What started as an exciting exhibition opportunity quickly turned disastrous during coach Bobby Hurley's return to Cameron Indoor Stadium as Duke handled ASU, 103-47.
The exhibition game was a homecoming for Hurley, a Duke legend. In four years at Duke, Hurley won two national championships, was named first-team All-American and left as a top-10 NBA Draft pick with his jersey hanging in the rafters.
Hurley has found it difficult to return to his alma mater even with all of the success it brought him.
"It's kind of a sacred place to me," Hurley said in the post-game conference. "I was so good there that's why I resisted wanting to go back, because you just want to leave it the way it was."
Notable former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski was in attendance and had nothing but praise for his former player.
"Bobby is one of the greatest players ever in college basketball, not just at Duke," Krzyzewski said in an interview with Sun Devil Source.
However, the game was more than a reunion as all proceeds went to Duke Children's Hospital. The charity venture is something Krzyzewski cherished and current Duke head coach Jon Scheyer has built on.
"That was something that was very important to (Scheyer) as we talked about making this game a reality, just the impacts, monetarily, that we could have for that hospital," Hurley said. "There's no better cause that we could think of."
The Blue Devils boast the nation's best recruiting class which includes Cooper Flagg, the highest-rated player and probable top pick in next year's NBA Draft, and four other recruits ranked in the top 25, per 247Sports.
The Duke freshmen played a major role in the game. Five-star freshman Khaman Maluach was a tough matchup in the paint, grabbing 12 rebounds and forcing freshman forward Jayden Quaintance and the other ASU bigs to take tough shots. Fellow Duke five-star Kon Knueppel was electric, hitting four threes leading to a game-high 19 points.
The Sun Devils' defense couldn't keep up all night and struggled to guard the perimeter. Duke hit 17 threes- a 50% success rate- while ASU only made six.
The exhibition loss was an eye-opener and Hurley believes that it will hinder any playing time-related questions from players.
"I don't think I'll have guys wondering why they're not starting in the opener," Hurley said. "I don't think I'll have guys worried about shot attempts. I think by the end of this week, hopefully, we'll learn something from this."
Hurley had his concerns with the team before they traveled to Durham, North Carolina. Shooting was already an issue in the team's closed scrimmage against UC Irvine. The offense wasn’t all that he’d thought it might be, and it continued into Sunday. The Sun Devils shot just 28% from the field and 25% from three, experienced several scoring droughts and committed 18 turnovers. It appears the offense never got into its rhythm.
Coaches typically use exhibition games to experiment with lineups and focus less on the result. Hurley admitted that wasn't the plan.
"I wasn’t experimenting tonight," Hurley said. "We got our ass kicked."
Quaintance did have a good showing in his Sun Devil debut. The 17-year-old tallied 11 points and 6 rebounds and matched up against Duke's best, a sign that he can be all that Hurley thinks he can.
"In a game just littered with failure and terrible basketball, he managed to provide some hope and some bright spots," Hurley said.
Luckily the Sun Devils are still officially 0-0 and have time to prepare for their first game on the books against Idaho State on Nov. 5 at Desert Financial Arena.
"This is the ultimate wake-up call," Hurley said. "If we don't advance from this, then we don't have a lot of hope this year."
Edited by Jack Barron, Sophia Ramirez and Alysa Horton.
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Jack is a junior studying sports journalism with a minor in business. This is his first semester with The State Press. He has also worked at his high school paper.
