Bobby Hurley Q&A: From Buffalo to Pac-12 (Arizona State) in two seasons
Bobby Hurley, the onetime Duke PG, takes over at Arizona State after only two years as a head coach at Buffalo. What did he learn from Coach K that'll help him in Tempe?
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6 min read
After taking Buffalo to its first NCAA Tournament, Arizona State came calling for Bobby Hurley, and the onetime Duke point guard was hired in Tempe after two seasons as the Bulls' coach. CBS Sports Network and CBSSports.com's Jon Rothstein talked with Hurley to discuss ASU's upside, what he learned from Mike Krzyzewski and how he has changed as a coach.
Jon Rothstein, CBSSports.com: Is it a little hard for you to believe that you've only been a college head coach for two seasons and you're in a situation right now where you're in charge of a Pac-12 program?
Bobby Hurley: The timetable for me to be where I am feels quick, but I think it's kind of where I figured I would eventually end up in terms of the level and as a competitor. You just want to be at the top of your profession, competing against the best possible competition day in and day out. That was the main attraction. I'm still learning and still developing as a coach. I think the fact that I was an assistant coach for three years really helped me learn -- especially coaching under my brother Dan and seeing how he runs a program.
CBSSports.com: Take us inside the process with Arizona State. How did everything begin and materialize?
Hurley: It's a couple of a conversations on the phone and then it's a meeting. Then from there it's a decision that's made with their administration. I think it was pretty clear what they were getting with me and my history and my background in basketball -- with what I was able to accomplish at a place (Buffalo) that didn't have a lot of tradition. I think it comes down to what a school is looking for. I'm just getting started here and I've got a fire that's burning to work at this. I want to build an elite program at Arizona State.
CBSSports.com: Now you're someone that has spent the majority of your life on the East Coast. Were you at all apprehensive about trying to build a program in a completely different area of the country?
Hurley: I think I might have had that perspective if I didn't play in the NBA and then didn't know what the city of Phoenix has and what it has to offer nationally. And then having a chance to play Grand Canyon this past year and practice at Arizona State and see the type of facilities that the school has -- I think that nationally we'll be able to attract the best possible talent. With my assistant coaches I think I touched a lot of different areas of the United State to try and attract the best possible talent we can.
CBSSports.com: Arizona State is a job that generally has needed to be creative from a recruiting standpoint in order to be successful. Why do you think your staff (Levi Watkins, Stan Johnson, Brian Merritt) gives you a chance to accomplish that?
Hurley: I'm not looking at the challenges of the past. I'm not really looking at that. I know that you're competing against Arizona and UCLA and a lot of the blue chip programs for prospects, but I just think the school has so much potential. The city is a great city. The weather is beautiful. There's 70,000 students at Arizona State. There's a ton of energy here. I've got a great administration I'm working with and we've got top-notch facilities. The practice facility, the strength and conditioning center -- all the things that players who are trying to get to the next level would like to have at their fingertips to utilize on a daily basis, we have here.
CBSSports.com: You told me last year that when you coached against elite teams at Buffalo -- Kentucky, Wisconsin and West Virginia -- you had a rush that you felt on the sidelines. How much did those experiences enhance your interest about getting to the Power Five level as soon as possible?
Hurley: I always wanted to play in those games as a player. I loved the big stage and the big games, so when I had a chance to do that this year it made me want to try and play those games on a more regular basis. That definitely factored into things. Also at Buffalo, you're dealing with the complexity of being a mid-major school. I have great memories of making the NCAA Tournament this past year and the tournament is always the best event in the world from an athletics standpoint. But I want to try to be in position to be in that tournament as regularly as possible and I feel like the Pac-12 provides that type of opportunity for me without knowing that you absolutely have to win your conference tournament to get a bid like you did on the mid-major level.
CBSSports.com: The team you inherited had several positive moments last season, highlighted by a home victory over Arizona. What is your assessment in a short period of time of the group you're going to coach?
Hurley: We've got four starters returning and guys that won 18 games and played in the NIT and won a game in the NIT. I think we have some experience and I think the guys have talked about wanting to play in the NCAA Tournament. That will be the goal. It's going to be different for the guys. Our style is going to be a little different than Coach (Herb) Sendek's, but I've been pleased with the attitude and the work ethic of the players that were returning. That kind of tells me that they've been well coached.
CBSSports.com: Everyone knows you played college basketball at Duke for Mike Krzyzewski. What specifically from a day-to-day aspect have you taken from Coach K and applied to your own philosophies?
Hurley: He just builds great relationships with his players. His players wanted to play for him. His family was very involved. He was very family-oriented, so we try to look at those things and build off it. There was always good communication with himself and his players. For me, those would be the highlights. I just have to be myself and it's a progression. We have the whole summer and it's a development with workouts and stuff like that. It's just doing what we do every day to prepare ourselves to play in some of these games that we're going to be in.
CBSSports.com: What's the biggest difference in Bobby Hurley now vs. two years ago when you had yet to coach a game at Buffalo?
Hurley: I just think over the two years not a lot changed with the way I dealt with our players or how I worked with our players on a daily basis in practice, but I think this past year I felt a lot more comfortable on the sidelines in terms of decision making throughout the course of a game. I felt really confident about the system we have on offense and how we work every day and the culture we've established. It's going to take time for me to now rebuild that. That will be the biggest difference, working with an entirely new group of people and getting them to buy into what we're doing.
