For 11 seasons, Bobby Hurley brought fire, emotion and relentless intensity to the Arizona State sideline. On Wednesday afternoon in Kansas City, that era likely ended not with a quiet fade, but with a thunderous collapse.
Arizona State’s season ended in a stunning 91-42 loss to Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament, a 49-point blowout that set a new record for the largest margin in conference tournament history. It was also the second-worst defeat in Arizona State basketball history.
For Hurley, it felt symbolic of a program that had been fighting uphill battles for years.
The Sun Devils turned the ball over 23 times, shot just 1-for-19 from three-point range and trailed 45-16 at halftime. The game was essentially decided before the second half even began.
But the defining moment came during a chaotic stretch late in the first half that perfectly captured Hurley’s combustible, emotional tenure.
After a hard foul under the basket was upgraded to a flagrant, Arizona State players began chirping. One technical foul was called. Hurley quickly followed with another while arguing the call. Iowa State converted five of the ensuing six free throws and capped the sequence with an easy basket.
What had been a bad game suddenly became a disaster.
In less than a minute of game time, the score ballooned from a manageable deficit into a 40-10 avalanche.
Moments like that defined Hurley’s time in Tempe. Passion. Emotion. Sometimes chaos.
And sometimes brilliance.
A fiery coach who changed the program’s energy
Hurley arrived in 2015 determined to inject life into a program that had long lived in the shadow of Arizona. The former Duke point guard carried the same edge that defined his playing career.
Some nights that edge lifted the Sun Devils to moments the program had rarely experienced.
Arizona State beat No. 1 Kansas at home in 2018. The Sun Devils opened that same season 12-0 and climbed as high as No. 3 in the AP rankings. The arena buzzed in ways it hadn’t in decades.
Hurley’s teams reached the NCAA Tournament three times during his tenure, including back-to-back appearances in 2018 and 2019.
Had the 2020 tournament not been canceled, that number likely would have been four.
In a program that historically struggled to stay nationally relevant, Hurley delivered something Arizona State rarely had: meaningful March conversations.
The difficult reality of the final years
But the landscape of college basketball changed quickly.
The rise of NIL spending, the brutal gauntlet of the Big 12 and the constant roster churn of the transfer portal made consistency almost impossible.
Arizona State finished the season 17-16 and just 7-12 in conference play. It was another year hovering around the middle of the pack.
Hurley often pointed to Arizona State’s NIL situation as a major hurdle. In a league stacked with heavyweights like Kansas, Houston and Iowa State, the Sun Devils were operating at a financial disadvantage.
Even so, Hurley never backed down from the fight.
“I laid it all on the line every night,” he said after the loss.
And few would argue that point.
A complicated legacy in Tempe
Hurley leaves Arizona State with more than 180 wins and as the second-winningest coach in program history. Only Ned Wulk, who coached from 1958 to 1982, has more wins in Tempe.
For a program that has historically struggled to break through nationally, that matters.
Hurley also remains the only coach besides Wulk to take Arizona State to the NCAA Tournament at least three times.
His tenure was rarely smooth. It was often volatile. But it was never boring.
Players fed off his energy. Opponents knew they were going to hear from him. Officials certainly did.
Hurley coached every possession like it mattered.
And that intensity helped reshape the identity of the program.
What comes next
Arizona State is going to move on when Hurley’s contract expires in June, though the coach made it clear he does not intend to step away from the game.
At 54 years old, Hurley believes he still has another chapter ahead of him.
“I feel like I’m still in my prime,” he said.
Whether that next opportunity comes at another power-conference program, a rebuilding mid-major or somewhere else entirely remains to be seen.
But Wednesday’s loss likely closed the book on one of the most emotional coaching tenures Arizona State basketball has ever seen.
And fittingly, it ended exactly how Bobby Hurley coached the game for more than a decade.
With passion.
With chaos.
With everything on the line.