TEMPE, Ariz. — Bobby Hurley, the fiery coach who once guided Arizona State to its highest national ranking in decades, will not return for a 12th season.
“Bobby Hurley has made incredible contributions to the sport of basketball, and that certainly includes many memorable moments during his time as our head coach,” athletic director Graham Rossini said in a statement. While we will not be extending his contract, we are so grateful for the 11 years that Coach, Leslie, Cameron, Sydney, and Bobby Jr. spent with us at ASU. We wish Coach well moving forward and we are thankful for his leadership while at ASU.”
Hurley’s future has hovered over the program for the last two years, making it seem like this season he was coaching for his job, a notion Hurley strongly denied. With his contract set to expire at the end of June, the Sun Devils likely needed to reach the NCAA Tournament for Hurley to stay in place. That quest ended Wednesday with a 91-42 loss to Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament’s second round. Arizona State finished 17-16.
“It’s been a long road, it’s been a special time,” Hurley told reporters after Wednesday’s loss. “Two of my kids graduated from ASU. I’ve had the opportunity to coach some fantastic young men and had some terrific moments over the years. It’s a great university. Great administration. I’m not sure what’s going to happen because I don’t know. I haven’t spoken directly about my future next year to this point. But I don’t have any regrets.”
Hurley, 54, will leave as the program’s second-winningest coach, but his 185-167 record is more reflective of the struggles he experienced at one of the nation’s more difficult power-conference jobs. Every jump under Hurley’s watch was followed by dips that returned the program to mediocrity.
This season, Arizona State beat Texas Tech and Kansas but will miss the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row. Over 11 seasons, Hurley and the Sun Devils made just three NCAA Tournaments, each starting in the First Four. They likely would have made a fourth during the 2019-20 season, but the tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The role I stepped into as a Pac-12 head coach in 2015 is very different from the one I’m leaving today. I’m proud of what we achieved and confident this program is in a stronger place now than when I arrived,” Hurley wrote on a social media post.
“I’m energized as ever and excited for the future.”
Arizona State will look for a coach who can elevate the program and ignite the fan base, similar to alumnus Kenny Dillingham with football and Molly Miller with women’s basketball. A $100 million renovation for Desert Financial Arena, a facility so old that Hurley and his staff tried to keep recruits from seeing it during visits, is scheduled to start soon.
At times, Hurley showed what was possible in the desert. In 2017, behind guards Tra Holder, Shannon Evans and Kodi Justice, the Sun Devils started 12-0, which included wins over eventual NCAA Tournament No. 1 seeds Kansas and Xavier. Local excitement spiked. A program that once erected a wall to hide empty seats at the top of the arena began selling out.
On Dec. 18 of that season, Arizona State reached No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, matching the highest ranking in program history. After the hot start, however, the Sun Devils struggled in Pac-12 play and barely made the NCAA Tournament. They lost to Syracuse in a First Four contest, a disappointing end to a once-promising season.
Hired in 2015 after two seasons at Buffalo, Hurley brought instant credibility to Arizona State. As a former All-American point guard at Duke, he was college basketball royalty. In his office, he displayed jerseys from an NBA career that was cut short due to injuries suffered in a near-fatal 1993 car accident. During big games, Hurley often wore a national championship ring he had won during his playing days at Duke.
His fire and energy became program trademarks, which sometimes fueled the crowd and other times got him in trouble. Like his father, Bob Hurley Sr., a high school coaching legend, and younger brother Dan, who has won two national titles at Connecticut, Hurley argued with officials like a baseball manager would with an umpire after a missed call.
In 2018, school president Michael Crow said Hurley needed to better manage his “volcanic emotions.” Hurley improved, but outbursts still surfaced. In 2022, he was suspended one game and fined $20,000 for confronting officials as they walked off the court after a loss at Stanford. In 2025, he sent Arizona State’s bench players and staff to the locker room in the final minute of a chippy home loss to rival Arizona.
A self-described underdog, Hurley was at his best when the Sun Devils were of the same nature. At a practice before a 2019 home game against Arizona, he ran 92 sprints — accounting for the total margin of Arizona State’s previous three losses to the Wildcats — while his team watched.
“He’s a nut,” then-forward Zylan Cheatham said after the Sun Devils went on to beat Arizona that week. “But he makes you want to go to war for him.”
This mindset played into Hurley’s scheduling decisions as well. Over 11 years, Arizona State faced challenging nonconference opponents such as Kentucky, Purdue, Gonzaga and Creighton. On Dec. 22, 2018, the Sun Devils toppled No. 1 Kansas in front of a home crowd that included Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, then-Arizona governor Doug Ducey and Basketball Hall of Famers Grant Hill and Jason Kidd.
This season, Hurley at times looked like a defeated coach. After a January home loss to West Virginia, Arizona State’s seventh in eight games, he told reporters his “voice is not working” with this year’s team. He added: “I’m failing.” The Sun Devils played better the rest of the season, but it was not enough for Arizona State to offer Hurley a contract extension.
In a February interview with The Athletic, Hurley said he was grateful for his time at Arizona State, and that if the end was coming, he was at peace with his performance. He also said he wanted to continue as a head coach, wherever that may be.
“I’m in my prime right now, and I don’t want to stop,” Hurley said.