The bottom has fallen out in Washington, and very unexpectedly so. This kind of season, this kind of collapse, was not something anyone saw coming before the season.
Indeed, the opposite was expected, especially when the Huskies got a nice surprise development. They weren’t supposed to be just 12-10 overall and 2-7 at the halfway point of Pac-12 play, surpassing the number of losses they had at the end of last season. But that’s their reality after losing 75-72 at home to Arizona on Thursday night in another eminently winnable game.
Washington was supposed to be among the front-runners in the Pac-12 this season. They even got a waiver for Kentucky transfer Quade Green to be eligible to start the season instead of having to wait until December, which meant they could get used to having him play sooner. The result was a predictably good non-conference run, starting with their season-opening win over Baylor and rolling along save for losses to good teams in Tennessee and Gonzaga and then letting one get away in the championship of the Diamond Head Classic against Houston. But they entered Pac-12 play in a pretty good place all in all.
Pac-12 play didn’t start well, though, as UCLA came to Seattle and beat them. This is not vintage UCLA, as Mick Cronin is just getting his program in this season and thus has an eminently beatable team. But the worst was yet to come, just a week later.
Green was declared academically ineligible before the Huskies played at Stanford. Since then, they are 1-6, which has them in the opposite place of where they were expected to be – at the bottom of the Pac-12 at 2-7. They are looking up at everyone else starting with Oregon State, one of the two teams they have knocked off (along with USC in Green’s last game). Since Green’s departure, they have struggled to score, with Thursday night marking the first time they have topped 70 points in that time. In Pac-12 play, most of it without him, their scoring is down significantly from non-conference play, as is their shooting, although they went 14-28 from long range on Thursday night. That has helped exacerbate the fact that they’re also getting out-rebounded by three per game in Pac-12 play.
In a sense, it might have ended up better for them had Green not received a waiver to play at the beginning of the season, as the Huskies would then have had a month with other players getting their chance to run the team. But you don’t expect this to happen and thus can not and should not plan for it. Instead, it’s another story of why players need to take care of their school work, and also a lesson in dealing with adversity, something every team has to do during a season.
That holds true whether it’s the kind of season Washington was expected to have, or in sharp contrast, the one they are actually having.
Side Dishes
Elsewhere in the Pac-12, the surprises of the night were Oregon State going on the road and holding off Stanford 68-63 and UCLA holding off a rally from Colorado 72-68. The Bruins had a double-digit lead for a good portion of their game, getting 30 points and nine rebounds from Chris Smith, but Colorado got close before succumbing. In other action, Oregon knocked off Cal 77-72 and USC edged Utah 56-52 behind another double-double from Nick Rakocevic (16 points, 15 rebounds).
Another night in the Big Ten, another good night to be a home team: both home teams emerged victorious in the Big Ten games on the night as Maryland held off Iowa 82-72 in College Park behind 31 points and six assists from Anthony Cowan Jr., while Illinois beat Minnesota 59-51 in Champaign to go to 8-2 in Big Ten play.
The CAA is a tight race that almost got a little tighter on Thursday night. College of Charleston handled James Madison 87-68 in Harrisonburg behind 36 points (including 6-7 on three-pointers) from Grant Riller, while Hofstra blew out Elon 86-63 and Towson beat UNCW 77-66 to all go to 7-3 in CAA play. William & Mary might have joined them, but Nathan Knight scored with 1.5 seconds left to once again break the hearts of visiting Northeastern 59-58 and stay a game ahead at 8-2. Northeastern, meanwhile, has lost five games in CAA play by a total of nine points.
Other results of note: Merrimack stayed hot atop the Northeast Conference with a 61-50 home win over St. Francis Brooklyn behind 19 points and 12 rebounds from Juvaris Hayes; Winthrop also stayed hot, moving to 9-0 in Big South play with a 77-60 win at Charleston Southern, while Radford kept pace by winning 67-55 at Longwood; Murray State edged Eastern Illinois 73-70 and Austin Peay blew out SIU-Edwardsville 82-58 to each go to 9-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play; Little Rock made a big first half stand up in a 96-79 win over Coastal Carolina to stay on top of the Sun Belt, with Georgia State staying a bit behind them after edging South Alabama 76-73 in Atlanta; Portland State got 39 points from Holland Woods to knock Montana out of first place in the Big Sky with an 88-81 win over the Grizzlies; and Gonzaga held off and pulled away from Santa Clara 87-72 behind 31 points and nine rebound from Filip Petrusev.
Ohio State will be without freshman point guard D.J. Carton for at least Saturday’s game against Indiana as he is taking a temporary leave from the team to deal with mental health issue he has been dealing with for a while. A key part of their perimeter, he has started three games this season and averages over ten points per game.
Tonight’s Menu
The Ivy League back-to-back weekends are now upon us, and that highlights an otherwise light slate of action.
- The Ivy League action gets going early as Harvard visits Penn (5 p.m.), while Cornell visits Brown, Columbia visits Yale and Dartmouth goes to Princeton (7 p.m.)
- MAC action also gets going early as Kent State hosts Akron (6 p.m.), then Buffalo hosts Bowling Green at 7 p.m.
- The battle of the Rams is on tap in the Atlantic 10 as VCU visits Rhode Island (7 p.m.)
- Horizon League action has Oakland visiting Detroit Mercy early on (7 p.m.), then Milwaukee hosting league leader Wright State (8 p.m.) and Green Bay hosting Northern Kentucky in the last game of the night (9 p.m.)
- Finally, there is a full slate of MAAC games, with Quinnipiac at Canisius, Fairfield at Rider, Siena at Iona, Manhattan at St. Peter’s and Marist at Niagara all tipping at 7 p.m.
