SOUTHWEST MAUI INVITATIONAL

November 24, 2025

Bobby Hurley

Anthony "Pig" Johnson

Moe Odum

Lahaina Civic Center

Arizona State Sun Devils

Postgame Press Conference

Arizona State 87, Texas 86

BOBBY HURLEY: I felt like that was a hell of a game. Felt like I'd say a tournament game. That's the vibe I had the whole time. And a really good team, Texas. Give them a lot of credit, what Sean has done, put together. Very good team defensively, physical, everything was difficult for 40 minutes. Both teams I think wanted to win badly.

Just credit my guys, when we got down 10 in the second half a lot of teams would have been not been able to respond, but we were able to make plays both ends of the floor and get back in it. So it was a testament to their resilience and what they've been doing so far.

Q. Moe, firstly, you started off a little slower but you stayed with it, getting to the free-throw line. How were you able to stay in this game and ultimately ending with 36?

MOE ODUM: I'll stay in the gym, so if I'm missing, if I'm turning the ball over, it's basketball, you're not going to be perfect the whole game. That's my mentality, just stay in it, because when my teammates get down, I'm the one telling them to stay in it, so how can I not stay in it myself?

BOBBY HURLEY: Heck, I played in this tournament and I never played as good as you played, my man.

Q. Moe, I don't know how you felt against Gonzaga, but there seemed to be a couple times where you guys were thinking we belong here but maybe didn't know you belong here. I didn't feel like that watching you against Texas. It felt like the whole game you knew you belonged. Can you compare and contrast the two feelings and the way you guys played?

MOE ODUM: Our first game against Gonzaga was a home game which was everybody's first big test against a ranked team and we're all mid majors. I feel like we played hard but we could have won that game, and Coach said that was the last moral victory. We didn't transfer to play high majors, we transferred to be high majors. That was my message, we're not about to keep getting moral victories.

ANTHONY JOHNSON: Same thing. No more moral victories. We've got to grind it out, man.

Q. For both of you, you really had to step up as guards with the bigs out. How did you counteract that? They had foul trouble but you guys really had some foul trouble with Massamba getting in foul trouble. How do you counteract needing to step up as guards?

ANTHONY JOHNSON: Hey, I always emphasize dog mentality. When it comes down to dog mentality it's who wants it more, and I know my team is going to want it more.

BOBBY HURLEY: I will say about Pig, I know Moe had the big game, but you're playing against a Sean Miller team on defense, it's like going to the dentist trying to score.

Pig early in that game I thought did a great job offensively getting to the basket, getting some points on the board for us so we could get our feet under us in the game.

Q. Coach mentioned your resiliency. Where did that come from? There was no panic from you folks in the game, even down 10.

MOE ODUM: Just practices. I feel like our practices are harder than games. Some people throw up in practice. We play literally to exhaustion in practice. If all we've got is a 40-minute game, there should be no question why our effort isn't the highest.

Q. Bobby, speaking on effort, it feels like this team has a different juice and a connectivity. Do you feel like that's the same way, especially on the defensive end?

BOBBY HURLEY: Yeah, I've felt like that really since the guys have been working in the summer and then the new guys arrived in September, some of our international guys, and the chemistry of the group has always been good on and off the court.

The guys seem to get along very well and play unselfishly the play the right way. It's just been a pleasure to coach these guys.

Q. Pig, based on what Coach said about your first half, were you just taking what the defense gives you, or did you feel like my team needs a lift right now because your spin move, your reverse, your and-1, there was some serious juice that it was clear watching that you guys seemed to need. Just reviewing the defense or was it more of an attack mode?

ANTHONY JOHNSON: Take what the defense gives you. My team was down and we needed to push, so I attacked the rim. That's what I do.

Q. Bobby, I want to know if you've had any time to reflect stepping back into this building, and especially getting a signature win like this for your program, it all kind of coming together? Have you taken a moment?

BOBBY HURLEY: Yeah, I've been here I think it was like 30 years ago, and then walking in for practice yesterday, it felt really cool to be back here. All the memories of playing in the event kind of came back to me.

