Arizona State basketball head coach Bobby Hurley broke his silence on BJ Freeman’s dismissal from the program. The star guard was the Sun Devils’ leading scorer and last played on February 18 against Houston. A transfer from UW-Milwaukee, this decision comes a few weeks after Freeman received a one-game suspension after being ejected in back-to-back Big 12 games.
Hurley, who is in his tenth year in Tempe, gave an explanation for this dismissal after the Sun Devils’ 66-54 win against Kansas State.
“It was just unfortunate that it came to this. He’s our leading scorer and a very productive player for us. It’s just we’ve had too many instances of either player or coach conduct with BJ, and he was already suspended once. It was a tough decision to make, but it was based on this year, and he’s got another season to play. I’m sure that he’s going to still have a really good market for a place to land next year.”
Bobby Hurley looks to regroup in what has been a disappointing first year in the Big 12
Despite an encouraging non-conference slate, the Sun Devils have had a very underwhelming season. Arizona State basketball was 9-2 heading into its first Big 12 schedule, with multiple wins over likely tournament teams. Unfortunately, Bobby Hurley’s squad now sits at 13-14 overall and 4-12 in conference play. That includes a six-game losing streak that was broken on Sunday night.
Freeman was a productive player for this team until his dismissal. The Selma, North Carolina native was averaging 13.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game for the Sun Devils. Regarding the two ejections, the first came on January 28 against Colorado, where Freeman recorded a flagrant 2 foul while navigating a screen on defense. The second ejection was against rival Arizona on a play that the guard headbutted Wildcats’ All-American Caleb Love.
Overall, the loss of Freeman is still tough for the Sun Devils’ program. Bobby Hurley has been to the NCAA Tournament three times during his tenure in Tempe. On each occasion, Arizona State had to play in the First Four and have never made it past the first round of March Madness. To this point, it doesn’t feel like the program has found consistency under its head coach. That current predicament, however, does not mean things can’t change.
The Sun Devils are in a much better basketball conference in the Big 12 than before and are using creative initiatives to raise NIL money for the program. It’s a new era in college basketball, and there’s no reason Arizona State basketball can’t consistently be a team that shows up in brackets annually.
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