ASU Head Coach Orders Men's Basketball Team to Leave the Court, Skip Post-Game Handshake

The end to Saturday’s Arizona versus Arizona State men’s basketball game lacked a standard tradition for the ending of most athletic competitions: the post-game handshake. Instead of the classic “good game” between rivals, the Sun Devils were ordered off the bench and immediately into the locker room as University of Arizona declared a narrow victory over ASU.

ASU head coach Bobby Hurley remained on the court for a few final seconds before waving off Tommy Lloyd, head coach for University of Arizona, and retreating to the locker room followed by the five remaining on-court players.  

Moments before this quiet ending, two players were ejected from the game after getting into an on-court altercation in which an ASU’s BJ Freeman headbutted Arizona’s Caleb Love.

In a post-game interview, Hurley said, “If you look right near our bench, it was relentless constant chatter from a couple of the Arizona players that was not being policed properly. Of course, they’re going to be happy with winning, but it was done with no class, in my opinion."

"Words that were said back and forth led to the moment where Freeman 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 into the locker room so there would be no further incident the rest of the game and in the handshake line,” he continued.

In response, coach Lloyd said, “We want to be a program that when tough things happen, we want to respond with class. I don’t know if we did or didn’t, but just a tough moment in an emotional game. I got a lot of respect for Bobby and Arizona State.”

The Sun Devils are scheduled to meet Arizona once again on March 4, where the long-standing rivalry will be retested at Arizona.