OAKLAND, Calif. – Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley urges everyone to look around the country. At Michigan State, for example.
The Spartans were the nation’s No. 1 team. Then they went to Ohio State and got thumped. They needed overtime to beat lowly Rutgers and lost at home to rival Michigan. His point: Every team struggles at some point, and after Wednesday’s loss at Stanford, that’s where the Sun Devils find themselves, losers of four of six entering Saturday’s contest at California.
Hurley’s task: Shaking ASU from its funk, which might require tough decisions. The Sun Devils (14-4 and 2-4 in the Pac-12) no longer resemble the team that blitzed through the non-conference season, beating Kansas State, Xavier and Kansas.