LAS VEGAS -- Arizona State assistant coach Rashon Burno stood on the coaches line with his feet pushed down like cement. He didn’t want head coach Bobby Hurley to start walking down the court and get into the ears of the referees.
Nothing good could come of that.
Hurley didn’t oblige. He walked past Burno like the Sun Devil assistant was invisible. After all, the game wasn’t over yet -- there was still 12 seconds left and ASU (5-0) was only up seven.
Hurley had no need to worry, though. Like they did for most of the final two minutes, the Sun Devils put the ball in the hands of Luguentz Dort. The stud freshman dribbled around the court for those 12 seconds before the buzzer sounded.
At long last, Hurley could finally walk where he wanted with no obstacles.
His first stop was midcourt, shaking the hands of the Utah State (5-1) coaching staff and its players after the Sun Devils 87-82 victory over the Aggies Wednesday night in the MGM Resorts Main Event Championship.
He stayed stoic, hardly cracking a smile until forward Zylan Cheatham ran up to his head coach and started shaking and punching him. The smile that didn’t see the light of day for two hours finally cracked.
Perhaps the win finally sunk in. The realization that ASU is 5-0, and have won two-straight no exempt tournaments after failing to win one for 23-straight years, was finally ingrained in his mind. That 100 percent, no doubt, Arizona State basketball is on the right track in his fourth season.
“I think like last year we were determined but we had never done it before,” Hurley said. “We had never proved that we could go and play these calibur of teams and win a tournament. We had to do that last year and that’s what made it special.
“Here, I think we came into this event expecting to win and our program believes we can win championships and events like this.”
Hurley had a good feeling this week after checking into his hotel and realizing he was in the same one as last year. From there, he took the superstitions to a new level. The Arizona State head coach went to all the same restaurants, trying to mimic his routine from a year ago.
The only thing different was the trophy ASU took home. Instead of a shiny paperweight perfect for a glass case, the Sun Devils were handed a WWE-style belt to wear around. And, boy, did they.
“You might see something with that later,” Hurley said with a grin. “It’s a surprise.”
~~~
OK, maybe a few more things were different from last year. Example one: Dort.
Up five with about 2 and a half minutes left in the game, Hurley gave the ball to the highly-touted freshman. He stood at the top of the key dribbling between his left and right hand for what felt like an hour. But then, on two-straight possessions, he just drove to the hoop. No pass was going to leave his hands.
He was fouled on both possessions, increasing ASU’s lead from five to nine and taking almost a minute and a half off the clock.
The Montreal native finished as the game’s leading scorer with 33 points (the third-most by a Sun Devil freshman in school history), seven rebounds and four assists, making 11 out of 14 free throws to go with it.
Though point guard Remy Martin was banged up with an ankle injury and forwards Romello White and De’Quon Lake had fouled out, it seems like a certainty that Dort, five games into his college career, is the player Hurley’s drawing up the last shot for.
While both Hurley and Dort noted that ASU has a plethora of go-to scorers, the freshman admitted that he is in no way surprised that everyone -- opposing coaches, fans and draft analysts -- know his name.
“I’m confident enough to say that because it’s really, as I tell you, the work I put in,” Dort said. “I really thought about three to four games, people would start to know me. That was my goal.”
Check.
Dort led every player with 39 minutes of game action. In all 39, the freshman never gave off the impression he needed a breather, joking after the game that he was good to play at least another five minutes.
With about 12 minutes left in the game, Hurley turned to Burno.
“Do you think he’s tired?” Hurley said he told his assistant. “Do you think I need to give him a break?”
“No,” Burno responded.
Hurley never let it cross his mind again.
Dort scored nine points in the last dozen minutes but his biggest stretch may have come in the first half. With the Sun Devils down 28-26, the ASU guard exploded for six points including an explosive dunk.
ASU went to the locker room with a lead, hardly letting it slip in next 20 minutes.
Possibly the most impressive part of ASU’s win: Most of its late scoring came with a flurry of different lineup combinations after Lake and White fouled out and Cheatham, Taeshon Cherry, and Kimani Lawrence picked up their fourth.
“We just trust each other, Martin said. “Doesn’t matter who’s on the court as long as we trust each other and we go out there and play our game, we’ll always be fine -- doesn't matter who’s on the court.”
On a bad ankle that he said will get better “in due time,” Martin put up 13 points, the third-most on ASU behind Dort and Cherry, who had 15 points, double the combined amount he had recorded in his first four games.
Maybe this is what Hurley and Dort meant when they said that the Sun Devils have multiple go-to scorers. When one of them goes down or heads to the bench, another can appear out of nowhere.
“I think it was coming,” Hurley said of Cherry’s big night. “Again, you’re not 100 percent (certain) when it is. That’s why we tried to get him some shots and there were some scripted things in those pick-and-pop situations.”
In two games in Las Vegas, three players -- Lawrence, Dort, and Cherry -- have recorded their career-highs. Hurley has said that the Devils expect to win big games and tournaments like these, and doing it not fully healthy seemed to just validate that more.
“We’ve just got to keep getting better, getting guys healthy,” Hurley said. “I’m just excited to get a full complement of guys that are 100 percent and then see where the potential of the team will take us.”
