Inside The Huskies

Amid Big Ten Obstacles, Steinbach Is Rare West Coast Shining Light

The Husky freshman will get a host of league accolades that aren't shared elsewhere among the former Pac-12 teams.
Dan Raley|
Hannes Steinbach grabs the ball away from USC's Jerry Easter.
Hannes Steinbach grabs the ball away from USC's Jerry Easter. | Dave Sizer photo

Some of the more impatient fans out there have been unable to accept why the University of Washington basketball team holds a break-even 15-15 record while recently mixing good wins with some very bad losses.

They blame the coach, lambaste the players and even accuse media members of making excuses for all that's happened in Montlake this season.

Yet one only had to go to Wednesday night's UW-USC game -- and the most vociferous critics tend to never leave their couches -- and see half of the Huskies in uniform and the other half in protective boots, crutches and street clothes and unable to join in. It was almost comical.

Still, even if everyone was healthy, the four West Coast schools are fooling themselves if they think they can become a Big Ten championship-caliber team any time soon.

Remember they asked for this, but the Huskies, UCLA, USC, and Oregon likely won't regularly challenge for Big Ten basketball championships because they have to travel like NBA teams and the old guard doesn't.

More teams than not play in front of sellout crowds whereas the Westies don't.

UW guard Zoom Diallo shows his frustration.
UW guard Zoom Diallo shows his frustration. | Dave Sizer photo

The Huskies and the Ducks receive only half shares of conference revenue while everyone pulls in a full allocation.

Those aren't excuses, just cold, hard facts.

To further understand the disparity in place here, consider the All-Big Ten basketball teams put together below by JR Rhoades of Big Ten Huddle.

Twenty-eight players and a coach were chosen and just three slots were set aside for those associated with former Pac-12 schools -- the Huskies' Hannes Steinbach earned All-Big Ten third team and All-Rookie team honors while UCLA's Tyler Bilodeau, the Kennewick, Washington, product, was a third-team selection.

That was it. Everyone else came with deep Midwest roots, Central Time Zone connections and half as many frequent flier miles as the guys from Los Angeles to Seattle.

With just one game played each week in the fall, these West Coast football teams will be more adaptable to the obstacles presented by joining a league so far away.

Basketball, however, is a much different story, with the Huskies this season spending as many as six days on the road, compared to three at the most for football.

And you wonder why the Huskies in recent weeks looked like they were playing in quicksand against Penn State and Wisconsin.

Go ahead and blame the talent level and coaching for some of the shortfalls, but other factors are seriously in play here.

UCLA (20-10 overall, 12-7 league) currently sits in seventh place in the league standings, the Huskies (15-15, 7-12) are tied for 11th with USC (18-12, 7-12) and Minnesota, and Oregon (11-19, 4-15) find themselves tied for 16th place with Maryland.

For now, Steinbach's and Dilodeau's rewards should be celebrated at maximum levels out West, because that's all there is for now.

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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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