10 Things That Went Wrong for UW Basketball All at Once

This season has been a notable failure on many fronts for the beleaguered Huskies.

So much has gone wrong for this University of Washington basketball team, it's hard to know where to start.

As the Huskies lace it up to face the Utah Utes in their Pac-12 tournament opener in Las Vegas, and quite possibly their final outing of a morbid season, we look back on 10 major turnovers that contributed to this face-plant.

With another loss, this particular UW team will fall to 5-22 and match the worst record in the 119 seasons there has been Husky basketball — sharing this unwanted distinction with Bob Bender's first team in 1993-94 while slipping to a barely breathing .185 winning percentage.

Miscalculation

Last season, Mike Hopkins watched five big men leave his program through NBA early entry, graduation and transfer, and he brought in no replacements, a fateful decision on his behalf. 

"We have plenty of guys," the affable UW coach said famously in November.

Hopkins and his staff completely misjudged the front-line situation. Starters Nate Roberts and Hameir Wright have combined to average 11.1 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. Great numbers for one player, not so much for two. It's been a total mismatch inside from the opening game.

Misbehavior

On the eve of the opener, the school dropped senior swingman Naz Carter from the team after a pair of women came forward and accused him of sexual misconduct. It was a major embarrassment for the program.

While it's not clear how much of a loss Carter presented — after all, he provided no leadership the season before when the Huskies finished last in the Pac-12 — he still was a 12.2-point scorer and noted dunker coming back.

Hopkins' roster was so thin, he couldn't afford to lose any veteran players.

Opener

After a four-team tourney to launch the season in Seattle was scrubbed because of  pandemic issues, Hopkins scheduled a neutral-site opener against now No. 2-ranked and once-beaten Baylor in Las Vegas.

What was he thinking?

The Huskies were scorched 86-52 and the aftereffects were felt for an extended time. Their confidence was shook coming out of the opening gate.

"That was a bad calculation on my part," the coach admitted.

Montana 

A week and a half before Christmas, the Huskies gave the visiting Big Sky school a memorable gift.

They lost 66-58 at home to a decidedly mundane Montana team, which enters its postseason tournament with a 13-12 record.

In its sixth game of the season, the UW was coming off a 3-point loss to Oregon and its only victory over Seattle U, but the setback officially stamped the Huskies as a group in big trouble.

Boards

As the losses piled up, the rebounds did not for the UW. It became fairly clear early on that this team didn't want to mix it up inside. 

In their 25 outings, the Huskies were out-rebounded 20 times. They came out ahead by 13 against Seattle U, 1 over Montana, 8 over Cal, 3 over Oregon State and 1 over Stanford.

The UW ranks 333rd out of 349 teams nationally in rebound margin — at negative 8.

Dozen

Hopkins' simply weren't competitive in their first dozen games, going 1-11 to open the season, which was one of the worst spells in program annals. 

Most of the time, the games weren't close. The Huskies lost eight of them by a dozen points or more. In back to back games, they got beat by Colorado by 23 in Las Vegas and by Arizona by 27 at home.

Turnover

Senior point guard Quade Green led the conference in turnovers with 83, or 3.5 per outing, which matched his assists.

No miscue was more glaring than when the Huskies held a 74-73 lead and Green had the ball with 18 seconds remaining at Arizona. 

He threw an elbow trying to force his way to the basket on the dribble and was called for an offensive foul, enabling the host team to come back down the floor and hit a game-winner near the buzzer.

20

While the Huskies have had four players score 26 points or more in a game, it hasn't been enough to prevent the 5-21 season. 

This marks just the fifth time in program history the UW has lost 20 games or more, and first time in two decades since Bender's next-to-last team finished 10-20.

Everything 

The Pac-12 stats expose a highly inept ballclub. In 20 team stat categories, the Huskies are dead last in seven of them, next-to-last in six and 10th in three. 

Need something to feel good about? The UW ranks third in blocks, fourth in 3-point field goals made, sixth in steals and seventh in 3-point field-goal percentage.

This sorry season can't end soon enough.

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

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