short right now and we're working on that, but again, it's very challenging. Just to play true road games versus two SEC opponents (Georgia and Vanderbilt) and to have a neutral site game against a projected top 10 team in Nevada and Mississippi State and then you have Kansas coming here. It's a lot of exciting things for sure."
How much will this team's size alter what you can do?
Hurley: "I try to get the best players on the floor as much as possible. As it turned out last year, four of those guys were 6-4 or under when you add Remy [Martin] to the seniors. The way our roster is constructed and built this year, we're going to be bigger, even at the guard positions. Luguentz Dort is 6-4, 215. Rob Edwards is 6-4, 200. Those are big guards and then we have real good size at the wing positions with Mickey Mitchell, Kimani Lawrence, Zylan Cheatham has been outstanding in the offseason. We're just going to have more options, more depth in the front court. I don't have one, set way that I force my players to play. It's determined by your roster and what that looks, the make-up and how everyone mixes and then we'll come up with the best way that we need to play this season."
How much will having bigger guards alter what you can do?
Hurley: "I'm not going to have to talk as much about rebounding as much as I've talked about it the last couple of years. Every day I've just had to ingrain and to compensate for the size, to get these guys to think about rebounding all the time. Just having more size, guys that can go get the basketball, I think we're going to be a much better rebounding team. We're not going to be like we were last year. We're not going to have to rely as much on the 3-point line. I do feel like we have guys that can make that shot but we have some other guys that do things that this past year's team couldn't do. For what we might give up in some areas, I think we're going to gain in others."
Given your background and what you have done here, do you prefer sticking with four guards as much as possible?
Hurley: "When I first started the four-guard thing I hadn't done it yet so I was kind of nervous about how it would all work out. I had played multi-guards at Buffalo but never four. I learned how to adapt and play that way. It's not necessarily even how I played my second year at Buffalo when we had a more traditional front court with two guards and we would throw the ball inside and we would have balance on offense. I don't have one, set way that I force my players to play. It's determined by your roster and what that looks like, the make-up and how everyone mixes and then we'll come up with the best way that we need to play this season. This year's roster just gives me a ton of options to play a lot of different ways. I could see scenarios that there's five guys out there that are 6-7 or bigger, which I've never had."
How different will Remy Martin's role be as a starting point guard?
Hurley: "Remy gained my trust right away last year; didn't play like a freshman. He's ready for it. He's been working hard. I think he knows. It's pretty clear that when you lose three guys that are very important at his position. We have some talented guys in the backcourt but Remy's a guy that I know is going to run the team and do a great job."
How much will 7-foot-1 Serbian center Uros Plavsic alter what you can do?
Hurley: "We're excited about him. "There aren't too many guys that have his skill set that are 7 feet that can move. I'm not the type of coach that would necessarily love a plodding 7-footer. He's got great footwork and he can change ends. He's mobile, so he fits into how we would like to play, but there's not a ton of pressure on him because we have experienced front-court guys and depth in the front court so he's going to progress at his pace. I'll have a better feel for him as I start watching but he's got great upside." Where does Romello White need to improve?
Hurley: "I'd like to see him face up a little more, be able to extend his range. He's a got a decent shooting touch and he needs to be consistent about developing that. His free throw shooting has got to improve and he's just got to take a bigger step. He's going to have more responsibility now that we need to replace a significant amount of scoring. Like any player that's going from freshman to sophomore year, you just hope that they advance their game. I don't want to make excuses but he fought through some stuff. He had a toe [injury] that we were managing, different things that you have going on during the course of the year. For younger players, you may not be at the level you were at during other times. The length of the season gets you and the level of competition certainly has something to do with it." Give the make-up of your roster, have you made a more concerted effort to go after international student-athletes?
Hurley: "It fits our school. Our school is a melting pot. We have students from all over the world. It's not a bad option for a kid to want to come to Arizona State with everything the school has to offer. Luguentz is another guy, a Canadian. That's a great country now for recruiting talent. We hope to do a great job with Lu and that might spearhead other guys wanting to come to Arizona State."
Is your biggest challenge figuring out the rotations and the starting five?
Hurley: "There's going to be a lot of responsibility on my part to manage that and figure out what the best combinations are. There's going to be a lot of competition in practice which I think is going to elevate things and make us better. The biggest thing that changed last year was the practices were so much better. The transfers that were sitting out, our second unit challenged the first unit every day and that put us in a position to play better basketball when the season started and I think we'll have a similar effect this year with the depth, the talent we have." With the NBA Draft this week, what do you remember about your own draft experience?
Hurley: "I never felt like the season ended. After my college season, I was back in the gym getting ready for workouts. I did a ton of travel to a lot of teams; what a lot of these prospects are going through. I remember the day before the draft and the day of the draft, I wanted to put myself in a bubble just to make sure nothing happened to me. I did go for a run. I like to do that. Other than that, I don't think I left my hotel room the day of the draft to make sure that my name was going to get called last night. I think I bought a tie in the mall two days before to go with the suit I wore. Everyone's more fashion oriented these days. "Unfortunately for me, I'm a Jersey guy, a New York guy, and the draft was in Michigan the year I was selected. It was in Auburn Hills and we had just beaten the Fab Five three straight times so when my name was called it was a chorus of boos. They didn't like Duke very much in Michigan. It was a great experience and I talk to all our players about it, and recruits, just the feeling of going up to shake the commissioner's hand, seventh pick. It's an unbelievable feeling – changes your life."
What do you make of Tra Holder's, Shannon Evans' and Kodi Justice's pro prospects?25 years ago, @BobbyHurley11 was selected seventh overall in the #NBADraft! pic.twitter.com/6MM75DtagJ
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) June 21, 2018
Hurley: "I think teams will recognize how competitive those guys are, how good they are off the dribble, creating. I think that's what the NBA has become, a league where you need to be able to beat your man and make a play. All three of those guys can do that and I think they will all have a chance to help an NBA team at a certain point. They're going to fight for it because they did for me every time we played." How will the planned renovations of Wells Fargo Arena impact your program?
Hurley: "It's going to be a major plus just to modernize the facility. We're ecstatic about the commitment from Ray Anderson, Dave Cohen and our administration to make that a priority, to get Wells Fargo updated. It's major thing with kids, just seeing where they are going to play, what it looks like and if it's at the standards that your competitors are at." Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter