COACH BOBBY HURLEY NOTES AND HIGHLIGHTS
NCAA TOURNAMENTS
ASU has made three NCAA Tournaments under Coach Hurley in his eight chances after making it three times in the previous 22 seasons (1996-2017). ASU would have made the 2020 NCAA Tournament for the third straight time -- which would have been the first time since the early 1960s for ASU -- but COVID canceled the NCAA Tournament. Here is a breakdown of where the program was after five years when COVID hit.
VS. OOC RANKED TEAMS
Bobby Hurley has six wins vs. ranked non-conference foes in the regular season in his nine ASU seasons. In the 37 years prior, the Sun Devils had six. Included in those wins are victories at No. 2 Kansas and vs. No. 15 Xavier in Las Vegas in 2017, and both those teams were eventual No. 1 seeds.
20-WIN SEASONS
ASU has four 20-win seasons, in its past seven years, after having 20 wins just nine times in the previous 35 seasons. It posted 23 wins in 2022-23 for just the second time in 28 seasons.
PLAYING SOME TEAMS ON THE ROAD
ASU is 10-6 in non-conference road games in his nine seasons, with wins at SMU, Creighton (twice), Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Princeton, Georgia, Kansas, San Diego State, UNLV. The Sun Devils were 9-21 in its previous 30 out-of-conference road trips prior to his arrival.
2022-23
--ASU won 23 tilts in 2023, reaching the mark for the first time since 2009 (25 wins led by James Harden) and for just the second time in the previous 28 seasons.
--Prior to 2009, you have to go back to Bill Frieder's 1995 squad that won 24 games to find more wins than the 2023 Sun Devils. Also, it wasn't an easy 23, as it included 13 wins away from home, seven true road wins and a 6-2 mark on neutral floors.
--Cruised to a victory over Nevada in the NCAA Tournament First Four, defeating the Wolfpack 98-73. ASU went on to nearly knock of No. 6 seed TCU in the opening round, falling 72-70 on a layup at the buzzer.
--Led the program to only its third appearance in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals. ASU earned victories over No. 11 Oregon State and No. 3 USC in Las Vegas.
--Picked up a signature win on the road, defeating No. 7 Arizona in the McKale Center in early March.
--On Jan. 19, 2023 in the matchup with UCLA, a student attendance record was set, as 5,213 students witnessed the battle for first place in the Pac-12.
--Continued its solid play in close game games, going 11-5 in games decided by six points or less.
--Held its opponents to just .399 shooting from the field, the third-best mark in the league and 15th in the nation. It was also tied for the second-best mark in school history, one year after posting what is now the fourth-best.
--Swept two road Pac-12 series (Oregon and the Bay Area), the first time ASU has swept the Bay schools since 2019-20. It is just the third time since joining the conference and the first since the 1980-81 season that Arizona State swept two road series in the same season.
--ASU's seven total road wins were second in the Pac-12, more than Arizona, Utah and Oregon, and its six Pac-12 road wins were second-best in the league.
2021-22
--Won seven of their final eight regular season games and posted season sweeps of Oregon and Utah.
--Allowed opponents to shoot only 40 percent from the field. This was the lowest mark since the 1971-72 season and third-best defensive effort in program history.
--Added another signature win to his resume when the Sun Devils defeated No. 3 UCLA in triple overtime. It was the third time ASU had defeated a top-three team under Coach Hurley.
--Went on the road and defeated eventual NCAA Tournament participant Creighton.
2020-21
--Kimani Lawrence posted 21 points and 20 rebounds on Feb. 25 vs. Washington, the first 20/20 outing by a Sun Devil since Nov. 19, 1997, when Mike Batiste had 36/20 vs. Wagner, while the 21 rebounds is second-best by a Sun Devil in a Pac-12 game.
--Coach Hurley became just the fourth Sun Devil coach to notch 100 ASU wins when ASU beat Oregon State on Feb. 14.
--ASU led the league in turnover margin (+4.2), while Remy Martin became the sixth Sun Devil (seven times) to lead the Pac-12 in scoring with his 19.3 points per game mark.
2019-20
--Won 20 games for the third straight season for just the third time in school history and posted a seven-game Pac-12 win streak in February, the program's longest since it won 11 straight in 1980-81.
--Team's 11-7 record marked just the second time it posted back-to-back winning seasons in Pac-12 play in the past 25 years.
