ASU men’s basketball coach Bobby Hurley was introduced in a press conference on Friday, where he was joined by ASU President Michael Crow and athletic director Ray Anderson.
Hurley was with Buffalo for two seasons before leaving for ASU. He's a relative newcomer to coaching, beginning as an assistant in 2010-11 with Wagner. He also had an associate head coaching position at Rhode Island in 2012 before his short stint with Buffalo.
“This is a destination job for me, a place that I want to spend a lot of time and to be a fixture in the community and to be a big part of the success of this whole athletic department," Hurley said.
Hurley played college basketball at Duke, where he won two national championships and remains the Division I all-time assists leader. His fast rise in the coaching ranks may be because of his name big name, but also based on merit.
“I have a blue collar background with my upbringing, and nothing has really ever come easy to me," Hurley said. "People have really always doubted my career. As a player, they never expected I would take it as far as I took it. There were questions about my experience coming into Buffalo, and in two years, we won a conference title for the first time in school history. That's with a team that was projected to finish fourth in its division last year.”
At ASU, Hurley has the challenge of building a program that hasn't maintained consistent success. Previous coach Herb Sendek went to two NCAA Tournaments in nine seasons, and the program as a whole has just five in the past 30 years.
"The vision is clear: We want to bring in kids with high character that are going to work hard and that are going to develop in our program and that are going to get their education, and that we are going to compete for championships; Pac‑12 championships and we want to go to Final Fours," Hurley said.
Considering Hurley's coaching experience is from the Northeast, one has to wonder about his expertise in the West, in fertile states such as California and Arizona. Hurley said his national name and championship-winning experience has helped him open doors, and that he will recruit nationally as well.
"When I took over Buffalo, people had similar questions about how was I going to recruit the Midwest and be successful in a conference that was based in the Midwest with a lot of East Coast ties," Hurley said. "We worked at it. I hired a great staff that helped recruit the major markets in our conference, and because of the job that we did, basically with all Midwest players, we are able to win our league."
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