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The Sun Devils were coming off the floor at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City after a first-round loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 tournament, when last seen. It was one of 11 losses in which the Arizona State men's basketball team could smell victory, only to falter down the stretch.
Coach Bobby Hurley gave his players a week off after that game, then they were back on the practice floor again. The season wasn't quite over.
ASU will be one of 16 teams participating in the first College Basketball Crown at two venues in Las Vegas over the next week.
ASU (13-19), the 15th-place finisher in the Big 12, opens play at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena against Nebraska (17-14), the 12th-place team out of the Big Ten. The game will air on FS1. Other games will be played at T-Mobile Arena, the former site of the Pac-12 Tournament.
The event is a joint venture between Fox Sports and the Anschutz Entertainment Group with an NIL component. The winning team takes home $300,000, while the runner-up gets $100,000 and the semifinalists $50,000 each.
ASU freshman Jayden Quaintance remains out with a knee injury, and Joson Sanon will not play after entering the transfer portal and committing to St. John's. Senior guard Adam Miller, who was slowed by hip and oblique injuries the last two weeks of the season, will play.
Hoops: Suns lookahead: Phoenix faces Houston Rockets before huge 3-game road trip
That leaves Hurley with seven scholarship players — including two guys who were never supposed to be part of the key rotation.
"We had to give the guys about a week off just because of the volume of minutes they have played with us so depleted," Hurley said. "When we got back, we're basically doing skill work. We can't do a lot of live stuff just because of the number of people we have available."
It will be the first meeting between the Sun Devils and Cornhuskers since 2008, which ended in a 64-44 Arizona State victory. ASU leads the all-time series, which dates back to 1968, 4-3. This will be the first matchup between the two sides at a neutral site.
Both teams have struggled. ASU has dropped five straight games and 11 of its last 12, while Nebraska lost its last five and six of the last seven.
The Cornhuskers boast a few players with whom Hurley is familiar because they played multiple years at former Pac-12 schools. That trio includes guard Rollie Worster (Utah), 7-1 center Braxton Meah (Washington) and 6-10 forward Berke Buyuktuncel (UCLA).
ASU was 5-9 at home and 3-8 on the road this season but did well on neutral courts, going 5-2. The Sun Devils defeated four teams that won 20 or more games (Saint Mary's, Grand Canyon, Santa Clara, New Mexico) in neutral settings in 2024-25.
Nebraska was 5-7 in road games and 2-1 on neutral floors.
"This is a good chance for us to end the season on a more positive note," Hurley said.
The winner of ASU/Nebraska will then take on the winner of Georgetown/Washington State in the quarterfinals on April 2 at 6:30 p.m. at the MGM Arena. Semifinal and championship action will take place at T-Mobile Arena on April 5 and 6, respectively.
ASU is one of five Big 12 teams in the field. Other first-round games Monday:
MGM Grand: Utah (16-16) vs Butler (14-19), noon; George Washington (21-12) vs. Boise State (24-10), 2:30 p.m.; Georgetown (17-15) vs. Washington State (19-14), 8 p.m.
T-Mobile Arena: DePaul (14-19) vs. Cincinnati (18-15), noon; Oregon State (20-12) vs. Central Florida (17-16), 2:30 p.m.; Colorado (14-2) vs. Villanova (19-14) 5:30 p.m.; Tulane (19-14) vs. USC (16-17), 8 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State men's basketball competes for College Basketball Crown
Continue reading...
Coach Bobby Hurley gave his players a week off after that game, then they were back on the practice floor again. The season wasn't quite over.
ASU will be one of 16 teams participating in the first College Basketball Crown at two venues in Las Vegas over the next week.
ASU (13-19), the 15th-place finisher in the Big 12, opens play at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena against Nebraska (17-14), the 12th-place team out of the Big Ten. The game will air on FS1. Other games will be played at T-Mobile Arena, the former site of the Pac-12 Tournament.
The event is a joint venture between Fox Sports and the Anschutz Entertainment Group with an NIL component. The winning team takes home $300,000, while the runner-up gets $100,000 and the semifinalists $50,000 each.
ASU freshman Jayden Quaintance remains out with a knee injury, and Joson Sanon will not play after entering the transfer portal and committing to St. John's. Senior guard Adam Miller, who was slowed by hip and oblique injuries the last two weeks of the season, will play.
Hoops: Suns lookahead: Phoenix faces Houston Rockets before huge 3-game road trip
That leaves Hurley with seven scholarship players — including two guys who were never supposed to be part of the key rotation.
"We had to give the guys about a week off just because of the volume of minutes they have played with us so depleted," Hurley said. "When we got back, we're basically doing skill work. We can't do a lot of live stuff just because of the number of people we have available."
It will be the first meeting between the Sun Devils and Cornhuskers since 2008, which ended in a 64-44 Arizona State victory. ASU leads the all-time series, which dates back to 1968, 4-3. This will be the first matchup between the two sides at a neutral site.
Both teams have struggled. ASU has dropped five straight games and 11 of its last 12, while Nebraska lost its last five and six of the last seven.
The Cornhuskers boast a few players with whom Hurley is familiar because they played multiple years at former Pac-12 schools. That trio includes guard Rollie Worster (Utah), 7-1 center Braxton Meah (Washington) and 6-10 forward Berke Buyuktuncel (UCLA).
ASU was 5-9 at home and 3-8 on the road this season but did well on neutral courts, going 5-2. The Sun Devils defeated four teams that won 20 or more games (Saint Mary's, Grand Canyon, Santa Clara, New Mexico) in neutral settings in 2024-25.
Nebraska was 5-7 in road games and 2-1 on neutral floors.
"This is a good chance for us to end the season on a more positive note," Hurley said.
The winner of ASU/Nebraska will then take on the winner of Georgetown/Washington State in the quarterfinals on April 2 at 6:30 p.m. at the MGM Arena. Semifinal and championship action will take place at T-Mobile Arena on April 5 and 6, respectively.
ASU is one of five Big 12 teams in the field. Other first-round games Monday:
MGM Grand: Utah (16-16) vs Butler (14-19), noon; George Washington (21-12) vs. Boise State (24-10), 2:30 p.m.; Georgetown (17-15) vs. Washington State (19-14), 8 p.m.
T-Mobile Arena: DePaul (14-19) vs. Cincinnati (18-15), noon; Oregon State (20-12) vs. Central Florida (17-16), 2:30 p.m.; Colorado (14-2) vs. Villanova (19-14) 5:30 p.m.; Tulane (19-14) vs. USC (16-17), 8 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State men's basketball competes for College Basketball Crown
Continue reading...
