PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 13, 2024

Frankie Collins

Bobby Hurley

Arizona State Sun Devils

Postgame Press Conference

Utah - 90, Arizona State - 57

BOBBY HURLEY: It was ugly out there, for sure. I feel bad for, number one, Alonzo Gaffney who came to me a couple years ago. You always got a little sentimental about your seniors, but helped get us to an NCAA Tournament. He wanted to come back and for him to kind of be put through this tonight to finish his career, it just sucks. So I feel terrible for Gaffney.

He was visibly upset how we were defending in the first half. And just one of the few times I saw someone exhibit a lot of emotion.

And then Frankie, if you watched the last 15 minutes or so, when I wasn't calling something to get the ball in his hands, I was probably calling it for Gaffney, just because I felt like he deserved to be rewarded for how he was competing and how he was trying to make things happen.

Outside of that we did not do a good job. This is not acceptable what my vision is our basketball program. We're not in a good place right now. And it's a terrible way to end it. And gotta get back to the drawing board.

Q. You beat Utah the first couple of times. But it was a different team then, not having Perez to kind of be your post presence and draw defenders to him. What was your game plan to try and combat that?

BOBBY HURLEY: I thought our best chance to win and have any success on the offensive end was going to be getting the ball to Frankie where he could penetrate or create a shot for himself or a teammate and Jamiya Neal and Adam Miller, those were the guys.

And then our centers and Gaffney needed to just play off of those players' ability to create and get either a shot themselves or get in the paint and make an extra pass to someone for a good shot.

We had some good examples of half-court offense in the first half. We had a really good possession, I think Bryant ended up with a layup as the clock expired, but there were far too few of those examples.

Give credit to Utah. They showed the type of postseason desperation that you need to have, and they have really good shooting. And we had a hard time dealing with their 3-point shooting.

That's been how we've lost the last three, really. We've really not guarded very well, particularly from behind the 3-point line.

Q. What does it mean to play in the final Pac-12 Tournament, at least of its kind?

BOBBY HURLEY: I mean, you just have a vision for something better. That's going to be the lasting memory of us playing in the Pac-12, wow. That's a terrible, terrible memory. And nine years of being in this league and coaching in this league, and it's going to be gone and that's how we chose to go out. It doesn't feel good.

FRANKIE COLLINS: I feel the same way.

Q. Frankie, you really played your butt off. Played hard every second. Could you talk about what you're thinking as a leader trying to will this team to a win, trying to will this team to a good performance?

FRANKIE COLLINS: I think, I mean, playing hard is one thing. You're just trying to get all the guys to be on the same page, play hard. I didn't do a good job getting my teammates prepared and getting them ready to play. So, I mean, it's tough to lose like that. But the least you could do is just play hard.

Q. Following the loss to TCU in the first round last year you told us how that elite level of the game was how the program looked. And now, a year later, it's not looking the way you envisioned. Where do you think things went wrong?

BOBBY HURLEY: We gotta revamp the roster. I have to get on the phone. And I've been on the phone and I have to encourage people that have the wherewithal to support what we're going.

Especially with this transition, I've watched quite a bit of Big-12 basketball. It's a strong, physical -- it's for men, grown-ass men in the league.

We have to make some changes. I feel you could say a lot of things about me as a coach and you could be critical of a lot of areas and different things that you might not like about my coaching style, my offense, my philosophies on defense, my in-game decisions, my rotations -- there's a lot of things that go into being a coach, but I don't think you would say that he's not going to fight or battle or get his team ready to compete and fight and battle.

And I failed miserably in that regard because this is not a reflection of my belief system in terms of effort and will and knowing what it feels like when your season's on the line and you have to play for your season. And that's the effort that you get?

So that's my responsibility, and I failed miserably. So that will be a primary prerequisite as I start evaluating what needs to get done to rebuild our team.

Q. You talk about the game plan without Jose. Was there any chemistry problems, or just general adjustments you have to make when something like that happens in such an unusual situation? And, Frankie, could you address, what was the week like for you guys?

FRANKIE COLLINS: It's hard to game plan when us as players don't go out there and play hard. I mean, they can give us the game plan all they want. But if we don't go out there and play hard and try and get stops -- if you seen the first half, every time you turned your head somebody was open. So you can't really blame the game plan for that.

BOBBY HURLEY: As far as Jose, I think our construction of this team and how we played a lot of the year in a half-court offense was playing through Jose. He was one reliable post-up option where we could play some inside/out. And all we had was outside/in, and that's what we were.

So to have to rely on that solely was not easy. But, yeah, we've got to go rebuild the front court, rebuild everything. Just start over -- almost.

Q. What did you see from Akil Watson and Braelon Green you guys can build on next season going into the Big 12?

BOBBY HURLEY: I'm not sure. They didn't really get a lot of minutes to show what they're going to be capable of doing. So that's going to be a tough question for me to answer right now.