Recapping Productive Wednesday for Arizona State Basketball

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TEMPE -- In today's episode of the Arizona State Sun Devils Insider Podcast, we take a look at Arizona State's men's basketball squad taking down the Utah Utes in a road battle on Wednesday night, as well as the women's program securing a season-saving win over Oklahoma State at home on Wednesday.
To listen to today's podcast, view below.
Below is a partial transcript from head coach Bobby Hurley's post-game press conference following an 82-68 win over Cincinnati on January 24, discussing motivation strategies that he has employed, as well as recent emergence from a key guard within the rotation.
On Reflecting on 2025-26 Roster, Refocusing
"I, you know, after the game the other night, told everybody that I love coaching this team, because they are tough and resilient and they battle, and that's what they did. We had a really good practice yesterday, and I think there was carryover effect to that to this game was probably the best we've been concentrated and focused day before a game, and we looked like the team that we were early in the season."
On Motivation Behind Challenging Team
"Yeah. I mean, I'm not like a total idiot. I'm probably a partial idiot. So, like, I there's always things that I say that, like, even in terms of the crowd, like, that should be the first thing that I said tonight, but I didn't really mention that they I thought were really good. I think we gave them something to cheer about. So it's a two way street, and it was far better, and we had a good advantage in that regard.
But there was a part of what I said was to hopefully get through to the players, to be able to lock in a little more and concentrate on these little details. The margin of error is very slim at this level and in this league to win games."
On Noah Meeusen’s Strong Performance
"Noah just happened to be the lightning rod at the end there. Like he's really not usually like that, like he's very cerebral about how he thinks about the game and wanting to develop his IQ for the game, and he already has a strong understanding of how to play, and he understands angles on defense. He's very active with his hands."

Arizona State men's basketball is set to return to action on Saturday night in a road battle against the Colorado Buffaloes.
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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Kevin Hicks is an Arizona State alumni and now serves as the Arizona State Beat Writer On SI.