Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley pulls team off court, says Arizona won with ‘no class’

Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley on Saturday sent his reserve players and staff to the locker room in the final minute of an 81-72 home loss to rival Arizona. After the heated game, Hurley said the Wildcats won with no class and suggested he’d withhold an all-conference vote for their best player.

As the final seconds ticked, Hurley walked onto the court and sent his remaining players to the locker room as well. He followed, skipping the postgame handshake with Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd and his staff.

It was a bizarre ending to an otherwise competitive, yet chippy Big 12 game. Overall, four technical fouls were called, including one on Hurley.

“If you were right near our bench, it was relentless, constant chatter from a couple of the Arizona players that was not being policed properly,” Hurley said in his postgame news conference. “Of course, (Arizona is) going to be happy with winning, but it was done with no class in my opinion.”

With 30 seconds left and the outcome decided, Arizona guard Caleb Love exchanged words with Arizona State guard BJ Freeman. Freeman then head-butted Love. After an official review, both players were ejected. Hurley sent his players and staff to the locker room shortly thereafter.

Hurley said the chatter led to Freeman losing his cool.

“I had to make a tough decision to, obviously, in the best interest of our team, to get them into the locker room so there’d be no further incidents the rest of the game and in the handshake line,” Hurley said.

Lloyd told reporters the ending was “disappointing, probably on all sides,” and that in tough situations he expects Arizona to respond with class. “And I don’t know if we did or didn’t,’’ Lloyd said.

Love had 27 points, six rebounds and seven assists as the Wildcats improved to 15-6 overall and 9-1 in the Big 12. As he concluded his postgame news conference, Hurley pointed out he had a vote for all-conference honors, “and I can tell you who’s not getting a vote,” he said, likely referring to Love.

Arizona State dropped to 12-9 overall and 3-7.

(Photo: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)