After his team suffered a blowout loss at Duke in an exhibition game last week, Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said “all jobs are open” for his rotation entering Tuesday’s season opener against Idaho State in Tempe, Ariz.
“I think (17-year-old freshman) Jayden Quaintance has kind of sealed a position, but outside of that, I still think I’m pretty wide open right now,” Hurley said Thursday during a press conference. “A lot of it will be determined over the next four practices.”
Quaintance, a forward, started against Duke along with senior wing BJ Freeman, senior guards Alston Mason and Adam Miller and junior center Shawn Phillips Jr.
Quaintance finished with 11 points, six rebounds and three assists in 31 minutes in the 103-47 loss to Duke, where Hurley was a two-time national champion and All-American as a guard from 1989-93.
Freeman, Mason, Miller and Phillips combined for 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Arizona State had only 11 assists to go with 18 turnovers.
“When the game began to get out of hand there was no resistance to stop it,” Hurley said. “There was just not enough of a backbone or a mental toughness to try and stop the bleeding.”
Hurley is 155-131 entering his 10th season at Arizona State. He is 197-151 overall including his two years at Buffalo before moving to Tempe.
Idaho State is beginning its sixth season under Ryan Looney, who is 53-97 leading the Bengals.
After Idaho State reached the semifinals of the Big Sky tournament last year for the first time since 2009, eight players departed via the transfer portal and all-conference center Brayden Parker exhausted his eligibility.
Looney signed nine new scholarship athletes, seven of which previously played at junior colleges, Division II programs or NAIA schools. He attracted two Division I transfers, including guard Dylan Darling from Washington State.
“Probably the most talented point guard we’ve had in my time in coaching at Idaho State,” Looney said of Darling, who was a medical redshirt last season after starting four games as a freshman in 2022-23.
–Field Level Media
