Arizona State Sun Devils head basketball coach Bobby Hurley got ejected again, this time against New Mexico State but not in New Mexico, the game was played Tempe.
Arizona State Coach Bobby Hurley gets quite animated during his team’s basketball games, especially when the Sun Devils play at home. Tonight was no different.
Coaches get ejected for a reason, usually, it’s because they are talking back to the referee. Coach Miller got ejected for telling the referee’s “He touched the ball” over and over again in a plea for a change in a crucial moment late in a Conference Tournament game against UCLA in 2013. The call appeared to affect the outcome of the game, leaving Miller outraged as he marched his way into the locker room after a technical foul and subsequent ejection.
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Following his post-game comments, Miller ended up having to pay a $25,000 fine for something he said to someone in the hallway after being ejected and not apologizing as he was asked to do. The Pac-12 head referee, and former NBA referee Ed Rush was coincidentally investigated after reports surfaced that he advised his referee’s to target and “T up” Miller. If they did so, he promised to send them on a trip.
CBS Sports Jeff Goodman wrote the following:
"Rush, according to a source within the Pac-12 officiating group, told a group of referees on the Thursday of the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas that he would give them $5,000 or a trip to Cancun if they either “rang him up” or “ran him,” meaning hit Miller with a technical or toss him out of the game. Rush then reiterated during a Friday morning meeting, according to one referee in attendance, that officials should take similar action against Miller if he did anything on Friday in the Pac-12 semifinals against UCLA."
Aha! Miller was right about the call and right about all that went down was unfair. Hurley? Hmm, probably not.
“Remember this? This was last season’s ejection in Tempe in a game against our Arizona Wildcats.
Looks like Hurley has partially learned his lesson, perhaps not the ‘how to not get ejected’ lesson, but more like ‘how to react if you get ejected’ lesson. He almost lost it again (see our featured photo), but then seemed to be able to turn off his crazy switch. Still, it was pretty entertaining how he mumbled to himself into the tunnel, not looking back this time.
Despite trailing by 15, the Sun Devils did make a slight run but ultimately fell short, losing to New Mexico State 81-70 on Saturday night. Worth noting, this is the first time the Aggies beat a team from a Power Five conference since the 2004-05 season. Ouch!
Although, to New Mexico State’s credit, they are off to a great start this season, and following their victory Saturday night, improved to 10-2.
Even the curtain of distraction couldn’t distract fans from this excruciating loss. No wonder Hurley was in such a hurry to get out of there. Perhaps even more frustrating? Crosstown, the Grand Canyon University Lopes stock is rising, and could potentially surpass the Sun Devils on the hardwood, after all, they’ve certainly been making noise, and not just in the loud GCU fan Abbie who screamed each time a Wildcat shot a free throw.
At Zona Zealots, we were pretty bummed out that his behavior may not produce a bunch of new meme’s and posters used to taunt him like last season. Add to that the ton of Arizona Wildcats fans who were blocked from his Twitter account, there may not be a new wave of social media warfare.
But wait! Maybe there’s a chance!
Wildcats fans cannot help themselves. Thanks to @_Boog1, we were sent this gem:
Losing at home to a WAC team and getting tossed is the way Bobby Hurleys life goes these days #forksup pic.twitter.com/stWXuLh9B8
— boog (@_boog1) December 18, 2016
One of our followers, Zach Sweat pointed out that both ASU and UofA played against Aggies today, weird. At least our Cats won, though…
Arizona Basketball blows 22-point Lead and still beats The Aggies 67-63
Aside from the last 10 minutes, Arizona Basketball dominated the Aggies. A late run by Texas A&M made the game much closer than expected.
The best news of all is that Arizona State falls to 6-5 on the season, Arizona is now 10-2. BearDown Arizona!