BERKELEY, Calif. - For Arizona State basketball coach Bobby Hurley, defeating Cal wasn't a chance to get the proverbial monkey off his back and complete that elusive road sweep. It was more about trying to keep pace with those teams at the top of the Pac-12 and further his team's cause for a third NCAA postseason bid in as many years.
The Sun Devils did all the above, turning back pesky California 80-75 Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion. The milestones were many. It marked not just the first conference sweep in Hurley's tenure but the first in a decade, the last one coming when ASU swept the Oregon schools in January 2010 under then-coach Rob Evans, prior to Hurley's predecessor Herb Sendek.