It hasn't taken long for ex-Duke star Bobby Hurley to turn Arizona State into a Pac-12 contender

The high-intensity success Bobby Hurley enjoyed in snowy New York has translated to the Arizona desert.

Arizona State will take the court with a similar core to those teams that lost to the Utes each of the past two seasons, including a 35-point blowout loss during their last visit in February 2016. However, Hurley’s charges have experienced vastly different results this winter as the No. 4 Sun Devils (12-2, 0-2) face the Utes (10-4, 2-1) at 6 p.m. Sunday in the Huntsman Center.

Hurley, the former Duke star point guard who led his team to three Final Four appearances and back-to-back national championships, won 19 games in his first season as coach at Buffalo. He followed that with 23 wins, a conference championship and the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance before making the jump to ASU.

The Sun Devils went 15-17 in Hurley’s first season in 2015-16, a season in which the Pac-12 put seven teams in the NCAA Tournament.

“It was a great year for the Pac-12. It wasn’t the best year for me to have my first season,” Hurley said Wednesday. “I got a chance to see from a talent standpoint what you need to be really competitive at the highest level and see what Arizona, Oregon, UCLA, USC and they all had. Talent-wise I knew we had to work hard, recruit, get the right kids, and it might take a little longer than I thought it would.”

The Sun Devils have wins against Kansas State, Xavier, Vanderbilt and Kansas on their resume this season after two seasons below .500. They are three wins shy of matching their win total from each of the past two seasons.

“My whole upbringing was Jersey City, hard-nosed,” said Hurley, son of high school coaching legend and Naismith Hall of Fame member Bob Hurley Sr.. “My dad was a very defensive-minded coach. The same thing with my experience at Duke playing for [Mike] Krzyzewski.

“It’s that pride that you take in defending and how that can translate in playing an up-tempo style of offense. How the game is played in the Pac-12 suits me in terms of what I think about offense, getting the ball up and down the floor and playing at a good tempo.”

A trio of senior guards lead the Sun Devils. Tra Holder (22.1 points per game, 4.9 rebounds per game, 4.3 assists per game), Shannon Evans II (16.6 ppg, 4.5 apg) and Kodi Justice (13.2 ppg) all were part of the program during Hurley’s first two seasons. That group has been bolstered by the addition of freshman guard Remy Martin, an ESPN and Scout.com top 100 prospect out of high school.

The big difference in the Sun Devils roster this season has been in the frontcourt, with additions such as 6-foot-8 freshman Romello White, 6-10 junior college transfer De’quon Cook and 6-7 Ohio State transfer Mickey Mitchell.

The Sun Devils went on a foreign tour this summer and played professional teams in Italy and Spain to get a feel for their potential. Evans, who played his first two seasons at Buffalo for Hurley, said the game plan to change the program at ASU has been the same as it was in the winter wonderland 2,200 miles away.

The same “fearless mentality” has combined with top-notch facilities, Evans said. He pointed to the bonding experience of the foreign trip as the primary catalyst for the team’s early season success, with players developing stronger relationships on and off the court.

“We were just having the time of our lives,” Evans said. “Guys were being funny and hanging out at the beaches and enjoying whatever Rome and Barcelona has to offer. Guys were bonding. We were away from home with each other — that’s all we had. It was a great time. I felt like from that point forward, we just always wanted to be around each other. Stuff on the court started happening because we started liking each other.”

So far, Evans’ faith in transferring from Buffalo to stay with Hurley has been rewarded. He describes changes in the “culture” such as the dynamic in the locker room, how players interact with coaches, the time put in with graduate assistants, the tougher training and conditioning regiments, and the influx of highly rated recruits.

“I always wanted to do something special at ASU,” Evans said. “Being ranked in the top five and Final Four — people talking about stuff like that — has always been a goal of mine. Even though we have a long way to go to get to that point, these have all been goals of mine since I’ve been here. I feel like they’ve been goals of Tra’s and Kodi’s as well.”