Bobby Hurley Expected Back As ASU Men's Hoops Coach Next Season

TEMPE, AZ —Bobby Hurley is expected to return as Arizona State's men's basketball coach next season, ASU Athletic Director Ray Anderson confirmed to multiple sources on Wednesday.

Jeff Goodman, college hoops analyst for Stadium, wrote on Twitter that Anderson said he "fully intends to bring Bobby Hurley back next season."

Meanwhile, Anderson addressed the topic on 98.7's Anderson-Healy Show, where he said he had given Hurley a private vote of confidence several weeks ago. He recalled their conversation.

"We talked a month ago about, 'you're our guy. Get this team playing together the way you want them to play and then let's finish strong and then let's go into next year and really show that we can manage this new portal, this new way of having to put together a roster and get them to gel sometimes a lot faster than you thought,'" Anderson said, according to ArizonaSports.com.

Arizona State is 12-16 overall, 8-10 in the Pac-12 this season, and it almost certainly will miss the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. But the Sun Devils enter Thursday's game at home to Cal having won five of their last six games.

Anderson said he's been pleased with how the team has played in recent weeks.

"We've had some hiccups with COVID and everything else, but … this team is playing really well now," Anderson said. "I think we are going to finish strong. But we know going into next year with coach Hurley leading this program, we got a chance to continue improving and getting back to this postseason in a big way. Really proud of what this team is doing and really proud of Bobby Hurley."

Arizona State has faced key injuries this season, notably the loss of talented sophomore Marcus Bagley for much of the campaign.

The Sun Devils opened Pac-12 play with just a 3-9 record, and the 50-year-old Hurley did not appear to help his cause much in January when he was suspended for one game and fined $20,000 by the Pac-12 for verbally confronting referees in a loss at Stanford.

However, Arizona State upset UCLA 87-84 in triple overtime on Feb. 5, and the Sun Devils only have lost once —a 66-52 defeat to UCLA —since Feb. 12.

As for the future, the Sun Devils' 2022 recruiting class has been ranked No. 6 in the Pac-12 according to 247Sports.com. The group is led by 4-star high school point guard Austin Nunez, from San Antonio, Texas.

Hurley, the former Duke star who arrived from the University of Buffalo in 2015, has a 116-99 record at ASU and he led the Sun Devils to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 2018 and 2019. The 2020 team was 20-11 and likely headed back to the Big Dance when the season was shut down due to the pandemic.

Speaking last month to 98.7's Bickley & Marotta Show, Hurley sounded optimistic about the program's future.

"We are excited about our class and we're going to continue to build around the core we have," Hurley said, according to ArizonaSports.com. "We're going to look at the transfer portal, the junior college ranks and continue to get better."

Hurley added: "When we have been able to stay in a consistent routine and rhythm, I think we have shown we're able to play some really good basketball. I'm hoping we continue to do that the rest of this year and get the program back to where it was prior to COVID."

This article originally appeared on the Tempe Patch