Hurley excited to have Adam Miller in the lineup

What started as good news has now turned into an uncertain situation.

Yesterday, a federal court issued a temporary restraining order against the NCAA, thus granting immediate eligibility for players such as LSU transfer Adam Miller, who had their waiver denied. Today, the NCAA said that if the court ruling is ultimately reversed, then any player such as Miller who will suit up in the next two weeks will lose a year of eligibility no matter how few contests they participated in.

When addressing the media on Thursday afternoon, Sun Devil head coach Bobby Hurley said that his guard is fully aware of the potential ramifications and is eager to suit up for his team.

“I presented all scenarios to Adam,” Hurley said. “So, I don’t know the percentages, the likelihood of a court case gets overturned or not. That’s not my area of expertise. But I will say that Adam is prepared to accept the consequences of playing in these two games. He’s got three years of eligibility. And he’s already been in college for a number of years. So, I don’t think that’s going to impact him.

“His teammates know what he’s been through and how stressful this has been for him, considering he’s already got some mental health factors that were part of his waiver. And then the denial was a real setback to him, you could see what that took out of him. But to have this decision, you can see how his teammates were embracing him and what a weight was lifted off his shoulders. He’s a different guy. He looks happy and full of life. It was a real positive thing for Adam, and I’m happy for him.”

Hurley said that Miller’s offensive prowess and overall demeanor on the court can bring an immediate positive impact to the team.

“He brings beyond just the shooting which we need and free throw shooting,” Hurley described, “he’s got experience and mental toughness. We need to get tougher, and we were not that way in the second half at San Diego. You add another guy into the equation that brings that, and it is desperately needed, particularly with the opponent that we have coming up.

“That doesn’t solve everything in terms of the interior presence with Shawn (center Shawn Phillips) being out and the rebounding. But getting him (Miller) back should be a shot in the arm for our team. I don’t know what that’s going to be immediately. Adam hasn’t played a game in a long time, so you got to be mindful of that. But he has had the opportunity to practice for a number of months.”

Junior point guard Frankie Collins is pleased to see one of the consistently best players in practice now being able to see the floor on game day.

“He’s always brings great energy into practice,” Collins noted. “Knowing that he’s able to go out there and play with us on the floor, that just helps us and makes us that much better. I think he spaces the floor out; he’s someone who understands the game of basketball and plays hard. I think he just makes us ten times better.”

Hurley added that San Francisco transfer forward Zane Meeks, who hasn’t played since November 24th, will still be out with a foot injury since he hasn’t returned to practice despite feeling better. His three-point shooting, though, was adequately replaced in ASU’s last game, an 89-84 loss, and was a perfect 4-4 from three-point range. He played a total of six minutes prior to that contest and tripled that figure in his last outing.

“Bryson’s had had a very good attitude for a guy that hasn’t gotten the opportunity,” Hurley remarked. “I just felt like he’s practicing a little bit better seeing the ball going in. And for him, it was a good matchup when you play a team that’s playing a lot of zone. He was able to do what he does best. He kept it very simple, and when he had his opportunities, he made shots, and he was not a liability on defense.

“He certainly has got our attention in terms of knowing that he could help us. We need to develop our bench. The third game in a week caught up to us in the second half of the San Diego game, and our defense really melted down. So, if we could get guys like Adam coming back, it’s gonna be a huge gain for us to not have to play guys 35 minutes; maybe Jamiya Neal now plays 28, or 29 minutes. Frankie, the same thing around 30, and we could distribute the minutes a little better.”

Bouncing back from a defeat in a game where ASU led for over 30 minutes, yet giving up 61 second half points, won’t be an easy task against any opponent. And Saturday’s matchup has Arizona State facing a TCU squad ranked No. 38 in the KenPom ratings and 62 spots above the Sun Devils. How can Arizona State avoid the potential hangover from that defeat last Saturday?

“There’s not like a playbook for this,” Hurley admitted. “We see where the guys are, what their psyche looks like. I could just say that I think we have a tremendous amount of respect for TCU and how hard they play. A number of our guys saw that last year in the NCAA Tournament game (a 72-70 TCU win). It was a thrill for me to watch the game in preparation for this game. I hadn’t watched it (until yesterday) because I just couldn’t stomach watching it. But I got chills watching how good we were in some of the things we did in an NCAA Tournament game, and then you had to live the dark side of that at the end to see us not get it done.

“The guys know we have a serious opponent in front of us that plays very hard and is going to try and really attack the glass and attack the paint. So, we’re just trying to prepare for the things that are going to be in front of us.”

“I think this is gonna be another opportunity for us to get back into that into that conversation of making the NCCA tournament,” Collins commented, “changing the narrative for us so. I think going out there and getting our revenge game back…they beat us last year at the buzzer. It was hard, but I think this is gonna be a really good matchup for us.”

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