BJ Freeman is no longer with the Arizona State men’s basketball team due to conduct detrimental to the team, a team spokesperson confirmed to Arizona Sports on Sunday.

“It was just unfortunate that it came to this. He’s our leading scorer and a very productive player for us,” coach Bobby Hurley told reporters postgame. “It’s just we’ve had too many instances of either player or coach conduct with BJ, and he was already suspended once.

“It was a really hard decision to make, but it was based on this year, and he’s got another season to play,” Hurley continued. “I’m sure that he’s going to still have a very good market for a place to land next year.”

AZCentral’s Michelle Gardner first reported the dismissal.

Freeman was ejected in back-to-back games against Colorado (Jan. 28) and Arizona (Feb. 1) before later earning a one-game suspension that kept him out of a meeting with Oklahoma State (Feb. 9).

The senior ends his season as ASU’s leading scorer, averaging 13.7 points per game. He hit his stride when conference play arrived, averaging 15.6 points (39.4% 3-point shooting) and 2.6 assists over 14 games.

Beginning with Kansas State, ASU has five regular-season games remaining without a path to an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament.

What events led to BJ Freeman leaving ASU?

Freeman landed at ASU as a transfer from UW-Milwaukee after averaging 25.8 points in his final Horizon League tournament, positioning himself as a potential force on offense for the 2024-25 Sun Devils.

His ASU season started poorly on the court with a 2-for-9 showing against Duke in an exhibition, leading him to come off the bench for his first three games once the regular season had gotten going.

Freeman scored in double digits each of the three games and carved out a central role in the ASU offense, which became even more so when freshman Joson Sanon injured his ankle and missed time.

His first ejection came as a flagrant 2 foul when fighting through a screen against Colorado and as a result hit an offensive player where people don’t like to be hit. He insisted postgame that he was only trying to fight through the screen in a show of effort, saying he knew Hurley would be on him if he didn’t.

The second came after he headbutted Arizona guard Caleb Love at the end of the Wildcats’ victory over ASU. The two teams, which did not shake hands afterward, will meet again on March 4.

Then came the suspension, which was never clarified beyond “conduct detrimental to the team.”