Bobby Hurley goes off on Arizona, Caleb Love: 'No class'
Bobby Hurley was not happy after Arizona State's 81-72 loss to rival Arizona on Saturday.
After pulling his team off the floor with 0.5 seconds left and refusing to shake hands with Arizona's players and coaching staff, Hurley did not hold back in his postgame press conference.
Hurley blamed Arizona's players — specifically Caleb Love — for causing the situation that led to the ejections of BJ Freeman and Love with 30 seconds left. Freeman headbutted Love and both players were sent to the locker room.
"If you were right near our bench, it was relentless, constant chatter from a couple of the Arizona players, that was not being policed properly," Hurley said after the game. "Of course they're going to be happy with winning, but It was done with no class in my opinion."
"Words that were said back and forth led to the moment where Freeman lost it, lost his cool because of the constant talk that was allowed go on. I had to make a tough decision to, in the best interest of our team, to get them into the locker room so there would be no further incidents the rest of the game. And in the handshake line."
Love finished with 27 points, including a 3-point dagger with 2:36 left that gave Arizona a 76-69 lead. He was 5-of-9 from the 3-point line and tacked on 7 assists and 6 rebounds.
Despite his impressive performance, Hurley made it clear that Love won't be on his All-Big 12 ballot.
"I can tell you this: I do get a vote for all-conference and I can tell you who's not getting a vote," Hurley said at the very end of his press conference. As he stood up and walked out of the room he said "if you can read into that, I'm sure you might know who I'm thinking of right now."
Arizona State Fades In Loss
The Sun Devils only trailed by one at halftime and were tied with Arizona 62-62 after a Jayden Quaintance dunk with 7:40 left in the game.
But Arizona outscored the Sun Devils 19-10 over the final 7:18 to improve to 15-6 and 9-1 in the Big 12.
The Sun Devils fell to 12-9 and 3-7 with the loss. Freeman led ASU with 19 points and Adam Miller added 16. Basheer Jihad had 14 points and 7 rebounds.
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Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.