The Arizona State-Arizona basketball rivalry matchup on Saturday ended with some fireworks and controversy.
Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley sent his bench players to the locker room with 30 seconds left in the game. The teams agreed to skip the postgame handshake line after the Wildcats’ Caleb Love and Sun Devils’ BJ Freeman were ejected with less than a minute left in Arizona’s 81-72 win at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona.
Following the game, Hurley was asked about his decision to forgo the handshake line and get his team out of a heated situation. Hurley pointed to the ‘constant chatter’ coming from Arizona players.
‘If you were right near our bench, it was relentless, constant chatter from a couple of Arizona players that was not being policed properly,’ Hurley said postgame. ‘Of course, they are going to be happy with winning, but it was done with no class, in my opinion. The words that were said back and forth led to the moment where Freeman lost it and lost his cool because of the constant talk that was allowed to go on.
‘I had to make a tough decision in the best interest of our team to get them off the court and to the locker room so there would be no further incident the rest of the game and in the handshake line.
‘I just saw it was very heated and the possibility something else could happen and I was going to avoid that. I wanted to avoid any further confrontation at the end of the game,’ Hurley added.
Look: Caleb Love, BJ Freeman ejected
Love was initially ejected after he retaliated, but replays showed Freeman headbutted Love first, which also led to his ejection.
Hurley clearly took issue with Love’s actions, stating during postgame availability: ‘I get a vote for [Big 12] All-Conference, and I can tell you who’s not getting my vote’
The teams are scheduled to face off again on March 4.