TEMPE, Ariz. — Twenty real-time thoughts from Arizona State’s home loss to Washington State, one of the program’s worst in decades:
1. Coming off a holiday trip to the Bahamas, where Arizona State lost three games, never once leading in the second half, the Sun Devils need to get off to a good start. They fall into a 10-0 hole.
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2. Ten minutes into the contest, the Sun Devils have missed nine of 10 from the field and all four attempts from the foul line. They have yet to make a shot inside the arc. Coach Bobby Hurley, who usually stands for the entire contest, sits on the bench, frustrated. He points to Kimani Lawrence, sending the forward to the scorer’s table.
3. Thirty seconds later, guard Luther Muhammad makes a fading, twisting jumper off one leg to pull Arizona State to within 10-5. Says a fan seated near the media section: “All we need is a safety and we’re right back in this.”
4. Something wild is happening. Arizona State can’t find the mark, but Washington State has gone ice cold. The Cougars go scoreless for more than 11 minutes, missing 15 shots in a row. And they never lose the lead.
5. I google “ugliest basketball games ever played” and click on the first entry. It’s a list of video games. Not what I’m looking for. On the Pac-12 Networks broadcast, J.B. Long offers to change seats with analyst Matt Muehlebach to change up the game’s flow.
6. Arizona State guard Marreon Jackson gets loose in transition and has an easy layup. He misses. Jackson played last season at Toledo, where he was the Mid-American Conference player of the year. Through eight games with the Sun Devils, he’s taken a team-high 76 shots but made just 28.9 percent.
7. At halftime, Washington State leads 18-10. Fans boo the Sun Devils as they head to the locker room. On social media, national media start to notice what’s going on. Arizona State is 4-of-24 from the field, 2-of-15 from 3-point range and 0-of-6 from the foul line. The Sun Devils have nine turnovers.
8. As the second half is set to start, the Desert Financial Arena public-address announcer asks fans to check out the video board for first-half highlights. The segment runs about 30 seconds and includes all four of Arizona State’s field goals. The person who put this together had the easiest task of the night.
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9. On the radio, longtime broadcaster Tim Healey asks analyst Kyle Dodd what the Sun Devils need to do to get back into the game. “I think they’re going to have to get it off the defensive end,” Dodd says. It’s the Sun Devils’ only hope. Offensively, they’re disorganized. They try to move the ball off the dribble but don’t shoot well enough to cash in on drive-and-kick opportunities.
10. Four minutes into the second half, Washington State forward Mouhamed Gueye catches the ball on the left wing. The 6-foot-11 freshman pump-fakes and drives unchecked to the basket for a thunderous dunk. Down 28-12, Hurley calls time.
11. I log on to a newspaper search engine and run a search for “worst basketball I have ever seen.” A Feb. 5, 1994, story from The Sacramento Bee details a bad Sacramento Kings loss to the Denver Nuggets. In that contest, Kings coach Garry St. Jean got ejected. “I departed because I had had enough,” St. Jean said. Guard Spud Webb said the basketball was so bad that he should’ve just stayed at home and gone to bed. Based on how Arizona State is playing, I wonder if Hurley will take his frustration out on the officials and eject himself from this one. No one would blame him.
12. A fan has a similar thought but a different meaning. “Has a coach ever been fired midgame?” he writes to me in a direct message. I look up and notice vice president of athletics Ray Anderson sitting courtside. Wearing a black sweatshirt and protective mask, Anderson has his arms crossed. He doesn’t look thrilled.
13. From 2006 to 2009, Washington State had Tony Bennett, one of the best defensive coaches in college basketball. Back then, it wasn’t uncommon for the Cougars to hold opponents in the 40s. Their coach tonight, Kyle Smith, has turned around the program, but he doesn’t measure in the same defensive category as Bennett. (Hardly anyone does.) Entering the contest, Washington State ranked 87th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency.
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14. Arizona State is playing without Marcus Bagley. The talented forward has missed five games with a knee issue. He sits on the bench with a gold towel around his neck. The Sun Devils need him, of course, but their offensive issues run deeper. They’ll finish 12-of-57 from the field (21.1 percent), 3-of-26 from 3-point range (11.5) and 2-of-8 from the foul line (terrible).
15. With Washington State’s lead inching toward 20, Healey and Dodd discuss whether the Sun Devils have tired legs stemming from last week’s Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. It definitely looks that way. Later, I ask Jackson. He calls it an excuse.
16. The final score is 51-29.
17. The 29 points are the fewest Arizona State has scored since the 1946 season finale when it beat ASC 28-27. Per Basketball Reference, Arizona State’s output is the fewest points a Pac-12 team has scored in a conference game since Arizona beat Washington State 60-25 in 2014.
18. Hurley walks out of the arena with his head down, just a few steps ahead of Anderson. He talks with his team in the locker room for about 15 minutes.
19. In the postgame news conference, Hurley calls Arizona State’s performance “disappointing,” “epically bad” and “dreadful.” Watching it from the bench, he says, was a lonely feeling. “It just felt like a circus out there,” he says. Asked about the booing in Arizona State’s home arena, Hurley says: “I don’t have any complaints. I would not feel good after I had to sit through that and watch it. … They deserve to boo me. They deserve to boo whoever they feel deserves the criticism for this.”
20. Arizona State (2-6) has lost five in a row. “Things definitely have to change, ASAP,” Jackson says. The Sun Devils visit Oregon on Sunday.
(Photo of Bobby Hurley: Joe Camporeale / USA Today)