--Led the league in steals (249/8.03 per game), turnover margin (+3.19) and turnovers forced (16.42).
--Averaged 9,251 fans on the, sixth on the all-time Sun Devil list.
--Defeated two ranked teams at home (No. 22 Arizona on Jan. 25 and No. 14 Oregon on Feb. 20), as the Sun Devils came back from 22 down (37-15) to beat the Wildcats.
Our Shining Moments.
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) March 18, 2020
No one we’d rather share them with than our #SunDevilFamily. ???? pic.twitter.com/hltDeP4MpC
2018-19
--Finished 23-11 and 12-6 in the Pac-12, good enough for second in the league after being picked sixth in the preseason media poll.
--Defeated No. 1 Kansas on Dec. 22, the first win over No. 1 at home in program history and the second all-time (also won at Oregon State in March of 1981).
--Notched its first NCAA Tournament win since 2009 with a 74-65 victory over St. John's on March 20 in Dayton.
--Posted 23 wins for just the eighth time in school history, and was a resilient bunch, as it was 9-1 after a loss, losing two straight just once.
--Prior to its past two appearances under Bobby Hurley, ASU had made the NCAA Tournament three times in the previous 22 seasons (1996-2017).
--Had been to four NCAA Tournaments (1995, 2003, 2009 and 2014) in 26 seasons (1992-2017), yet five Sun Devils who saw the floor in the 2019 NCAA Tournament – Remy Martin, Romello White, Vitaliy Shibel, Kimani Lawrence and De'Quon Lake – played in the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two seasons…had not made March Madness in back-to-back years since 1980-81, as four years after hiring Bobby Hurley, ASU is the only Pac-12 school to make the NCAAs the last two seasons.
--Defeated five teams that would play in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, as it beat Mississippi State, Utah State, Kansas, Oregon and Washington.
--5-4 Pac-12 road mark, just ASU's sixth winning road record since it joined the Pac-10 in 1978-79.
--Won 12 loop games for just the sixth time.
--This year 168,602 entered "The Bank" -- the nickname student broadcaster Braiden Bell tagged Wells Fargo Arena last year -- an average of 10,538, second-best in school history.
--ASU had two-game sweeps of Arizona (first since 2008-09), Oregon State (first since 2009-10) and Cal (second straight).
--Started 7-0 for the second time in the past 38 seasons -- but for the second year in a row. ASU had not been 7-0 since 1980-81 (Byron Scott and Fat Lever) but has done it in the past two seasons.
--Beat No. 15 Mississippi State on Nov. 19 and Utah State on Nov. 21 to win the 2018 MGM Resorts Main Event at T-Mobile Arena
2017-18
--Finished 20-12 overall and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014 and just fourth time in past 23 seasons.
--Averaged 10,603 fans, topping the previous school record of 9,514 set in 1995-96.
--Was the last undefeated team in nation as it reached 12-0 before falling to Arizona 84-78 on Dec. 30.
--Beat eventual No. 1 seeds Xavier and Kansas along with Kansas State in its non-conference action and went 5-2 against NCAA Tournament teams, also topping UCLA and San Diego State.
--Dec. 10 win at No. 2 Kansas marked the highest out of conference ranked opponent the Sun Devils have defeated. Kansas also marked ASU's first road win over a ranked team since James Harden led ASU to a win at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 17, 2009.
--12-game win streak is second-best in school history.
2016-17
--Swept Washington for the first time since 2002-03 and swept Stanford for first time since 2009-10.
--Also beat Stanford for a third time in the Pac-12 Tournament, ASU's third Pac-12 Tournament first-round win in 15 seasons since tournament was brought back in 2002.
--Team set school records for three-pointers made (328) and attempted (896).
--Shot .749 from the free throw line (489-of-653) third-best mark in school history and best mark since team joined the Pac-10 in 1978-79.
2015-16
--Notched eight top-100 RPI wins which was as many or more than 12 NCAA at-large teams
--Beat SEC co-champion Texas A&M (RPI 18), Southland Conference champion Stephen Austin (61), OVC top seed Belmont (95), UCSB (98) and Creighton (100), while in conference play it won vs. Oregon State (33), USC (51), and Stanford (87)
--Finished 23rd for its strength of schedule including a No. 13 ranking for its out-of-conference schedule.
--Faced six top-100 teams in its non-conference schedule and only three teams ranked lower than 150