What Bobby Hurley said after Arizona State's loss to Houston: 'I don't know where it's going'
The Houston Cougars are the best defensive team in college basketball by almost every relevant statistical measure.
But against Arizona State the Cougars flashed their offensive firepower in a dominant 80-65 Big 12 victory on Tuesday night. Houston racked up 47 first-half points, shot 48% from the 3-point line (11-of-23) and scored 17 fast break points.
"They're a well-built team," Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said after the game. "As good a team as I've seen, maybe since Florida. They're very impressive."
Arizona State (12-14, 3-12) has lost six consecutive games and Hurley has been fielding questions about his job status for several weeks. Those questions will continue to mount after the loss to Houston.
"I mean there's no guarantees in this thing," Hurley said. "We had our chances. We didn't cash in. I don't know where it's going. I really can't forecast that."
Five-star freshman Jayden Quaintance returned to the lineup for Arizona State after missing the past two games with a foot injury. But the 6-foot-9 forward was not a factor, finishing scoreless with 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Hurley did not play him in the second half.
Senior guard Alston Mason led the Sun Devils with 26 points and BJ Freeman scored 17. Arizona State attempted six more free throws than Houston (26 to 20), but had 10 fewer field goal attempts (44 to 54).
Here are the highlights of Hurley's postgame press conference:
Hurley on Houston coach Kelvin Sampson
"Coach Sampson's a legend in this game, in the coaching game, for forever. For years and years. It was impressive to watch one of his teams perform the way they did. I wish I could run here and give you a million reasons why it didn't work out for us, but the bottom line is they were better than us. I would use the word manhandled. They have a bunch of men. Grown men. And they really get after it on defense there."
"It feels like there's six guys on the floor the way they're able to put two guys on the basketball and still rotate around. I watched them in pregame warm-ups; they were all talking and they were all super engaged when I came out about an hour before the game. So I knew we would have our hands full. A lot of coaches throw around words like culture and identity as like cliches and stuff, but they have it. He really gets them to play really hard, really together and the right way."
Hurley on Houston's relentless defense
"You don't want to wear your guys out, or you want to conserve energy. But they don't care about that. They didn't look like it it affects them. I certainly didn't see them getting tired even as the game wore on. I told our guys 'hey, first eight minutes were a little rough.' They were being very aggressive initially right out of the gate. They were trapping everything, just trying to take you out of stuff. And they kept doing it throughout the whole game. They really didn't slow down very much."
It's kind of one of those games where we had to be able to break them down individually since they do get spread out quite a bit. Someone's got to be able to go win a one-on-one matchup, but that's just the offensive side. If we had 65 in this game I probably would have signed on for it just because of how well they defend. We just gave up too many points in the first half to legitimately have a chance. 47 was too many."
Hurley on freshman Jayden Quaintance
"As good as he looked yesterday in practice, he was moving well, he just didn't have in my estimation the same explosiveness that I would normally see. And that's why I chose to shut him down in the second half. Hopefully this next several days will be helpful for him to start getting get back physically."
Hurley: 'They put a stranglehold on you if they get a lead'
"We had a couple of open shots. A team like Houston, you've got to make open shots. We had a few in the first half we didn't make from distance, otherwise I don't have a lot of answers. I mean they're one of the best defensive teams in the league, in the country. They're holding teams to like 38% on the season and we shot 43%.
"I think the turnovers were about equal. We only got 44 shots in a game. I think that's the sneaky good thing about them is how they manage the game and have quality possessions at both ends. They really just kind of put a stranglehold on you if they get a lead."
Hurley on Houston guard Milos Uzan
"Uzan is not a type of guy they're asking to get 30 or something. But as far as just really controlling the game, he does a very good job at the point guard spot for them. It's hard to speed him up. He didn't have a great shooting night tonight. I know he hit a three at the end of the clock one time, but he had five assists and one turnover. It's hard to turn him over or speed him up. So when you get down against him things get more difficult."
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-66e6aeb5014b4c4eeac84ca997f034c9.jpg "Ben Sherman")
Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his 27-year journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. A basketball junkie, March Madness is his favorite time of the year.