Sunday night is a special night in Cameron because Duke legend Bobby Hurley will bring his Arizona State Sun Devils to play the Blue Devils in a charity exhibition.
Hurley has been at Arizona State for nine years now, which is kind of hard to believe, and it hasn’t always been easy.
ASU was in the PAC-12 when he arrived in 2015 and while he has won overall, his record in Tempe is just 155-131 (.542). Just like it has been everywhere, Covid was tough in Tempe: ASU was 20-11 in 2019-20, 11-14 in 2020-21 and 14-17 in 2021-22. The last two seasons saw Hurley run up a 23-13 record in 2022-23 and then 14-18 last season.
This year, apparently just to up the ante, the Sun Devils, along with Arizona, move to the Big 12 which is brutally competitive.
As you may know, Hurley comes from a family of brilliant coaches: his father, Bob Sr., was perhaps the greatest high school coach in history and brother Danny just finished back-to-back titles with UConn and says he’s gunning for a third straight.
Hurley got a two-year extension in 2023 which he just signed last spring. ASU could have blown him off after a 14-18 year but opted to stick with him.
It’s looking like a wise decision.
Hurley lost a lot off of a bad team but brings in some much better talent. Jayden Quaintance, a 5-star big man from Raleigh’s Word Of God Academy, is the highest-rated recruit ASU has ever seen. Hurley says that Amier Ali can really shoot and Joson Sanon is a rarity for a Sun Devil: he originally committed to Arizona before flipping to ASU.
BJ Freeman is a solid scoring guard who transferred from Milwaukee, where he put up 19.5 ppg, 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 apg.
Adam Miller, a 6-3 senior, put up 12.0 ppg, 3.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.
He also brings in 6-9 transfer Basheer Jihad from Ball State. Jon Rothstein thinks he’s someone who could be an under-the-radar transfer. He averaged 18.6 ppg and eight boards last season for Ball State. Alston Mason transfers in from Missouri State where he averaged 17.5 ppg.
It’s gotten quite difficult to keep up with roster moves, but Hurley seems to have put together a roster that can win some this year.
For Duke, Malik Brown may start again and would be an interesting matchup for Quaintance. If he comes off the bench again, Khaman Maluach will be a real change of pace for Quaintance and of course Cooper Flagg can most likely guard whoever is causing problems. We expect Kon Knueppel will start again and Caleb Foster to start as well.
As noted, it’s really difficult to know a lot about a roster these days, particularly for a team from the (relative) outlands of Arizona.
But we do know Hurley. We know he’s from basketball royalty, both family and program wise. We know how intensely competitive he is and how hard he works. Anyone who think his team will come into Cameron – where his #11 hangs, remember – and not play hard is not thinking this through.
Of course Arizona State will play hard. They’ll want to anyway, but they’re getting a view of where their coach played and an idea of just how great and beloved he is.
Yes, this is an exhibition, but it’s not like any Duke has ever had, at least not publicly. ASU has a chance to play in the bigs Sunday, and they know it, obviously. Playing in Cameron is a huge deal, bigger than most of use in North Carolina realize since we live with it. But when you see it on TV, when you hear announcers rave about it and coaches talk about it with reluctant envy, and then you get to be there? With the Blue Devils and the Crazies?
It’s a big deal for the Sun Devils, and they’re going to come after Duke hard. And it looks like they have enough talent to compete. So don’t assume this is a normal exhibition. It’s anything but.
