Bobby Hurley is not expected to return as Arizona State men’s basketball coach after the Sun Devils’ loss in the Big 12 Tournament to Iowa State.
Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro reports he is expected to soon meet with his team and inform them of his departure.
Whichever coach ASU tabs to replace Hurley, whose contract reportedly will not be renewed, will be tasked with navigating obstacles that, in part, prevented Hurley from reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament in his 11 seasons.
Resources will be diverted primarily to football as long as Kenny Dillingham has his program heading in a positive direction. And while Desert Financial Arena renovations are coming, the light at the end of that tunnel is just a glimmer for now, with a targeted completion date of December 2029.
Roster construction will warrant a quick coaching search because the transfer portal opens on April 7 and closes after April 21. ASU players will be able to enter the portal sooner than that because of the coaching change element at play.
There are a handful of other high-major jobs already open that ASU may have to contend with to get the coach of its choosing, including Big 12 foe Kansas State, along with Syracuse, Providence, Georgia Tech and Boston College.
Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro reports there are five leading candidates to know as the search begins.
ASU men’s basketball head coaching candidates to replace Bobby Hurley
Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s head coach
Bennett has long been linked to ASU, largely due to growing up in Mesa with a father who coached Mesa Community College men’s basketball for 19 years.
He’s been the head coach at Saint Mary’s since 2001, boasting a record of 589-227 (.722). The Gaels’ current 27-5 record is their best in his tenure, and they’ve lost fewer than 10 games in each of the past five seasons, with WCC regular-season titles in each of the past four.
The 63-year-old Bennett is 7-11 in the NCAA Tournament with one Sweet 16 appearance.
Some have speculated that with Gonzaga’s move out of the WCC, Bennett may seek his first job change in 2.5 decades.
Jerrod Calhoun, Utah State head coach
Utah State has become a feeder system for coaches, with its three previous coaches before Calhoun getting high-major jobs after leading the Aggies for three years or less. The 44-year-old, who replaced now-Washington coach Danny Sprinkle, is the next in line after two seasons at a combined 51-14.
Youngstown State had just one 20-win season over its first 36 years of Division 1 play prior to Calhoun’s arrival in 2017-18, and he notched two such seasons to close out his tenure (46-20 combined).
He’s a branch off the Bob Huggins tree, which shows up in this year’s Utah State team ranking 28th nationally in steals per game (8.6).
Jase Coburn, Portland State head coach
Coburn stands out as a Kenny Dillingham-type of hire because he grew up in the Valley, attended ASU (class of 2006) and picked up coaching at a young age at Corona Del Sol High School in Tempe. He had other coaching stops at Phoenix Junior College and McClintock High.
The 42-year-old, who has been in the role for five years, has produced two of Portland State’s top three seasons for wins over the program’s last 17 years (39-24 over the last two seasons). He was 30 years old when he took a Vikings assistant coaching job, and he was named associate head coach five years later.
He won his first regular-season title this season, and conference accolades for coach, player and defensive player of the year came with it. However, Portland State won’t be seen in the NCAA Tournament after it came up three points shy of erasing a 19-point deficit in the Big Sky Tournament semifinals.
Eric Olen, New Mexico head coach
Olen has a crucial tie to ASU, having grown up with athletic director Graham Rossini in Mobile, Alabama.
The 45-year-old garnered national notoriety in the 2025 NCAA Tournament when his 30-win UC San Diego squad was three points away from completing an upset against Michigan. That was his crowning moment of more than two decades with the Tritons, which began as an assistant and included a transition to Division 1 halfway through his head-coaching tenure.
It’s taken no time for the success to continue at New Mexico in a more competitive Mountain West, with a 22-9 record in his first year as the Lobos enter their conference tournament.
Olen has accomplished it with an analytics-driven approach on offense that’s allowed freshman Jake Hall (not among the top-400 recruits in 2025) to shoot a conference-leading 44.4% from 3 on 7.2 attempts per game. Additionally, Croatian freshman forward Tomislav Buljan has rebounded at a conference-leading rate (10.3 per game).
Josh Schertz, Saint Louis head coach
Schertz is a program builder, boasting 27 in his second year at Saint Louis after reaching 32 wins in his third year at Indiana State.
The Billikens have lived and died by the 3 this season. They’ve shot 40.5% on the year to lead the nation with Trey Green hitting 45.5% (leads A-10) of his 6.2 attempts per game. Three of their four losses have come in their only three games at or below 25% as a team.
Prior to his two Division 1 stops, the 50-year-old had a staggering 337-69 (.830) record, leading Division 2 power Lincoln Memorial for 13 seasons.
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