(Photo: Courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)
Arizona State men’s basketball senior guard Anthony “Pig” Johnson watched on with a towel draped over his head, held at the bottom so that only his eyes were visible to the world.
There was nothing else he could do but watch as the clock ticked below 30 seconds and down to zero, and with it, potentially his collegiate basketball career.
No amount of heroics in those final moments would’ve changed the outcome. In fact, it wasn’t long after tipoff that the eventual result seemed crystal clear.
But when the final buzzer blared, it became official: Arizona State (17-16, 7-11 Big 12) would be on an early flight home after being brutalized by No. 7 Iowa State, falling in the second round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, by a score of 91-42 and ending up on the wrong side of the largest margin of victory in tournament history.
Whether the careers of Johnson, as well as senior guard Moe Odum and graduate forward Allen Mukeba, continue depends on whether or not the Sun Devils get invited and accept the opportunity to play a form of postseason basketball.
If neither of those happens, Wednesday afternoon will have been their last chance to suit up. It’s a similar situation to the one head coach Bobby Hurley finds himself in, with reports of the university moving on from him swirling, but no confirmation from the athletic department.
“It was a pleasure to coach these guys,” Hurley said. “They cared, they played their hearts out for me every game they showed up to practice with a good attitude and worked hard and cared about each other.”
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
BUZZSAW DEFENSE
The matchup between the two teams got underway with ISU’s star senior guard Tamin Lipsey attempting to find junior forward Blake Buchanan above the rim. Instead, the pass was intercepted by ASU redshirt sophomore forward Santiago Trouet.
The Sun Devils wouldn’t be able to take advantage, however, with Odum’s prospective pass to sophomore guard Noah Meeusen getting stopped by Buchanan.
The two teams continued to trade turnovers over the first two minutes of the game, but the Cyclones eventually settled down and finished the afternoon with just eight. The Sun Devils, on the other hand, couldn’t find a cure, recording five over the first four and a half minutes before finding the bottom of the basket for the first time.
ASU ended up with 23 turnovers on the afternoon, tying a season high it set against ISU when the two met for the first time this season in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday. Freshman center Massamba Diop led the way with seven turnovers over the weekend and was the leading man on Wednesday as well, recording six.
Those turnovers didn’t come without a cost. The Cyclones scored 25 points off of them and 18 in the first half alone, taking advantage of the opportunities that were created to jump out to a monstrous 45-16 halftime advantage.
Even when ASU didn’t give the ball away, it struggled to find the bottom of the net. ISU, which is ranked seventh in adjusted defensive efficiency by KenPom, held the Sun Devils to 31.9% from the field and 1-of-19 from beyond the arc.
Cyclones defenders looked as if they were glued to their assignments, and hardly ever let ball-handlers or off-ball players get free. The result was the Sun Devils’ offense sputtering its way to 42 points, 21 less than the season’s previous low of 63, which occurred on Jan. 21 against West Virginia, and the program’s lowest since scoring 29 on Dec. 1, 2021, against Washington State.
“The physicality of their team is different than (anything) I’ve ever seen,” Hurley said. “They’re really on a string on defense. They rotate for each other. They do a very good job at that end of the floor, and we had a hard time dealing with it.”
UNDISCIPLINED BASKETBALL
Turnovers weren’t the only area where the ASU played undisciplined basketball.
Entering Wednesday, the Sun Devils had allowed their opponents to shoot 656 free throws over the course of the season’s 32 matchups, equating to an average of 20.5 opponent attempts per game.
Against ISU, ASU added 25 more to that total. The above-average mark was helped by the team creating more problems for itself as the first half wound down.
The Cyclones were in the midst of what ended up being a 23-2 run when Johnson was called for a technical foul with 4:30 left in the first. Johnson appeared to be talking to either himself or his teammates, but the officials didn’t see it that way.
ISU junior forward Milan Momcilovic was the player that head coach T.J. Otzelberger decided to send to the line, and while he missed the first, he sank the second to secure the eighth point of the run.
A one-point consequence might not be a big deal, but the Sun Devils weren’t done helping out the Cyclones just yet.
With 2:52 to go in the first, Johnson was called for a personal foul that was upgraded to a flagrant one after the review showed he grabbed Buchanan’s head as the latter went up for a layup.
Before the review, and right after the hard foul, Diop received a technical foul after exchanging words with Buchanan, setting off Hurley, who received a technical foul of his own.
What resulted was six free throws, two attempted by Buchanan and four by Momcilovic, as well as the Cyclones earning possession.
Buchanan missed his first shot, but Momcilovic was perfect, and on the subsequent possession, freshman guard Jamarion Batemon found the bottom of the net, meaning that one ASU sequence was responsible for seven of the 23 points ISU scored on its mammoth run.
When the game was all said and done, ISU had only managed to convert 60% of its 25 attempts from the charity stripe, saving the Sun Devils the embarrassment of losing by an even bigger margin.
END OF THE LINE?
The Hurley era of ASU basketball, which has spanned 11 seasons, a 185-167 record (.526) and three March Madness appearances, is over following the conclusion of Wednesday’s game, according to a report from Chris Karpman of Sun Devil Source, which stated that the 14th head coach in school history would be placed on administrative leave throught the remainder of his contract, which is set to expire in June.
The university is yet to make any official announcement, and Hurley said he hadn’t spoken to the administration about his future directly following Wednesday’s game.
If this is the end for Hurley at the helm of the program, the decision comes after a disappointing three-year stretch where his teams went 44-54 and couldn’t manage an NCAA Tournament appearance.
As a whole, Hurley only managed five winning campaigns in Tempe, but saw the heights of rising all the way to No. 3 in the AP poll during the 2017-18 season and numerous upset victories.
Hurley’s set to leave campus with the second-most wins of any head coach, trailing only the legendary Ned Wulk, who recorded 406 victories across 25 seasons.
“It’s been a long road,” Hurley said after the loss. “It’s been a special time. Two of my kids graduated from ASU, I’ve had the opportunity to coach some fantastic young men and had some terrific moments over the years.”
