Bobby Hurley era Arizona State was led by head coach Bobby Hurley (eleven seasons), who replaced
Herb Sendek. Sendek was credited for bringing a "basketball atmosphere" and level of excitement to Arizona State that had been absent for years. In his first four seasons at Arizona State, Sendek led the Sun Devils to three consecutive 20 win seasons, the 2009 Pac-10 conference tournament finals, and the second round of the
2009 NCAA tournament and
2014 NCAA tournament. Hurley, in turn, took the Sun Devils to the
2018,
2019, and
2023 NCAA Tournaments. During his 11 seasons in Tempe, Hurley secured 15 victories over ranked teams, including 9 wins over top 15 teams. The Sun Devils earned a 3-seed and first-round bye in the
Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament and were scheduled to play Washington State when the tournament was canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The
2020 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was also canceled due to the pandemic. While the NCAA did not release seedings for the canceled tournament, the Sun Devils were projected by ESPN's Joe Lunardi in his end-of-season "Bracketology" to be a 9-seed. This would have been the first time since 1964 that the Sun Devils had made the tournament in three straight years. ==Head coaches==