Bobby Hurley moments before the end of Arizona State's loss to Arizona. Photo Credit: CBS
College BasketballESPNBy Reice Shipley on

Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley has always played the role of the villain in college basketball dating back to his days as a player with the Duke Blue Devils. But on Saturday, Hurley gave fans and media members alike a reason to criticize him after he and his team opted not to take part in the postgame handshake line.

Saturday’s matchup between the two rival programs featured some very chippy moments, none more than when Arizona State’s BJ Freeman and Arizona’s Caleb Love were ejected after Freeman appeared to headbutt Love with 30.7 left in the game that was well in hand for Arizona.

With tempers clearly still boiling on both sides, Hurley decided to send his team to the locker room before the final buzzer without having them taking part in a postgame handshake.

This upset Arizona alum turned ESPN NBA analyst Richard Jefferson, who took to social media in a series of posts to call Hurley a “clown” for how the end of the game was handled.

“Hey Bobby, you still acting like a clown,” wrote Jefferson on X. “He’s always been this way from my days working at the PAC-12. Feel free to share with him. BTFD.” 

“I support a lifetime contract for Bobby Hurley at ASU,” wrote Jefferson jokingly. “Like and share if you agree. Arizona will pitch in to make sure he keeps coaching.”

Bobby Hurley would explain his decision to have the two sides avoid each other after the game, outlining how he believed Arizona players were “classless” with their talk on the court before Freeman headbutted Love.

“It was relentless, constant chatter from some of the Arizona players that was not being policed properly,” said Hurley in his postgame press conference shared on X by Chris Karpman. “Of course they are going to be happy with winning. But it was done with no class. Words that were said back and forth led to the moment Freeman lost his cool. Because of the constant talk that was allowed to go on. So I had to make a tough decision in the best interest of our team.”

Jefferson took notice of this as well and further put Hurley on blast for warning “multiple analysts” in past years when Jefferson was at the Pac-12 Network to not say “anything but positive things” about Arizona State.

“He would call the PAC-12 offices if you said anything even remotely constructive about ASU,” wrote Jefferson.  Multiple analysts were warned. He would complain that the schools owned the network and they BETTER not say anything but positive things. I could go on more about his antics but I’ll let him just take the L.”

Hurley would go on to condemn the behavior of Caleb Love in particular, even going as far as saying that he will not be voting for Love when it comes to the Big 12 All-Conference votes due to his behavior.

“I’ll tell you this, I do get a vote for All-Conference. And I’ll tell you who isn’t getting a vote,” Hurley said, seemingly referring to Love.

Jefferson also took notice of this, saying that Arizona State has always had this kind of petty reputation which led to he and many of his former teammates at Arizona to pick the Wildcats over the Sun Devils.

“As a Phoenix kid this was ALWAYS the reputation of ASU. Hence why Mike Bibby, Channing Frye, Bayless and myself chose U of A. Ps… I went 6-0 vs them,” wrote Jefferson.

It obviously makes sense as to why Jefferson is sticking up for his Arizona Wildcats here. But it sure seems like his contempt for Hurley goes much deeper than just his collegiate allegiances…

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley