Nobody’s saying it isn’t big this time, but the “rivalry” thing can be a little misleading sometimes when Arizona and ASU play basketball.
They already meet at least twice a year and, as both of their coaches have made clear, there are lots of other big games to play.
What’s more, Thursday’s Arizona-ASU game will be an instate rivalry game ... with almost nobody who’s actually from the state of Arizona expected to play in it.
Except one guy, that is. The one guy who, in this college basketball era of roster turnover and fragile loyalties, wanted to be a Sun Devil more than anything.
Kodi Justice committed to ASU after his freshman year at Mesa Dobson High School back in 2011, and has remained solidly committed since then.
“Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always been at ASU games, football and basketball. I was always around ASU,” said Justice, the Sun Devils’ third-leading scorer as a senior this season. “So it was kind of like a dream for me to be able to stay home and be in front of friends and family. When I was offered (a scholarship)...I knew it was where I wanted to go and I committed the next day.”
It’s also where he never left. Even after Justice spent one year in the program playing point guard under Herb Sendek, then watched Bobby Hurley take over in the spring of 2015.
Justice also stuck it out last season when Hurley needed his 6-foot-5-inch, 190-pound body at “power forward,” facing guys such as 7-footer Lauri Markkanen. And Justice opted to stay again last spring, when he could have left for a bigger role elsewhere via the grad transfer route because he had already picked up a degree in sociology.
So the status report for Justice over the years has been this: No “Top 5” or “Top 10” prospective school lists on Twitter, no teases about transferring, no drama whatsoever.
Just a Sun Devil uniform.
“I was definitely planning to stay and see the outcome of this team,” Justice said. “I was one those guys who was going to help change this program around, and with coach (Bobby) Hurley letting us play the way we want, just playing hard and playing together, leaving was never an option.
“It was always about being able to turn the program around.”
That happened this season. ASU went undefeated in nonconference play, beating Kansas and Xavier, and rising as high as No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll.
Justice was one of those guys, inspiring the “Guard U” hype with Tra Holder, Remy Martin and Shannon Evans while forward Romello White made sure opponents couldn’t forget about the inside, either.
ASU was undefeated until losing at Arizona 84-78 on Dec. 30 at McKale
“I think if they were able to beat us, they would have been the No. 1-ranked team in the nation,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “I think because of their experience with Evans, Holder and Justice, those guys are contagious.
“They believe in themselves and you can tell that Bobby Hurley has done a really good job of instilling that confidence in them. They believe in themselves and they should.”
For Justice, that belief grew out of the one time where he wasn’t exactly sure where he stood as a Sun Devil. Having broken his foot midway through his freshman season of 2014-15, Justice was still in the middle of rehabilitation when Sendek was fired and replaced by Hurley in the spring of 2015.
It didn’t take long for Justice to realize he was still in the right place, however.
“I wasn’t able to work out for the entire summer, and everyone else was getting in time with him,” Justice said of Hurley. “But he came to me and said, ‘I’ve seen enough film and I know you’re good enough, and you’re going to be able to help. So get healthy and don’t worry about anything.’
“As soon as he told me that, I told him I was good. I wanted to get back on the court to show him and everybody who I was. So me and him working together, I feel like I couldn’t ask for anything else in a coach, to be able to help me be a better player, more consistent, better person and better leader.”
Even though Hurley is known for the same sort of intensity he showed during his playing days at Duke — the ASU coach even joked this week that UA fans should love him because he’s “such a low-key guy” — Justice said his coach is pretty easygoing off the floor.
That’s helped bonding and confidence, too, Justice says.
“Coach is really laid-back; he likes to joke around and have fun,” Justice said. “We’ll go to his house, have dinner, shoot pool and stuff. But he’s a competitor.
“Like Sean Miller, it’s hard for ex-players as coaches not to have that competitive fire and that’s what everyone sees. Off the court, he’s a fun guy to be around and it’s fun to see both sides of it.”
At his pregame news conference Tuesday, Hurley said he’s actually trying to “take the emotional piece” out of his preparation because he said his players will already be over the top in their energy and enthusiasm for Thursday’s game.
Maybe for nobody more so than Justice. Not only is it a Top 25 showdown, but for Justice, the game will be last chance to play against Arizona at Wells Fargo, and the third-to-last home game of his career.
It’s the kind of game why he chose ASU, and why he stayed there.
“It means a lot to be able to play in front of friends and family members and all of that,” Justice said. “It definitely has more meaning to be a local kid.”
