Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley plugs new team in Pac-12 Media Day

SAN FRANCISCO — Three years ago the Arizona State men's basketball program was on a high. The Sun Devils were likely headed for a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance, something that had not been done at the school in 60 years.

Then, COVID-19 hit. Injuries happened too. The Sun Devils haven't been the same since.

Now, coach Bobby Hurley thinks this could be the season ASU gets back to where it was pre-pandemic.

Hurley talked about this year's version of the Sun Devils at Pac-12 Media Day at the conference headquarters in downtown San Francisco.

Hurley brought guards D.J. Horne and Desmond Cambridge with him. Each of the 12 head coaches had 20 minutes with his players on stage in front of the media. The rest of the day was filled with promotional interviews and photo shoots.

Last season ASU got off to an abysmal start, particularly on the offensive end of the floor. It won seven of its last eight games of the regular season, but by that time it was Pac-12 tournament or bust.

Hurley thinks his team is coming together and it is perhaps further ahead because it has six returning players — twice the number it had the previous season.

"We got a deep team, deep roster. Each unit are battling pretty hard. We've been staying pretty healthy, relatively healthy, so that's a positive sign," Hurley said. "We've been going at it really hard. I think the group has demonstrated unselfishness in their energy defensively. I think we've got a chance potentially to be really good at that on that end of the floor with our depth and athleticism and our rim protectors and on-the-ball defense. And then we're sharing the ball. I think there's a level of trust that's been built between the players that we can move the basketball and get a good shot on offense."

Hurley acknowledged that roster management is tougher nowadays because of the transfer portal and the way it has facilitated movement of players for one team to another. It can hep a team reload in a hurry but makes keeping players in the fold more difficult.

ASU had just three returning players last season and one of those, Marcus Bagley, missed the majority of the season with a knee injury. That left two veterans and a whole lot of newcomers, which made it difficult for the team early.

Hurley singled out the 2017-18 season in which he had some players waiting in the wings. It was the team that started 12-0, led by Tra Holder, Shannon Evans, Kodi Justice and Remy Martin was a freshman. Zylan Cheatham and Rob Edwards were sitting out a year upon transferring from other programs.

"You knew you had guys in your program that were sitting out, getting ready to play the next year. Maybe some people thought, hey, ASU, after going to the NCAA Tournament, will take a step back losing what we lost. You knew as a coach you could build rosters better with the prior rules," Hurley said. "In today's world, it's different. You try and build relationships with your players. You hope that they have a great experience. You hope that you coach them well. And you hope they want to come back. And the more you could retain and bring back, the better chance you're going to have for success. And then you have to be strategic."

ASU starts the regular season on Nov. 7 against Tarleton State at Desert Financial Arena.

Lloyd says run was surprise

Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd admitted the success his team had last season was a surprise. The Wildcats went 33-4 and marched all the way to the Sweet 16 before losing to Houston 72-60.

Lloyd, now entering his second year, was accompanied by point guard Kerr Kriisa and forward Azuolas Tubelis.

He said since none of the players had competed in the postseason, the goal was to get there and anything else was a bonus.

"That was honestly my first objective is we're going to get to the tournament. Then other than that, I didn't set any limitations. I mean, let's see how good we can get, and these guys did an unbelievable job last year of just getting better week by week," he said. "When we lost, we learned from it. So it was a joy. All these seasons are journeys, and they kind of unfold and become their own story. So that's what makes it fun. But I wasn't trying to script what we were doing last year. I was just trying to give these guys everything I got, and I was just trying to kind of follow their lead, and they did an amazing job."

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UCLA tops poll

The preseason poll was released Wednesday morning and it isn't a surprising pick as UCLA tops the list, receiving 26  of 29 first-place votes and 386 total points, 34 more than second-place Arizona which had three first-place votes. Rounding out the top five were Oregon (336), USC (300) and Stanford (239).

Arizona State was pegged seventh with 193 points, 14 fewer than sixth-place Colorado.

The last five were Washington State (185), Washington (158), Utah (102), California (69) and Oregon State (47).

Odds and ends

— The men's media day was the last that will be held at the Pac-12's headquarters in downtown San Francisco. The lease for the expensive and expansive digs is expiring and the conference is not renewing it. Commissioner George Kliavkoff declined to say where the event would be held next year or even the options that would be considered.

—  The move of UCLA and USC to the Big Ten was a big topic of conversation. Taking the stage last of the 12 head coaches, Bruins coach Mick Cronin went out of his way to not answer questions about that topic, saying he preferred the day be about the student-athletes.

— Festivities earlier in the day included a presentation to Stanford women's golf coach Anne Walker. The recognition was in honor of the Stanford women winning the 200th national championship in the history of the conference at the NCAA Tournament held at Scottsdale's Grayhawk Golf Club in May.

Reach the reporter at Michelle.Gardner@gannett.com or 602 444-4783.  Follow her on Twitter @MGardnerSports.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU coach Bobby Hurley expects Sun Devils to rebound this season