Hurley rips players as Purdue easily trounces Arizona State

NEW YORK –This was an Arizona State journey into the land of the giants, standing tall among the skyscrapers in the heart of the big city.

But not only does 19th-ranked Purdue feature the talented towers – 7-foot-2 center Isaac Haas and heralded 6-9 forward Caleb Swanigan – it has smaller guys, relatively speaking, that have a smooth touch from behind the 3-point stripe.

Bobby Hurley was concerned about the size disadvantage against the Big Ten’s Boilermakers in the Jimmy V Classic on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. So the ASU coach gave 6-10, 265pound, work-in-progress center Jethro Tshisumpa his first collegiate start. The freshman finished with no points and two rebounds in 15 minutes.

This had the look of a difficult game for the Sun Devils and it was – for all of them. They were out of their league in more ways than one.

Haas contributed 16 points and seven rebounds, his teammates made 15 3pointers, and Purdue pulverized the Sun Devils 97-64.

Then Hurley pulverized them, shredding his players for putting up very little fight after the first eight minutes with the exception of Kodi Justice and Maurice O’Field.

“We identify ourselves with making jump shots,” said Hurley, coaching across the Hudson River from where he starred as a player at St. Anthony’s High in Jersey City, New Jersey. “Right now, we’re a soft team. We don’t have any backbone.

“When we didn’t make our shots, as sometimes frontrunners might do, we folded and we gave in. It was sad to see. For a city that’s a blue-collar city and an arena that has so much tradition and so many good players that played on this court, to look like that was embarrassing. And then the cause. It’s such a great cause (cancer research) that we’re playing for tonight. Did my players play as hard as the people that are going through what they go through in cancer and families go through in personal situations? So we embarrassed the cause, too, with how we competed.”

Shannon Evans paced ASU (5-4) with 16 points, and Torian Graham added 14.

The Sun Devils shot just 35.8 percent from the floor, including 4 of 26 from 3point range. Purdue (7-2) shot 59.4 percent from the floor, with the 15 3s coming on 27 tries. The Boilermakers crushed Arizona State on the boards at a 44-28 advantage. Swanigan grabbed 10 rebounds to go with six points and five assists before he fouled out with 3:16 left.

When Justice fed Graham for a jam, ASU had a 10-9 lead. Then Purdue suddenly hit the gas. The domination came from inside and out.

When Hass followed with another two off an offensive rebound, Purdue had a 26-2 run and a 35-12 advantage.