Q. Bobby, your brother was here last year. He didn't do so well; didn't win a game. He was not as big a fan. He said they're not going to play these multiday tournaments anymore. Not only did you play in this, you added another game to it. Why, and what do you think this does for the team to come here and play road games that really test you?

BOBBY HURLEY: Yeah, I love the event and good things have happened when I've been in Hawai'i. I don't know how else to say that. In the NBA and college and high school I've had a lot of success here. And being a West Coast program, it's a little different than an East Coast program coming out to Hawai'i, a couple days to get acclimated to everything. So everybody is a little different and their thoughts on it.

Q. This issue coming up the last two games about Massamba getting into foul trouble and tonight you had another big in foul trouble, it really has hurt you guys. What adjustments need to get made so he doesn't have those problems the rest of this tournament and the rest of the way this season?

BOBBY HURLEY: Yeah, they're big, man. He is as physical and strong a big guy as there is maybe that I've seen in college basketball. I'm not surprised that he picked up fouls. He's a physical player.

Yeah, he's young and he's learning, and he's had some tough matchups like this early in the season to have already played against EK in this game so he's going to learn a lot from it and hopefully take a lot from it.

Q. You don't see it as a trend, you just see it as a matchup --

BOBBY HURLEY: I hope not. We're going to look at the film and we'll evaluate his fouls and see what we can do to help him, but I thought his defense on the last possession was big because we were considering going smaller, switching everything, and we went with him and we switched off and they had Swain on him -- it wasn't Swain, was it? It was Mark, I think, and he couldn't go by him, and that was a key defensive play.

Q. Can you take us through the 10-point deficit in the second half? Anything change in the huddle? Anything you said? What was going on?

BOBBY HURLEY: Well, we talk about goalie help. When we say goalie help, weak-side players go from strong side to weak side. You have to stay help side, and they were getting slips to the basket and getting lay-ups. That went on for a little while. Then in the next media we stopped rebounding.

The message was, hey, can we just talk about all the issues we're having defensively allowing them to score in the paint and driving the ball and just do all those things that are necessary.

It was a tough huddle, I'm not going to lie. It was as heated as it got all game. But the guys responded, and then the next huddle was like, hey, we didn't win anything. We scored 11 straight or something but now we've got to start over again and do the things that got us to that point.

Q. Tell me about your screen roll coverage. Was that part of the plan to make a lot of changes, or was it more adjusting to what they were doing as the game went on?

BOBBY HURLEY: We were just trying to, as best we could, switch some things, put a force field around the paint as much as possible, and make them hit perimeter shots. That didn't really work completely because what did they have, 46 in the paint? That's a big number.

We got to review that, got to go over it. But they are big and physical, so you would expect that they might have a bit of an advantage on us there.

Q. Talk about Moe in practice. How do you know? How do you know he's got this in him, game in -- I think it was 1:46 left in the first half when he made his first field goal and yet he's smooth as soon as he gets rolling.

BOBBY HURLEY: Well, we as a staff watched his WCC tournament last year, and he really put up big numbers in that event for Pepperdine against really good teams, St. Mary's and teams like that in the tournament. So we thought his game would translate.

Sometimes when you're a coach there's a ceremonious hand to guard the ball and hey, run my team. But he just went in the gym in practice and dominated practice and said, hey, I'm the guy. So I'm going to lead this team. He did it by action, and from there, we've just been kind of following his heart.

Q. You've got a quick turnaround, and I know you savor win, but you've got a quick turnaround. What kind of things loom in your mind right now that you think you need to fix or talk about and be ready to change and do better in the next game?

BOBBY HURLEY: Well, we watch the game. I watched as much of that game as I could, the first game before us, so we have to now reset and leave all the emotion that happened at the end, the dramatic way that we won the game, and now figure out a way to be mature enough emotionally to come back out again.

We have an opportunity in the semifinals to go to the championship game, and that's got to be the only thing that we're thinking about between now and 3:00 I think it is.