Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Bobby Hurley’s big mistake, Sean Miller’s brilliance

Arizona Wildcats head coach Sean Miller was brilliant, and ASU’s head coach Bobby Hurley made a big mistake.

The Arizona Wildcats basketball team won their first Pac-12 conference game. What made it special was that it was an away game against their rivals. What a fantastic way to start out in conference play.

The Cats and their coach collectively kept cool heads down the stretch. They had to beat the 942 Crew ‘curtain of distraction’ which unfortunately works stats-wise.

How did Sean Miller and his Cats handle the pressure?

They did just fine. The Cats and their coaches showed that they can handle the pressure of playing in the Pac-12 conference against their rival on the road. They also showed they can pretty much handle or recover from bad calls, or let’s call them ‘silly’ calls, from the Pac-12 refs.

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Millers jacket came off at some point, and when that happens you knew he is concerned; it’s hunker down and coach your socks off time. Miller did just that.

Later in the game, Miller put his jacket back on, feeling confident even though things started to unravel a little with the Sun Devils coming within six points to tie. Once he put his jacket back on, Miller showed his team he was confident in their abilities and that he would be keeping his calm under pressure. His timing, coaching, guidance and trust in his team was brilliant.

Miller could have come unglued a couple of times during the game, but he had confidence in his seniors. The first incident involved Willie Atwood and Gabe York. It seemed Atwood elbowed York on purpose. Reviewing the replay on Fox Sports 1, Atwood looked straight at York then threw an elbow. Even the announcers thought it would be punishable.

Instead, the Pac-12 referees reviewed the play along with fans watching it on TV, then came back with a ‘no foul no contact’ opinion much to the shock of everyone. According to Steve Rivera, Rivals.com, York had some words for the refs.

"“They said I didn’t get hit. So I just told the refs you can come and see me tomorrow when I have a black eye,” York said. “I don’t think it was intentional. He came up to me and told me it wasn’t intentional. It was a hard play on the ball. We’re not too worried about it.”"

The second event involved Kaleb Tarczewski, who did lose his cool, a little bit. He felt he got called for a foul when he didn’t do anything, then a technical for saying “I didn’t touch him, that’s bullsh*t!” Minor, but he should have waited until he was a few more long strides away from the refs ear before uttering those words. Harmless in fans opinions, but that call would set the bar for future Technical foul calling.

Zeus had to come out of the game to cool off and because he was in foul trouble. Kadeem Allen did his best job to calm down the big man, he put his arm around him, patted him on the back, and tried to talk him off the ledge, but he was still steaming mad.

Miller intercepted Zeus on his way to the bench to tell him to leave the complaining to his coach, yelling at the refs is his job. At least that’s what the majority of the announcers felt was said.

The Wildcats handled the pressure of a game they had to win for both pride and revenge from last season with brilliance.

How about Bobby Hurley and his Sun Devils?

ASU coach Bobby Hurley and his Devils started the game out with a lot of energy and some great shooting. Everything was fine in the first half, but late in the second half, Hurley didn’t handle himself well as far as how to work the referees and proved he is a newbie in the Pac-12.

At some point, Hurley pursed his lips at a foul call. He shot a long mean ‘I am about to blow up’ look towards the referees that has been captured by Wildcats fans for eternity and will repeatedly be used throughout his career from here on out. Little did Wildcats fans know there would be more photo opportunities to come.

The refs did nothing. That would change in the second half.

With 1:14 minutes left in the game, Hurley started yelling at the referee for a foul called on his team. This time, he said enough to get a technical foul.

His team had kept the score close enough for a possible win; all was not lost. Then York got the ball and charged down the court towards his basket. Tra Holder, running with him, was called for a blocking foul as his feet were not set and he kind of turned towards Gabe as they both fell.

Hurley became unglued as he yelled, pointed, and hurled a litany of complaints at the referees. Obviously. He is not used to the pathetic foul calling by Pac-12 referees. He was rewarded with his second technical and was ejected. Only fifteen seconds expired between the two technical fouls.

It seemed Hurley wanted to be ejected, either that or even worse, he just couldn’t keep his cool. On top of his rant, he had implored the fans in the stand to support his actions by raising his arms in the air. He continued to yell even when he got into the tunnel on his way to the locker room; he turned around and kept on screaming.

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Either way, he did nothing to help his team win. It still could have gone either way with both teams in double-bonus. This would have been a great time to teach his team how to behave when the calls don’t go your way.

It would have also been an excellent time to coach them through a tight Pac-12 conference game until the final seconds. Then win or lose, he could have lined up with honor and humility to shake hands with the other team. Setting an example of how to behave is a part of good coaching.

The ASU fans were happy and proud of their new coach, and the Sun Devils felt their coach went to bat for them, but they also lost the game.  Did he invigorate the fan base? Well, there weren’t that many fans in the stands, the entire upper bowl was mostly empty. One of ZZ’s followers advised that of there of the fans in attendance, about 35% were Wildcats fans.

One has to wonder if there will be any additional fallout from this stunt. Will they fine Hurley? After all, he must have said a whole lot of things worse than “he touched the ball,” right?

Hurley had comments for the press, and sounded like he regretted his actions or like he was schooled by the ASU PR or his boss. You be the judge:

Hurley will never live this down as Wildcats fans everywhere are saving photo’s and vines from this event for future memes and tweets.

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Welcome to the Pac-12 Bobby! Oh, and thanks for helping our Cats win!

BearDown Arizona!