HE MODERATOR: We continue here. It's great to have the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils entering his ninth season, Bobby Hurley, coach. Great to see you.
BOBBY HURLEY: Thank you.
Q. We're less than a month away from your opener, and you'll be in Chicago to play Mississippi State. Give us a sense for how you feel about your team.
BOBBY HURLEY: We had a really good summer. I think it starts there. We got back in June and took a foreign trip for the first time in a number of years, with COVID and everything. It was a great experience for our players getting a chance to play two pro games in France and Greece.
Just a great bonding experience, great educational experience for our players.
Q. How important is that, Bobby? Like a lot of schools in this day and age of college basketball, a lot of roster turnover. How important -- it seems like every team in the league took a trip to Europe this summer. How important is that when you have so many new players coming in?
BOBBY HURLEY: Yeah, it's huge. Nine new players, two high school players, a junior college player, and six transfers. A good core nucleus with Frankie Collins, Jamiya Neal, and Alonzo Gaffney. But just to see the guys interact off the court and getting along and laughing and having a good time, it really accelerates the process of bringing a group together.
Q. Bobby, can you talk about the improvement in the game of Jamiya Neal. Obviously he was injured to start last year and then really was maybe your best player at the end of the year. Can you talk about his importance and his progress.
BOBBY HURLEY: Jamiya, he was cut out to have a better season last year. Injuries derailed the first part of his season. He had a setback and kind of fell behind some guys in the rotation. As the year went on, he really gained a lot of confidence and momentum.
Austin Nunez was out with injury late in the year, and that provided an opening for him to go get more playing time, and he took full advantage of it. He was, as you said, one of our best players down the stretch. Played great at Arizona. Played great in the Pac-12 Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.
So I feel like he's taken another step. He's been a great leader this summer. He's going to cushion the blow of losing Des Cambridge and DJ Horne, who put a lot of points on the board for us last year.
BOBBY HURLEY: Thank you.
Q. We're less than a month away from your opener, and you'll be in Chicago to play Mississippi State. Give us a sense for how you feel about your team.
BOBBY HURLEY: We had a really good summer. I think it starts there. We got back in June and took a foreign trip for the first time in a number of years, with COVID and everything. It was a great experience for our players getting a chance to play two pro games in France and Greece.
Just a great bonding experience, great educational experience for our players.
Q. How important is that, Bobby? Like a lot of schools in this day and age of college basketball, a lot of roster turnover. How important -- it seems like every team in the league took a trip to Europe this summer. How important is that when you have so many new players coming in?
BOBBY HURLEY: Yeah, it's huge. Nine new players, two high school players, a junior college player, and six transfers. A good core nucleus with Frankie Collins, Jamiya Neal, and Alonzo Gaffney. But just to see the guys interact off the court and getting along and laughing and having a good time, it really accelerates the process of bringing a group together.
Q. Bobby, can you talk about the improvement in the game of Jamiya Neal. Obviously he was injured to start last year and then really was maybe your best player at the end of the year. Can you talk about his importance and his progress.
BOBBY HURLEY: Jamiya, he was cut out to have a better season last year. Injuries derailed the first part of his season. He had a setback and kind of fell behind some guys in the rotation. As the year went on, he really gained a lot of confidence and momentum.
Austin Nunez was out with injury late in the year, and that provided an opening for him to go get more playing time, and he took full advantage of it. He was, as you said, one of our best players down the stretch. Played great at Arizona. Played great in the Pac-12 Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.
So I feel like he's taken another step. He's been a great leader this summer. He's going to cushion the blow of losing Des Cambridge and DJ Horne, who put a lot of points on the board for us last year.
