Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley has had a lot of unpleasantness tossed his way this winter, so he felt understandably refreshed when he was doused with water in his own locker room on Tuesday night. The shower occurred in celebration of the Sun Devils’ 72-67 upset of No. 13 Texas Tech. The only other time this season the Sun Devils indulged in the postgame ritual was after they knocked off Santa Clara on Dec. 13 in Las Vegas. On that night, the recipient was assistant coach Nick Irvin, who had coached the second half after Hurley was ejected for arguing with officials.
“It was finally my turn to get soaked,” Hurley told Hoops HQ. “Our guys have been through a lot this year. We’ve had some ups and some downs. So to have that moment with them was pretty cool.”
The win gave a flicker of light to the Sun Devils’ darkening NCAA Tournament hopes, but mostly it offered a reprieve, however temporary, for the challenges Hurley has faced during his 11th season with the Sun Devils. Hurley coached ASU to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in 2018 and ’19 and led them to a pair of top-three finishes in the Pac-12 in 2018 and ’19, but they have been back to the tournament just once in the last seven years and finished next-to-last in their first season in the Big 12 in 2025. Now, Hurley is coaching the final year of his contract, which is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a power conference basketball coach. Though he hasn’t quite said it outright, Hurley understands that barring something unforeseen — miraculous, really — Arizona State will be looking for a new coach next month. And he will be looking for a new job.
It is not an easy situation to navigate, but Hurley is battling the only way he knows how. “I’m just staying in the moment with this team, just trying to do the best job I can for my players that I’m coaching this year,” Hurley said. “A couple of these guys don’t have any eligibility left. So for me to be concerned about my situation or wondering what’s next is kind of a secondary thought right now.”
Even so, Hurley is not denying reality. “I don’t even think you could call it a hot seat anymore,” he said. “Like, there are no more years beyond this year on my contract. So how is that hot?” He maintained that he has a healthy relationship with his athletic director, Graham Rossini, but that they have not discussed what will happen when the season ends.
“Graham has been supportive. I think he wants to see me do well,” Hurley said. “But I can’t say we’ve had anything substantial talking about my future in any other way other than saying, ‘I hope you get over the hump and have a chance to get to the tournament.’ Which right now is not looking great unless we finish really strongly.”
The Sun Devils got off to a 9-2 start with wins over Texas, Santa Clara and Oklahoma, but they started to spiral in mid-December, losing four in a row and seven out of eight to drop them to the bottom tier of the Big 12. Their win over Texas Tech improved them to 5-8 in the league (14-12 overall), but they probably still need to win the Big 12 Tournament in order to avoid missing out on the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive year.
Hurley is not making excuses, but he does acknowledge that having just one year left on his contract made it difficult to construct a roster. “It’s been really hard to plan ahead,” he said. “We adjusted our recruiting this year and went a little more international because those kids aren’t as caught up in the negative recruiting of schools saying this is my last year. That’s probably been the most difficult part.”
It’s also evident that the school did not adjust well to the rapid shift towards professionalism in college sports. That was especially hurtful in the spring of 2023, when ASU lost four starters from an NCAA Tournament squad to the transfer portal: D.J. Horne (who transferred to NC State), Devin Cambridge (Texas Tech), Frankie Collins (TCU) and Warren Washington (Texas Tech). The team finished tied for ninth in the Pac-12 the following season. “We weren’t there as a program yet,” Hurley said. “There’s been a whole different commitment to that over the last two years.”
When reached by Hoops HQ, Rossini declined to comment on Hurley’s status, but he did convey in a text message his belief that ASU is well-positioned to compete in the new environment. He cited recent successes in football, volleyball and women’s basketball as well as the school’s ability to win the inaugural Big 12 Commisioner’s Cup, which recognizes the top athletic department for winning, academics and community engagement, as evidence. Rossini also referenced a $100 million renovation planned for Desert Financial Arena beginning this spring as proof of ASU’s commitment. “If we play a sport, we want to win,” Rossini wrote. “We’re constantly looking at all ways to invest in our programs and this absolutely includes (men’s basketball).”
As a player and a coach, Hurley’s emotions have never been hard to read, but as the losses have piled up he has gotten more pointed in his public remarks. After the Sun Devils fell at home 75-63 to West Virginia on Jan. 21, Hurley said, “We failed. I’m failing. I can’t get through to the team. … My voice is not working with this group.” Following a 78-70 loss at Colorado on Feb. 7, Hurley snapped at a reporter who asked about the team’s rebounding problems, adding, “We’ve got seven games left, so if we can’t rebound by now, then chances are we’re not gonna be able to rebound.”
Those comments were more calculated than they appeared, and in both cases the Sun Devils responded with a win in their next game – and in the latter case, the next two. “I feel free to say the things that are on my mind. I don’t think I’ve done that in the past,” Hurley said. “A couple of my press conferences have had a positive impact on games that subsequently happened. So there’s purpose to things that I said. And then some of it is just raw emotion. When you lose games you can’t afford to lose, that emotion starts to get the better of you.”
It’s never easy to see a chapter come to an end, but there’s something to be said for a lack of suspense. Hurley is not twisting in the wind and wondering what his fate will be. Rather, he has the luxury of coaching out the season as hard as he can with one eye trained on the future.
And make no mistake, he believes he has a future, one he hopes will begin at a new place next season. “This has been my life’s work. My calling is doing this,” he said. “I still feel like I have a lot to offer the game and I want to continue to do that. My results have been mixed the last couple of years, but I feel like I’m coaching as well as I have ever coached. All the experience and all the years that I have under my belt, I feel like I’m in my prime and I want to keep going.”
Hurley is a proud competitor, so it’s not easy to see his tenure in Tempe end this way. But if that end does come as expected, he will leave the job with many memories and no regrets. “I wouldn’t change anything,” he said. “Two of my children graduated from Arizona State. I’ve had a great experience here. I met a lot of great people. This is the longest I’ve stayed in one place since I grew up in Jersey. We’ve got a number of high-profile games still left on the schedule. If we could get something going, that’d be great. I want to see these kids finish the best way we can.”
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