A bad season just continues to get worse for Arizona State basketball. The team is , sitting squarely in the Big 12 basement with virtually no chance to make the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year.
Sunday, ahead of its tilt with Kansas State , the Sun Devils will be without their top scorer in senior BJ Freeman who has reportedly departed the program. The six-foot-six transfer from Milwaukee averaged No official reason has been given for why Freeman left or whether he was dismissed by the team.
Freeman was the subject of several controversial moments in ASU's season. He was also ejected twice earlier in the year, most notably for head-butting Arizona's Caleb Love. That altercation resulted in Hurley pulling his players from the court before shaking hands with the Wildcats post game. Compounded with injuries, Hurley's squad has been seriously hampered. He now only has seven players to use in his rotation with Freeman's departure and just five regular season games remaining to attempt to end the year on a positive note.
The team is nowhere near the NCAA Tournament bubble and would need a miracle run in the Big 12 Tournament to even sniff the postseason.
It's more likely than not that the Sun Devils will be first round fodder for whichever team it faces in March. The next question to be answered after details of the reason Freeman left eventually emerge will be whether Hurley keeps his job after this disaster of a year. Athletic director Graham Rossini previously expressed his confidence in Hurley's abilities but that was before the team completed its skid of losing six straight and 11 of its last 13 games.
