What Arizona State basketball coach Bobby Hurley is doing differently this season

• Bobby Hurley, entering his final contract year and 10th season coaching Arizona State basketball, is changing his recruiting strategy after a disappointing 13-20 season.
• Hurley plans to fill all scholarship slots, prioritizing character in recruits after disciplinary issues plagued the previous season.

Arizona State basketball coach Bobby Hurley is doing things a bit differently this season. He’ll be in the last year of his contract and his 10th season leading the program.

He isn’t going to have one or more scholarships in hand. He’s also looking for international recruits. And when it comes to transfers, he is putting a high priority on character.

The Sun Devils are coming off a 13-20 showing, the worst season in Hurley’s tenure. They’re also 27-38 in the last two years, so the trajectory is headed in the wrong direction.

Injuries proved pivotal in last season’s failures. By the end of the season, Hurley was down to seven players, and two of those weren’t supposed to be big-minute contributors.

The number of bodies shouldn’t be an issue this time around.

Hurley maintains a sense of humor, saying he’d resort to sage or incense, whatever might be needed to ward off the evil spirits and keep his players injury-free.

“I’ve always avoided getting to my scholarship limit in the past, but I got PTSD from last year, so we’re going right to the limit this year,” Hurley said. “I’m bringing in potentially 15 guys, and so I have a vision of an intrasquad scrimmage in July at some point where I can have eight guys on one side, seven on the other, and now we get to compete against each other. I’m looking for more competition in practice. Better competition. Last year, they just got awful as the year progressed.”

The roster will look different. Freshman guard Trevor Best is the lone returning player. Hurley plans to have the players over to his house to watch the NBA Finals. Other team-bonding activities will take place throughout the summer to establish cohesion and camaraderie.

Hurley’s roster stands at 12 scholarship players now. He expects an addition or two before the summer is over.

Hurley said he put a priority on character after discipline issues and ill-timed outbursts compounded the personnel shortage near the end of the season

Last season, one transfer, Brandon Gardner, did not play a single minute due to various issues. One scholarship wasted. Toward the season, Hurley dismissed leading scorer B.J. Freeman from the team after suspending him for a game earlier.

Hurley didn’t get into specifics on certain players.

“Certainly, in a quick recruiting cycle like we’re in, we have to try and evaluate the character and make sure that that’s taken care of,” he said. “That certainly was a priority as we looked to build the roster.”

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Hurley added that going through the rigors of Big 12 play showed him the kind of player he needed to invest in.

“It’s one thing to say the Big 12 is a tough league, but to experience it, I figured we had to get more bodies, more size, more depth,” he said. “We have to have better practices this year. As guys got hurt as the season progressed, we had a hard time even practicing.”

Some of that will come in the form of international players. He has a 6-foot-9 freshman, Andrija Grbovic, from Montenegro, and a 6-10 sophomore, Santiago Trouet, a native of Argentina who played last season at the University of San Diego.

Grbovic played for SC Derby in Europe’s ABA League and played for his national team during the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 European Qualifiers. He turns 22 in the fall — not an average freshman.

“The reason we went in this direction a little bit this year is because of the NIL, and the money that’s available now,” Hurley said. “You’re seeing some of the top European and international prospects that never would have considered coming over here in the past, they would stay with their club team. Now, those guys are coming into the college game because the money is better and they can make more, so we’re getting a better product. College basketball is going to be better because of the infusion of international players who can play right away and make the game better.”

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