Bobby Hurley Reacts to Arizona State's Competitive Loss to Rival Arizona

The Sun Devils were unable to bridge two halves of exceptional play in an effort to upset the Wildcats.

Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley argues with an official during a game against Arizona at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, on Jan. 31, 2026. | Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

TEMPE -- Arizona State men's basketball head coach Bobby Hurley spoke with media in a post-game press conference following the Sun Devils' 87-74 loss to Arizona on Saturday afternoon.

To watch the full press conference, view below.

Key Numbers From Game

• 16: This is the number of offensive rebounds and second-chance points that Arizona accrued during the game - which reinforced the fact that the Wildcats had a major advantage on the front line.

• 21: Koa Peat's scoring total from Saturday, as well as his team-best plus/minus. The freshman phenom opted to play in Tucson over Tempe in March of last year.

• 4-17: What Arizona State shot on layup attempts on Saturday. The Sun Devils left numerous points on the board in the lane, while also shooting 12-20 at the free throw line.

Key Quotes/Statements From Presser

"This game felt like very similar to like a mirror of our last game in Tucson, just really good first half, and then you know, whether it's they're just too big and physical that you know they wear you down, and eventually you know.. we still had our chances.

We didn't shoot free throws. Well, I think we were four for 15 on unguarded threes. So thing is against a team as good as this Arizona team is you can't afford to do those things offensively. They opened the door even a little bit start to the second half. We got two stops right away, and then we couldn't do anything with it at the offensive end to try and get a little bit of control, you know, to start the half. So that was, that was frustrating as well."

"I think it's (physicality) cumulative, yes, in a way. And you know, there's a lot of physicality. They duck in really hard. And, you know, you have more energy earlier in a game to keep fighting through that stuff. I mean, they're one of the best teams that I've gone against in Duncan's. They are, they are great at ducking in. There are teams like Florida, Gonzaga, Arizona, BYU, that just have have mastered the art of ducking in and taking health defense and eliminating help defense so that someone could go drive to the basket."

"It's kind of too late to put things together, I would say. But like, more or less like, we've been scrappy. You know, we compete, you know, we've beaten, beaten Texas, Oklahoma, being Santa Clara, close games, fortunate to win a couple of them, we've kind of done as good as we can do. We today played as good a basketball as this team was probably capable. Now we should be able to shoot free throws better. There's no excuse for that."

Jan 31, 2026; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils center Massamba Diop (35) against the Arizona Wildcats in the first half at Desert Financial Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Read more on the bold strategy that head coach Bobby Hurley employed with comments on 1/21 here, and on why Arizona State may have saved the season with the win over Cincinnati on Saturday here..

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