One win over a top-15 opponent could be characterized as a fluke, but two wins point to a team abruptly progressing in its quality of play.
For ASU men's basketball, what felt like a pipe dream a few weeks ago turned into reality.
In the last game on its home floor, ASU (16-14, 7-10 Big 12) scripted a fairytale ending, overwhelming No. 14 Kansas (21-9, 11-6 Big 12) 70-60 and achieving a second court storming across a 15-day period.
Donning a gray hoodie on the sidelines of Desert Financial Arena for perhaps the final time in his career, 11th-year ASU men's basketball coach Bobby Hurley was his typical frenetic self. His conduct all game long bore no signs of his impending expiring contract or his team's 12th-place spot in the Big 12 rankings.
Seniors Moe Odum and Anthony "Pig" Johnson and graduate student Allen Mukeba have all played under their head coach for just one year, but the connection they've created extends beyond basketball, with Odum declaring Hurley the "greatest coach that's ever coached (him)." Senior night carried that sentiment with even more value.
"I had goosebumps on the bench to start the game," Hurley said. "I looked over and Moe Odum's mom, who flew in from New Jersey, was sitting right behind our bench, and she was crying. It's moments like that are so powerful, and especially for a kid of his quality and what he's meant to this University this year."
The players had similar emotions before the game as well, with Odum shedding tears alongside his family and teammates.
"Me and Pig cried together," Odum said. "It was super emotional because four years of college, it's hard, it's not easy."
Although Hurley and the players denied that his contract situation impacted the group's effort, the Sun Devils competed as if it were his final game on the hardwood floor in Tempe. ASU's defense stepped up to the plate, flying around the court and contesting shot after shot around the basket to hold the Jayhawks to 6-22 shooting on layups.
ASU stymied Kansas' star freshman guard Darryn Peterson to the tune of 15 points on a 3-18 shooting night, the worst efficiency of his year, and near negligible impact on the overall result.
Sun Devil freshman center Massamba Diop has always possessed tantalizing tools, but on a night where members of NBA front offices looked on with critiquing eyes at Kansas' star prospect, it was the Senegal native who showed out.
"Peterson is a phenomenal prospect, and he showed, in the second half especially, why," Hurley said. "But I know there were a lot of NBA guys in the building, and they had to be looking at (Diop)."
ASU was nearly perfect in the first half, roaring out to a 20-point halftime lead and limiting Kansas to just eight made field goals. Straight out of halftime, however, the Jayhawks punched back with a 19-3 run that brought them within 4 points.
With 3:38 remaining and the Sun Devils holding on to a 57-55 lead, Johnson, yet to make a single field goal, buried a three from the left wing. Seconds later, Odum stole the ball at half-court and lobbed it up to his backcourt mate, who laid the ball in.
ASU breathed a sigh of relief as the cushion ballooned back up to seven, a deficit the Jayhawks never got close to again.
Johnson praised Odum's leadership throughout the game after his slow start.
"He made sure my energy wasn't down," Johnson said. "He was talking to me ... 'Just stay in it,' and when I stayed in it, he found me, and I had to do what I had to do when the time came."
Under Hurley, the Sun Devils hold a 3-1 record against the Jayhawks, including a win back in 2018 when Kansas was No. 1 in the rankings.
Although Hurley has a fiery reputation, it was Jayhawks coach Bill Self who got tossed in the first half after arguing an offensive foul call on Peterson.
"That's a full circle moment, I look back to one of my first big games versus Arizona, and I was marched out of here, and now it's the other guy here in this situation," Hurley said.
With a top-10 showdown at No. 6 Iowa State on March 7, perhaps the Sun Devils have one more twist in the tale before the Big 12 tournament.
Edited by Niall Rosenberg, Henry Smardo and Sophia Braccio.
Reach the reporter at pvallur2@asu.edu and follow @PrathamValluri on X.
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Pratham Valluri is a sports reporter at The State Press. He is a junior majoring in sports journalism with business and data analytics minors. He’s in his 5th semester with The State Press working previously as an opinion writer.
