Pac-12 men’s basketball report: Arizona State and Bobby Hurley continue downward spiral
The USC Trojans are enduring a difficult men’s basketball season. So are the Arizona State Sun Devils and coach Bobby Hurley. ASU’s season unraveled last week in blowout losses at Oregon and Oregon State. The Sun Devils could not bounce back on Thursday night in the Pac-12, losing to Stanford due to a late-game implosion.
Arizona State led 60-54 with 7:10 left in regulation and then scored just two points in the final seven minutes of play. Stanford produced a 17-2 run to beat the Sun Devils, 71-62. Arizona State is 11-10 and fully eliminated from the chase for an at-large NCAA Tournament berth. ASU will need to win the Pac-12 Tournament to make March Madness. It’s a bitterly disappointing result for a team which made the NCAA Tournament a year ago and won a First Four game before nearly upsetting TCU in the first round.
Bobby Hurley has done well to get ASU to multiple NCAA Tournaments, but it’s hard to ignore that ASU’s best seasons under Hurley have not produced anything more than a double-digit NCAA Tournament seed as a bubble team. ASU has won First Four games under Hurley but never a Round of 64 game in March. ASU will miss the NCAAs (barring a Pac-12 Tournament title) for the fourth time in the past five seasons.
Elsewhere in the Pac-12 on Thursday, Arizona blew out Cal in Tucson. UCLA fended off Oregon State in Westwood. Arizona’s win, coupled with Oregon’s win at USC, puts the Wildcats and Ducks at 7-3 in the league, one game ahead of three teams which are 6-4 in the conference.
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