Season ends in a heartbreaking loss to TCU in NCAA Tournament

DENVER - No matter how fun rollercoasters can be, they all must return to the docking station at some point. After a chaotic, indescribable, topsy-turvy five months of basketball, Arizona State’s (23-13) thrill ride arrived at its final destination in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, when JaKobe Coles game-winning floater fell through the net with 1.5 seconds to play, sealing TCU’s (22-12) 72-70 win.

“Heartbroken for my guys,” head coach Bobby Hurley said. “Just heartbroken for these guys, giving me everything all year.”

Having completed numerous halftime comebacks of their own this season, Arizona State got dealt the reverse card in Denver. It did seem as if they would need one of those second-half runs, falling behind 13-2 to begin the game, but they rebounded to enjoy a 44-37 at halftime. The Sun Devils’ lockdown defense aided them throughout the first half and into the second, while diverse scoring kept them ahead of the Horned Frogs throughout the back 20.

However, the feisty Horned Frogs wouldn’t go away and slowly chipped away at an 11-point ASU lead to tie the game with just under two minutes left. Following multiple misses on each end, including two huge missed free throws by ASU guard Frankie Collins that could’ve taken back the lead, TCU took its first lead of the half on two makes from the stripe with 34 seconds to play. After Collins’s attempt to tie it at the rim went awry, and TCU’s Mike Miles made one free throw, ASU had the ball down by three with 24 seconds left on the game clock. In a situation that called for it, Hurley called on one of his most experienced offensive weapons.

“Coach put the ball in my hands with the time we had left in the game,” ASU guard DJ Horne said. “I just felt confident that I could bring my defender down and get a good shot.”

Break his defender, he did. Taking the out-of-timeout pass at the top of the key, Horne dribbled fancily until he got himself space with a stepback move on Rondel Walker. With 12 seconds to play, Horne pulled up and drained the biggest shot of his life, a three-pointer to tie the game and keep ASU alive and one stop away from an extra five minutes.

Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, TCU had other plans. Instead of Mike Miles or Damion Baugh, who had scored 26 and 11 points on the night respectively, the Horned Frogs went to sophomore forward JaKobe Coles to make the big shot. Starting just his second game of the season following the departure of Eddie Lampkin from the team, Coles capped off a clutch 11-point performance with a running floater that fell through the nylon to ultimately seal the game’s fate.

Despite having a timeout still, Arizona State inbounded the ball immediately, and there was to be no McKale Mary-level miracle to save their season this time around.

“I thought about it (a timeout) as the ball was flying through the air when Frankie had it,” Hurley said. “That one you can put on me because I knew I had a timeout, and maybe we could have thrown it to half-court and flipped it to a guard, and they would have taken a dribble and gotten about 20 feet closer.”

With or without the timeout, the damage is done, and the Sun Devils’ season comes to an end in one of the most frustrating ways possible.

“It would take the last shot to put us away,” Hurley said not so sarcastically. “I feel awful for these guys because you hate to see them lose like that,” Hurley said. “But they put their heart and soul into it, so it makes it even feel worse.”

“Kind of going through it right now,” Warren Washington said, his face filled with emotion following his last ever collegiate basketball game. “It’s tough, man. I love these guys, went to war with them every game, and I felt like we all played for each other.”

“Basically, just all the emotions running over you and everything,” Horne added. “When you’re so close to completing a job like that, and you just don’t get it done, it hurts.”

Having led the game for over 25 minutes, letting the game get away only adds to the agony of defeat in March.

“Played a winning game,” Hurley exclaimed. “It was a heck of a game to be a part of. Credit TCU for doing things out there that they’ve been doing. Some of the plays that were made out there by these guys the shot making, the dunks, and the commitment to playing hard on defense. We held a very good basketball team to 35 percent from the field, and generally, when that happens, we’re going to win that type of game.”

While issues on the defensive glass (TCU had 14 offensive rebounds) and just five forced turnovers will stick out, the difference at the free throw line ultimately provided TCU the chance to take the game at the end. In a contest where the teams were separated by so little, that was the one statistic that made the difference.

Having struggled in the half-court offense all year and not being allowed to get out and run for their patented fastbreak points, TCU resorted to the free-throw line to get their points. While the Sun Devils made 18 trips to the free throw line and converted on 12 of them, TCU’s 20-of-27 mark was simply too big of an obstacle for ASU to concur. In fact, TCU’s top scorer in, Mike Miles, posted 12 of his 26 points from the stripe.

“You could really point to the free throw differential in a game like this,” Hurley noted. “Miles is a heck of a player in the Big 12. We knew on scouting he was going to drive it, and we talked to our guys knowing that they were going to be very aggressive drivers to the point. He really initiated a lot of contact and was able to get himself to the free-throw line.”

Despite the devastating ending, the accomplishments of this rendition of the Arizona State Sun Devils cannot be overlooked. Their 23 wins are the most in a single season under Bobby Hurley’s eight years in Tempe and even more remarkable considering the team’s combined 25-31 mark over the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons. Picked to finish 7th in the preseason Pac-12 media poll and not mentioned in virtually any preseason NCAA Tournament projections, the Sun Devils defied expectations, and Hurley specifically spoke to that with a particular emphasis on nearly every unsung contributor from the season.

“Luther Muhammad…he did not mail it in,” Hurley complimented the senior guard. “That kid, down the stretch, was big in these games, didn’t give up, and just played with like a ton of heart our last couple games and made plays out there. I have so much respect and love for how he stuck with things. Alonzo Gaffney, what he’s done the last few weeks, just his activity and his defense and the block at the end of the first half and just the plays that he’s making, and Jamiya (Neal) has grown. He came in again when we were struggling early and made big shots to help us get back in and is playing great defense.”

With each player improving in his own way, Hurley was Hurley adamant that it helped progress his program drastically.

“Did you watch the game?” Hurley questioned a reporter asking about the program’s future outlook. “That’s the state of the program.”

Indeed, the future of Sun Devil basketball certainly is looking brighter than it did this time last year. Even with both Desmond Cambridge, Warren Washington, and possibly others moving on, Hurley couldn’t speak highly enough of his eighth, and arguably best, Sun Devil team.

“I’m just extremely proud and have all the respect in the world for our effort tonight,” Hurley said. “Just really advanced Arizona State basketball and played winning basketball all year, played unselfishly, played resilient, battled and fought.”

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