When Bobby Hurley was hired by Arizona State in 2015, I was excited.

A fellow New Jersey guy with old-school basketball roots, whose famous father I worshipped, Hurley was an inspired, if curious, hire. He was coming off a successful 2-year run with the MAC’s Buffalo Bulls, leading them to the NCAA Tournament in just his 2nd season at the helm, and he was taking over for Herb Sendek, who proved Tempe was a place where top talent wanted to go, winning 20 games in 5 of 9 seasons and bringing in stars like James Harden.

The stage appeared set for Hurley, the Duke star, one of the great college basketball players of all time, to awake the sleeping giant.

And ever since, it’s been mostly a snooze fest.

The Sun Devils entered the season coming off a 14-17 campaign, which followed an 11-14 season. The Sun Devils’ best mark under Hurley is now a half-decade old, when the team went 23-11 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Round of 64 for the first and only time in his tenure, a year after a First Four appearance.

There have been big wins in the past — including an upset at No. 2 Kansas in Dec. 2017 and another upset of the top-ranked Jayhawks at home in 2018 — but never that signature win over a dominant Arizona team. Until Saturday.

In spectacular fashion, Hurley and the Sun Devils stunned the 7th-ranked Wildcats, 89-88, at McKale Center with a buzzer-beating half-court heave by leading scorer Desmond Cambridge Jr. as time expired.

It was that signature moment that Hurley has been seeking. A defining moment in a tenure sorely lacking them.

But did it come too late? For this season, and beyond?

*****

Coming off a rather embarrassing 2021-22 campaign, Hurley vowed at Pac-12 Media Day that he was a changed man, or at last an evolved one. The Sun Devils’ chemistry had been noticeably off the last two years, with highly touted prospects failing to live up to lofty expectations and a cohesive unit failing to form.

He drew criticism for the tough way he rode his players, as if he knew any other way. In an era of bruised egos and wounded psyches, Hurley conceded that he may need to change up his ball-busting style.

He laughed about how Mike Krzyzewski used to ride and chide him at Duke. He told me a story of his freshman year at a banquet with donors where they served barbeque.

“Coach K is up at the podium and he says, ‘Hey, Hurley is from Jersey; when we said we’re having barbeque, he thought we were having hamburgers and hot dogs,” Hurley said, smiling. “There was always a little shot for me.”

Hurley’s learning that might not fly anymore in the NIL era. It’s a delicate balance — go at a kid too soft, and you don’t get the best out of him; ride him too hard, he might bounce to the NBA or a hundred other NCAA schools. Hurley admitted that he needed to focus more on team unity and cohesion than X’s and O’s.

“I think with us I’ve had to shift gears,” he said. “In the summer I’ve been all player development and guys trying to get better, skill work and working with the guys in smaller groups. We’ve done a lot more, I think, team-related workouts, putting in drills that we’ll use in practice, installing some offense. We didn’t start the season well last year, and I’m not making that the singular reason that we weren’t prepared enough with the change we had on our roster, but I think we’ve focused on doing more of that and hopefully that’s putting us in a better position to play well early in the season.

“As far as coaches, you always self-evaluate and you take a look at what you can get better at and what your team needs to do better.”

This year, the Sun Devils have been vastly improved, particularly in non-conference play, when they started the season 11-1 before falling to San Francisco in the non-conference finale and then Arizona in their next game.

On Saturday, they scored a revenge win against the Wildcats in the wildest of ways. Arizona led by 10 with 6 minutes, 30 seconds to go, but then went more than 6 minutes without a field goal as ASU crept back in it.

A Warren Washington layup put the Sun Devils up 86-85 with 1:17 left, but a Pelle Larsson layup and a Oumar Ballo free throw gave the Cats an 88-86 lead with 2 seconds left. Following Ballo’s free throw, Cambridge took the inbounds pass, dribbled closer to midcourt and let it fly. Game. Buckets.

“A lot of euphoria in the locker room,” Hurley told reporters after the game, according to the Arizona Republic’s Michelle Gardner. “It was a heck of a shot. Been involved in playing Arizona a number of times over the years and this is just an epic game. I thought the quality of the game was a very high level, very well played. We’re a very good defensive team and that’s like the best we could do and so lot of credit to them. They’re a top program so to come out here and do what we did today is pretty special.”

Will it be enough to get the Sun Devils into the NCAA Tournament? As it stands, no. Arizona State likely needs a win over top-2 seed UCLA or the (probably) Tournament-bound USC Trojans next week, and a couple Pac-12 Tournament wins would help the cause, too.

There’s a bigger question, though: Even if the Sun Devils do go dancing, does Hurley come back next season?

The rumors have been floating around for weeks. St. John’s and Georgetown are both once again in the midst of down seasons. Might Hurley be interested back east?

And would Arizona State dissuade him from doing so at this point?

ASU’s terrific 15-3 start, which included a 6-1 start to Pac-12 play, quickly descended during a 1-5 stretch that cooled the Sun Devils’ scorching NCAA Tournament hopes.

One sizzling shot on Saturday night may have rekindled them.

But will it be enough to rekindle the spark in the Hurley/ASU marriage? That will take some time to figure out.