Inside The Huskies

3 Reasons Husky Basketball Is Struggling Right Now

Poor-shooting UW takes on unbeaten Nebraska on the road.
Dan Raley|
Bryson Tucker fires up a shot against Michigan.
Bryson Tucker fires up a shot against Michigan. | Dave Sizer photo

The University of Washington basketball team finds itself in the middle of the country on a Wednesday night, facing unbeaten and seventh-ranked Nebraska in Lincoln, tasked with a serious dilemma.

Hit some 3-point shorts or die.

More than halfway through their 31-game regular season, the Huskies have shown they can't shoot from behind the line.

Clank, clank, clank.

In their last outing against now 10th-ranked Michigan State, Danny Sprinkle's guys came out and missed 10 of their first 11 3-point shots and the game was basically over.

"I'll say nine or 10 were open shots," the coach said. "We just have to make them."

Yes, the competition lately for the UW has been very high brow -- with these guys losing four of their past five outings -- but if you don't make a reasonable amount of your 3s, you don't stand a chance of beating any of the top teams.

The Huskies (10-8 overall, 2-5 Big Ten) connect at a 30.7 percent rate on 381 attempts as they prepare to shoot it out with Nebraska (18-0, 7-0), which hits at 35.5 percent from behind the line.

The UW was 3 for 19 against Michigan State, 9 for 33 against Michigan and 6 for 18 against Ohio State.

Teams dare the Huskies to shoot while they stack their defense around 6-foot-11 freshman standout Hannes Steinbach, doubling him every chance they can get.

As a result, Steinbach has taken his game outside more often -- and he's 1 for 14 as a 3-point shooter over his past six games, sticking one in only at Purdue.

Guard Quimari Peterson is the UW's top 3-point marksman and he's hitting 34.7 percent, including 5 for 17 in his last two outings.

Quimari Peterson fires up a 3-pointer against Michigan State.
Quimari Peterson fires up a 3-pointer against Michigan State. | Dave Sizer photo

Veteran guards Wesley Yates iII and Zoom Diallo come in at 31.1 and 32.5 percent, respectively.

For the season, JJ Mandaquit, Steinbach and Bryson Tucker have shot a miserable 29, 28 and 25 percent.

Serbian import Niko Dzepina hasn't been able to get a good exchange rate at all on his 3-pointers since arriving in the country in December -- he's hitting just 18.7 percent ( 3 for 16).

Even in a 30-point win over San Diego, the Huskies connected on just 5 of 21 treys that night.

Only forward Jacob Ognacevic, back from a season-long injury, has had any success, brief as it may be, in hitting 2 of 5 behind the line (40 percent).

This is what separates the good from the average teams, especially across the Big Ten.

Purdue came out and downed 12 of 28 3-pointers against the Huskies, with five different players finding the range. That's hard to guard. Hard to survive.

Nebraska no doubt will let the UW toe the line and see how the shots land.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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