By Adam Beadle
Multimedia Specialist
The rivalry between Arizona and Arizona State doesn't tend to be a friendly matchup, and in Saturday afternoon’s game, the rising tension between the teams resulted in something unperceived.
With 30 seconds remaining in the game, junior guard Jaden Bradley drove toward the basket to give Arizona an 81-72 lead over the Sun Devils, which would stand as the final score. But when ASU came back down the court offensively, senior guard BJ Freeman headbutted UA’s fifth-year senior guard Caleb Love, causing both players to be ejected.
This only fueled the already-growing fire inside head coach Bobby Hurley, who had already received a technical foul and ripped off his tie earlier in the game.
Without hesitation, ASU’s bench began to exit the floor and make their way to the locker room, refusing to shake hands postgame as the clock fell to zero.
“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 was an attributing factor to ASU not shaking hands after the final horn. “Of course, they are going to be happy with winning, but it was done with no class, in my opinion.”
“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 would be no further incidents the rest of the game and in the handshake line.”
Hurley said an incident may have occurred if ASU had gone through the handshake line and wanted to avoid further confrontation.
Senior guard Adam Miller, who finished with 16 points, declined to comment on the activity that went on postgame.
Hurley revealed postgame that Miller had been sick and had not practiced since the team returned Tuesday night after ASU’s win over Colorado.
Miller’s fatigue didn’t stop him from playing 34 minutes, but collectively, as a team, he said ASU needs to do a better job playing the entire game.
“We’ve done a good job of coming together and putting on that ASU jersey, and you know, coming out and performing for 30 minutes, but it’s a 40-minute game,” Miller said. “On this level, we’re right there every time, and that’s the part that hurts.”
Miller said he plans to hold a players-only meeting with the team on Sunday.
ASU had been right there with the Wildcats throughout the game, only down one at halftime. However, Hurley said it was a stretch at the beginning of the second half, in which ASU was up five and turned the ball over twice, that UA could pull ahead.
Hurley liked ASU’s aggressiveness on defense but didn’t like his team's rebounding efforts.
Hurley’s frustration was enough for him to get out of his seat and demonstrate what he wanted his team to get better at doing during his postgame press conference.
“I have to do a better job of teaching,” Hurley said. “Teaching my post players how to dislodge a player and just move him as far under the basket as possible, into the cheerleaders at times, sometimes as your player drives to the basket. It must be nice to someone to pave the road for you like that. Where you literally just wipe out a defender and take him out of any type of help.”
Despite the return of freshman forward Jayden Quaintance, Hurley said the team still needs to find a way to improve at home.
“Guys get hurt; you got to overcome it,” Hurley said. “You got to figure out a way. We just haven’t. We figured some things out on the road, we just haven’t, you know, got it done in our building. You can’t lose four conference games at this point in the season in the Big 12 race and expect to ber in the picture. We just haven't done a good job.”
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