ASU men's basketball head coach Bobby Hurley signed a two-year contract extension on Tuesday two days short of a year after the initial deal was announced following ASU's first-round exit from the 2023 NCAA Tournament. The deal keeps Hurley in Tempe until after the 2025-26 season.
The new contract was first announced on March 21, 2023, after the Sun Devils' appearance in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, where the team lost to TCU on a last-second shot in the Round of 64 after defeating Nevada in the First Four. However, the deal wasn't finalized directly after its announcement due to ASU's recent move to the Big 12 conference over the summer and the resignation of former athletic director Ray Anderson.
"Language was upgraded in areas involving Pac-12 to Big 12, and other items were clarified," an ASU representative said in a written statement. "The term sheet was signed prior, and now the full contract is done."
READ MORE: BREAKING: ASU, UA leaving Pac-12, joining the Big 12 Conference
The extension included a $200,000 raise from his initial $2.6 million salary. The raise was supposed to go into effect on July 1, 2023, following the extension, with an additional $100,000 raise every year until the end of the deal, as reported by The Athletic following the announcement in 2023.
READ MORE: ASU extends basketball coach Bobby Hurley's contract through 2026
In the year since the contract extension was revealed, Hurley led ASU to a 14-18 season, ending last Wednesday at the Pac-12 Tournament in a 33-point loss to Utah in the first round. In his seven seasons as the Sun Devil head coach, Hurley is 155-131 (79-88 in conference play) and has made three NCAA tournament appearances.
"We got to revamp the roster," Hurley said following the Pac-12 tournament loss on March 13. "I have to get on the phone, and I've been on the phone. I have to encourage people (who) have the wherewithal to try and support what we're doing, especially with this transition (to the Big 12)."
Hurley has been outspoken in the past about the University's need to improve its utilization of the new NIL era of college athletics, and formerly said that it was part of the reason the roster was stripped following the 2022-23 campaign.
"You could say a lot of things about me as a coach, and you could be critical of a lot of areas and a lot of different things that you may not like about my coaching style and my offense, my philosophies on defense, my game decisions, (and) my rotations," Hurley said on March 13. "There's a lot of things that go into being a coach, but I don't think you would say he's not going to fight or battle or get his team ready to compete and fight and battle."
Edited by Alfred Smith III, Sadie Buggle and Shane Brennan
Reach the reporter at whsmith8@asu.edu and follow @walkerrTR on Twitter.
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Walker Smith is a managing editor in the digital department of the State Press. He has previously worked as a reporter and editor on the sports desk and works for Blaze Radio and interned at Big Slate Media in broadcast productions.
