Doesn’t look good for Bob Hurley Jr. in his head coaching days at Arizona State

After an adventurous half-century that brought national recognition in his high school and college days, these have not been the best of times for Bob Hurley Jr.

You can’t fault him for the disappointing, dismal news that brought an end to Duke University’s men’s basketball season. You can’t blame him for St. Anthony High School’s closing down in 2017. But with Arizona State’s basketball team’s sub-par season concluding after Thursday’s 91-76 PAC-12 defeat at Oregon, can his recent contact extension as head coach be applauded? Will the Sundevils’ alumni accept that? The guess is that it will.

Except that, after all the success he had in his four years playing for his Hall of Fame father at St. Anthony in Jersey City, and his four years under Hall of Fame coach Mike K at Duke, and after being a first-round, 7th pick in the National Basketball Association’s college draft by the Sacramento Kings in 1993, he has dealt with a nearly tragic auto accident his rookie year there, his try at college coaching has been and up-and-down roller coaster ride.

This, after he left the NBA behind by trading basketball for his liking of race horses, purchasing some and having fun entering some in races, some small and some big. It at least brought headlines for him in the national sport pages become of his recognition in the world of hoops and some quality races at storied Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., where his horses made the news.

But when his older brother, Dan, became head coach at Wagner College in Staten Island, he brought in Bob as his associate coach. Then, when Dan became head coach at Rhode Island University, Bob went along as his assistant. Next came an offer for Bob to take over the reigns at University of Buffalo, and he decided he so do, return to college ball for the first time as a head coach, as his father did in bringing St. Anthony, a small parochial private school in Jersey City, 26 state championships, eight national titles, five undefeated seasons, and the only the 10th high school coach to win 1,000 games in his 39 years and be named the only one to be inducted into the prestigious Naismith Hall of Fame.

In junior’s four years there from 1985-89, the Friars, with no actual home court and a tiny gymnasium that was used for bingo and basketball practice, went 115-5, won four Parochial B state titles, and he averaged about 20 points a game, 11 assists, eight steals, and was a high school All-America. They won their initial National Tournament of Champions crown by going unbeaten (32-0) his senior season.

Then came his choice of Duke. Before he got there, there were good years brought on by All-America Art Heyman, and some not-so-good years, but he changed things. The Blue Devils recruited well and, with Hurley providing the leadership, won back-to-back NCAA championships after in his freshman year, he got them into the national tournament, but was weakened by the flu and in the national semifinals and were run over by UNLV.

The next year, he was at his best, avenged the loss to the Running Rebels. and after winning again, came away with the NCAA-record 1.076 assists. Duke retired his number 11 in 1993.

Then came his move to Buffalo. He had two impressive seasons there, got the Bulls into the national tournament for the first time, and when offered the same role at Arizona State in Tempe, he accepted. But he had a infamous first game there. It was at home, and with a packed house, he got early back-to-back technical fouls, two in 15 seconds, was ejected, and while heading to the locker room, paused to further excite the crowd with his arms high and asking for its support. And it responded as the officials tried to calm things down and hussel Hurley down the hall.

In 2020 there was another incident when Hurley had a classic clash with the school’s athletic director over a sexual harassment report where he protected one of his players from a report accusing the player of an issue with a student. Fortunately, it didn’t last long and the player came back to lead he team in scoring and gain the all-PAC-12 team.

But to get to the present chase, in six seasons he has a 43-47 record after going 5-13, 7-11, 8-10, in his first three years. The next two brought 12-6 and 11-7 marks, but this campaign had the Sundevils enter their tournament as a 9th seed and finish at 11-14overall. They came into the playoffs and opened by getting past 7th-seeded Washington State, 78-74, but after falling behind by 35-27 at halftime at Oregon, were dominated 56-40 over the last 20 minutes. Hurley got into a few verbal scrabbles with Ducks’ fans, picked up one technical after differing with an official’s call, and then called it a day and a season.

But will his coaching career at Arizona State be in dire straits? Probably not. Oh, and he turns 50 in April, and needs better times to bring him back to his happier days, the only drawback is Bob Hurley Jr. is not going to change his ways, when without the ball in his hands, he can put on quite a show on the sidelines, and that takes away his glory days as an elite player.