ASU basketball coach Hurley feels 'free' despite lack of contract extension

Seen and heard from Day 2 of Big 12 basketball media day 2025 at the T-Mobile Center.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Asked how he would try to boost morale after finishing in last place in the Big 12 last season, ASU coach Bobby Hurley started with a gentle correction.

“Well, I think we were second to last,” he said. “But you’re close anyway.”

That much was true. The Sun Devils finished 15th at 4-16 while going 13-20 overall during their first run through the conference.

There were reasons, Hurley said.

“We were 9-2 and trending toward the NCAA Tournament but the bottom obviously fell out in Big 12 play,” Hurley said. “Making sure we stay healthy would be our No. 1 priority. We lost a number of our key players to significant injury time last year, so had some rough luck there. But overall, we’ve got to win some closer games.”

Among the key injuries were a blown-out knee to five-star freshman Jayden Quaintance and ankle issues that limited well-regarded freshman guard Joson Sanon, who was once a UA commit.

Then both of those players left after the season, along with just about everyone else, and ASU declined to extend Hurley’s contract, which is scheduled to expire at the end of the season.

So now what?

Hurley said he looked to build a deeper roster so the Sun Devils could withstand injuries but, without significant NIL funds to play in what he called an “expensive” transfer market, came through instead with seven international players.

Hurley has spent the fall coaching them up and, he says, not worrying much about his future.

“I just feel free,” Hurley said. “I don’t know if that makes sense or not, because usually someone in my position might be, I would imagine, very nervous or stressed or whatever. I just feel like I can go into the gym and coach my guys the way I want to coach them.

“I don’t have a kid that I need to make happy for next year. I can coach very freely, open minded and try to be myself. I want to enjoy this year as best I can and just do what I’ve done every year. I’ve gone all-in every year, and this is going to be no different based on what we did last season or my contract situation for next year.”

U19 reunion

Wednesday’s Big 12 men’s basketball media day was a reunion of sorts for several figures in the FIBA U19 World Cup last July in Switzerland.

Not only did UA’s Tommy Lloyd coach USA Basketball’s entry into that event, a team that included UA’s Koa Peat and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, but also Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland was a USA assistant — who had to coach against his own Red Raiders point guard, German guard Christian Anderson, in the finals.

“It was horrible,” McCasland said of having to face Anderson. “It was funny though when they won the U18 Euro championship (in 2024 to qualify for the 2025 World Cup), I FaceTimed him. He literally had the medal around his neck and I thought we were gonna just have a friendly conversation because I hadn’t coached him yet and the first thing he said to me was ‘We’re gonna beat you guys next time.’ “

The Germans didn’t quite do that. Anderson helped lead Germany into the gold-medal game, when he collected 18 points and nine assists against the Americans, but six USA players scored in double figures en route to the USA’s 109-76 romp. Peat had 12 points and nine rebounds while Dybantsa had 11 points and six rebounds.

Metal hoarder

The gold medal was actually the fourth Peat has won from FIBA competition, including the U19 and U17 World Cups, as well as World Cup qualifiers in the Americas U18 and U16 tournaments.

Asked where he stuffs them all, Peat grinned.

“They’re back in Chandler,” he said. “I’ve got them on display in my living room.”

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He’s baaack (and maybe again)

Not only is former Arizona guard Kerr Kriisa playing his sixth college basketball season, for Cincinnati this time, but he has a slight hope for a seventh season, considering the NCAA’s relaxed eligibility standards these days.

Kriisa’s case stems from now-obsolete NCAA rules that kept him out most of his freshman season in 2020-21 at Arizona because he had made an arrangement with a pro club in Lithuania.

“That was unfair toward me, and it wasn’t even, like, a deal,” Kriisa said.

Already, Kriisa received an extra year of eligibility for playing in 2020-21, as did all players who competed in that COVID-disrupted season, and another year because he suffered a season-ending injury early last season that qualified him for an injury redshirt.

That makes him a sixth-year senior this season, which he says doesn’t seem crazy to him.

“No, it’s freaking awesome,” Kriisa said. “It’s like my freshman year — the excitement is the same, I’m more experienced than I was then and in better shape than I was then.”

Old school

After his team struggled in a closed scrimmage despite the presence of highly touted freshman center Chris Cenac, Houston coach Kelvin Sampson complained about those who were focused on the new rather than the old.

That is, those who focus on incoming college basketball standouts such as Cenac, Dybantsa and Kansas’ Darryn Peterson — instead of realizing that veterans such as Houston guards Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp are, Sampson says, the ones who can put teams in a position to win.

“I should start throwing around old guys’ names just to screw with you journalists,” Sampson said. “Has anybody heard of Hal Grant? How about Wally Jones? Luke Jackson, Will Chamberlain, Billy Cunningham (of late 1960s Sixers teams)?

“You guys never heard of them but you’ve heard of Chris Cenac and Darryn Peterson and AJ Dybantsa. Those guys aren’t nearly as good as those other guys.”

Showtime

While the core of the Big 12 media days was about interviews with the league’s head coaches and key players across all platforms, the conference threw in some glitz.

Players were invited to enter T-Mobile Center along the “Big 12 Arrival Walk,” a black carpeted strip that the conference said would allow “players and coaches to showcase their style and personal brand.”

There was also a “Sports Illustrated Swim Beauty Bar” for women’s media day that allowed players and coaches to stop in for hair and makeup touchups, though it appeared empty much of the time during the event.

School mascots also made their presence known throughout the media days, shooting free throws while accompanying their teams to interviews and sometimes even sitting in on them.

The big number

6: Big 12 teams ranked among the top 20 teams in the Associated Press Top 25 poll: Houston (2), BYU (8), Texas Tech (10), Arizona (13), Iowa State (16) and Kansas (19).

Quotable

“I don’t even know what a great recruiter is today because of NIL. It’s almost like if you’ve got the most money, you can get this or that. Maybe we are old-fashioned.” — Sampson, speaking of his program’s focus on roster continuity.