Part 2
On Thursday, April 9, 2015, Bobby Hurley was announced as Sendek’s replacement, all of the pundits including Doug Haller at the Arizona Republic and USA Today suggested the Sun Devil Basketball Program “was not a complete rebuilding job.”
Haller said, “The Sun Devils are expected to return four starters from Herb’s 18-16 team” that won a game in the NIT. Sophomore Forward Savon Goodman and Freshman Guard Tra Holder “finished with All-Conference” type ability according to USA Today and the Republic. Coach Hurley also inherited emerging sophomore shooting guard Kodi Justice.
In Coach Hurley’s first game, Arizona State was upset at home by Sacramento State 66-63. His first incarnation of Guard U shot 2-17 from beyond the arc (11 percent). The erratic guard play sank Coach Hurley’s coming out party. 6’10” 240-pound senior center Eric Jacobson was 4-5 from the floor and 4-6 from the free throw line finishing with a workman-like 12 points.
6’4” Guard Gerry Blakes for Arizona State shot 6-9 inside of the arc, but 0-4 outside and Hurley never adjusted the style of play. ASU shot 55 percent from inside and 11 percent from three-point range. Doesn’t this sound familiar over the last two Sun Devil campaigns?
So instead of attacking the rim and moving the ball to the middle against Sacramento State, “Guard U” was busy running around dribbling and defaulting to bad shots. Savon Goodman, a star by all accounts, came off the bench and was 3-4 from the floor while adding 9 boards. ASU’s two strong interior players only got off 10 total shots in the defeat (Romello White could probably say something about this, but he was a Junior in High School at the time).
In fact, in 2015-2016 Junior forward Savon Goodman, barely 6’6,” was forced to play in the middle by Bobby Hurley. It was Bobby’s inclination to let his guards run wild. It was “Guard U” for the Sun Devil faithful and Hurley decreased playing time for his efficient senior, big man Eric Jacobsen, in favor of the smaller line-up. Savon Goodman struggled and left the program after the season.
In year one at Arizona State, Hurley’s Sun Devils scored eight top-100 RPI wins. ASU defeated Texas A&M, Belmont, Oregon State and USC. They also had two solid come from behind victories against Creighton 79-77 and UNLV 66-56. Notice his kids have naturally risen to the occasion over the past four years.
But when it’s time to grind out wins, what happens on the sideline? Furthermore, why does Sun Devil Basketball fall apart then have to rally back quite often over the years? “Come from behind” statistics are fantastic, but what’s the root flaw in the system allowing his teams to get behind?
Ultimately in Hurley’s first year Arizona State was 5-13 in the Pac-12 Conference and went from an NIT run under Sendek to a 15-18 record in Hurley’s first year. Arizona State was 190th on Offense and 232nd in Defensive Efficiency. To put the drop in efficiency into perspective, ASU fell 27 spots on offense and 118 on defense from one year prior. Ray Anderson had said Coach Hurley was an elite coach, then why the drop?
The first true glimpse of Jekyll or Hyde Sun Devil Basketball emerged in Hurley’s first season, 2015-2016. Arizona State shot 20 percent from three-point range against Kentucky while adding 17 turnovers. The Sun Devils were down by 1 point at Halftime and ended up losing 72-58. Kentucky had eight blocked shots in some very erratic second half play by ASU.
So between turnovers, rejections, steals and missed three-point shots, Kentucky was handed 40 or so opportunities by the undisciplined performance of the Sun Devils, and ASU was still in the game. Bobby Hurley failed to make critical adjustments down the stretch. Sound familiar?
Sun Devil Basketball went 2-8 in their first ten Pac-12 Conference games. Coach Hurley lost twice to Arizona by a total of 50 points…193-143. In one game late in the Pac-12 Conference schedule, ASU was blown out by Utah 81-46. In that game, Hurley’s offensive game plan produced 10 points in the first 20 minutes of play. Inconsistent offense, horrible defense.
Didn’t Hurley and Anderson expect to establish competitiveness against the Pac-12’s best? To date, Arizona State is 4-10 against Utah and Arizona, both perennial post-season tournament teams and top collegiate programs.
Now, 2016-2017 was not any better. In Bobby’s second year, Defensive Efficiency Ratings again dropped drastically as Arizona State’s guards were playing longer minutes while firing up more 3-point shots. The Sun Devil Defensive Rating was 336th out of 351 NCAA teams coughing up an atrocious 81.7 points per game (222 spots lower than Sendek’s 2014-2015 Squad).
Only 15 other teams in NCAA Basketball were less interested in playing defense than Bobby Hurley’s Sun Devils in year two.
ASU launched 896 three-point shots connecting on 328 of them. All of the “moneyball” statistical nerds agree on one thing, if you are going to shoot a ton of 3 point shots, you better have four guys who can clean the glass. Bobby Hurley’s “Guard U” was out-rebounded by 235 boards and opposing teams had 121 more assists than ASU. This was Hurley’s best Sun Devil 3-point shooting percentage by the way (.366) but look at the end result?
Now, in Herb Sendek’s second to last season the Sun Devils shot .390 percent from long range to put that into perspective. In 2013-2014 Arizona State was 268-688 from 3-point range. That season ASU was far more disciplined, let the game come to them and finished 21-12 (.64%) as compared to 15-18 in 2016-2017 (.45%).
Sun Devil Shannon Evans (Photo- Sun Devil Athletics)
Sendek’s 2013-2014 Sun Devils had 66 more assists and 97 more rebounds than Coach Hurley’s 2016-2017 squad. In 2013-2014 Arizona State was 59th in defensive efficiency to match the sharpshooting on offense. Herb’s team finished with a +6 scoring differential (Defensively 277 spots better than Hurley’s 2016-2017 Sun Devils.)
In comparison, those 896 three-point attempts by Bobby’s Guard U in 2016-17 only produced 3 more points a game. Hurley’s team was -3 in scoring differential. Sure, a team “hurling” up a bunch of bombs is exciting, but the math simply does not work where product delivery and customer satisfaction may be concerned.
In Parts 3 and 4 we’ll take a DieHard look at Bobby Hurley’s past two seasons in Tempe. In this time he has achieved an impressive 65% winning percentage as compared to 46% in his first two campaigns.
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Pages: 1 2
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