“I wish I could say how I really feel. I wish I could say how I really feel right now.”
Bobby Hurley’s words of frustration rang as loud as the final buzzer in Desert Financial Arena, which read a final score little would’ve expected to see at halftime.
Riding the hot shooting hands of Adam Miller and Jamiya Neal, Arizona State built a comfortable 36-23 advantage following the front 20, playing superbly on the defensive end while consistently finding points against one of the best defensive units in the conference. Twenty game minutes and a whole lot of whistles later, the Sun Devils (10-7, 4-2 Pac-12) would see their lead tear like loose skin, and out with the blood streamed a 15-point second-half lead that turned into a 68-66 loss to a struggling UCLA (8-10, 3-4) squad.
Building a sizable halftime lead off of strong defense, quality shot-making, and pace control, ASU seemed as if they would take advantage of a “get-right” game on paper against a foundering UCLA vessel and put on their own life jackets before their loss at Washington last week became a tidal wave that would sweep them out of the pole position in the Pac-12 as well as the postseason radar. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, a tsunami of four technical fouls would sweep their winning hopes out to sea, much to the dismay of an incensed Hurley.
“I haven’t really coached many teams that have a track record of getting a lot of technical fouls or anything like this,” Hurley discussed. “It breaks all the statistical anomalies that there were that many technical fouls issued on my players tonight.”
With nearly half of the back 20 gone, UCLA had slowly crept back into striking distance off the hot shooting hand of Lazar Stefanovic, who would wind up leading all scorers with 18 points on the night, and a Sun Devil offense that came out of the locker room cooled off from its promising start. Leading 49-43, the first of two technical fouls would come down on Shawn Phillips following a scrum underneath the basket in which both teams jawed at each other. Phillips and UCLA’s Adem Bona, the focal point of the Bruins offense for much of the game, would be issued penalties for their roles in the dust-up. After helping Adam Miller off the ground, Phillips was issued a second and disqualifying technical for the continuation of his chirping, leaving ASU thin in the frontcourt with Alonzo Gaffney in foul trouble.
Stefanovic would sink all four free throws, and a Will McClendon three as the cherry on top would cap off an ultra-rare seven-point possession that gave the Bruins a one-point lead out of thin air. The ensuing minutes would see a back-and-forth affair, with the lead changing hands on several occasions as the Sun Devils rediscovered their shot-making form of the first half, and their defense forced longer and inefficient possessions out of UCLA.
Even with the loss of Phillips, ASU seemed to have steadied themselves, regaining a four-point advantage with four minutes and change to play. Instead, another technical would be levied on Jamiya Neal after questioning a shooting foul. UCLA would tie the game on the four free throws awarded (two for the actual shooting foul), and a minute later, Bryant Selebangue would feel the wrath of the referees after shoving a UCLA player under the basket. At this point, Bobby Hurley might as well have had steam coming out of his ears.
“No one wanted to explain anything to me,” Hurley said. “I had to ask to be explained what happened. But I’m tired of the explanations…In a heated game, we’re the bad guys. Say hello to the bad guys. You may never see a bad guy like us again. We were the bad guys. I’m sure no one else said anything except us all night. “
Whether the calls were reasonable or not, the team suffered on the court literally and mentally, which Collins did his best to reverse in the waning moments of the game.
“I think some guys were kinda frustrated with themselves, with what they did,” Collins said. “They were owning up to what they did, trying to get through it. Regrouping after that, we gotta stick together and work around it. Just put this in the past and understand in moments like this, we can’t do this. Moving forward, we just gotta let our games do the talking, regardless of what the other team is saying or doing. Just gotta go out there and play and leave everything else behind.”
Even with the unfavorable whistle, ASU retook the lead on a fading three by Collins, racking his point total to a team-high 16, to nose ahead 63-62 with two minutes to play. From there, UCLA’s Sebastian Mack would force consecutive turnovers and take them to the other end for points, pushing the Bruins in front by three. Following a steal off a missed three by Miller, “Ace WOlf” would get fouled and make two from the stripe, tying Collins for a team-best 16 points to pull ASU within one. McClendon would hit his two free throws on the other end, and with five seconds left, Frankie Collins got the rock.
“I was definitely trying to get a three, but I saw they were in the motion of trying to foul,” Collins noticed. “Once I saw that, I went up to shoot to try to get three free throws. I saw them pull back, and I didn’t want it to be a bad shot. Gave it up and just try to get two.”
In a bit of a chaotic sequence, Collins would cross half-court and dump the ball to Gaffney on the perimeter. Not allowing ASU even to get a chance to tie the game, the Bruins fouled Gaffney and sent him to the line, where he would miss the first free throw Hurley needed him to make, then miss the second free throw Hurley needed him to miss. Unfortunately for ASU, the two seconds left on the clock would not be enough to get a foul off, as the Bruins evaded the full-court press and dribbled out the clock on an intense conference clash.
“We gave away the game,” Collins said.
On the stat sheet, Arizona State won in plenty of key aspects. The Sun Devils had the edge in field goals made, three-point shooting points off turnovers, and total turnovers. However, the 21-10 free throw disparity (eight of UCLA’s free throws came off technical fouls, which they made seven) in the second half would ultimately be the downfall, as the Bruins’s abundance of opportunities at the line would come from the self-inflicted wounds of the Sun Devils.
“I’m pleased with everything that happened on the basketball court besides the free-throw line,” Hurley noted with a clear and contentious voice. “When you look at the stat sheet, proud of my team’s shooting percentages from three and from two against a very good defensive team that’s starting to find itself. Had six turnovers as opposed to their 11…Did a lot of things well at both ends of the floor. Played a winning game, as close to being the winner as you could be.”
On the other hand, Frankie Collins left the blame to himself and the team rather than the aggressive whistle of the officials.
“That’s just us having to control our emotions. If we don’t say anything and just play basketball, it wouldn’t have happened. As a leader, I gotta be there, making sure people understand in those situations, we can’t do that. For us to get that tech, with the refs telling us not to say a word, and we still talking…we can’t do that.”
In a script that Spielberg himself probably couldn’t have thought to write, there was no Hollywood ending for ASU against UCLA, as the Sun Devils dropped their first game of the season at Desert Financial Arena. Rather than dwell on the missed (or, in some eyes, stolen) opportunity, the Sun Devils have to pick themselves off the mat and gear up for a talented USC team on Saturday. Overcoming such a crushing home defeat like this, in a game that the team felt they had no business losing, will be a tall task on a short turnaround.
“I felt like we were the better team,” Hurley emphasized. “We were better. We played better basketball. That’s the bottom line.”
Despite Hurley’s beliefs, the scoreboard will not agree with him, and re-establishing confidence and discipline isn’t easy to do in such a scenario. In many team settings, it has to start at the top, and neither coach Hurley nor de facto leader Collins shied away from accepting that responsibility.
“Just trying to realize that there was a lot of quality basketball that was played by our team in the first half,” Hurley spoke on. “Really good defense, and were able to score points against a team that, outside of Utah, held every Pac-12 opponent in the 60s up to this game. I’m pleased that we were able to generate offense against a very good defensive team. Look at the bright side of this, somehow, someway.”
“We gotta control our emotions, can’t let this happen,” Collins acknowledged. “We got a young team, but we gotta grow up early if we wanna continue to do what we say we wanna do and get to the NCAA Tournament. We have to mature and not let things like that happen.”
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