Huskies, Cal Meet to see Who's the Best of the Worst

It's the battle for the bottom.

The 11th-place University of Washington basketball team (4-17 overall, 3-13 league) and last-place California (8-16, 3-14) — separated by a half-game in the Pac-12 standings — meet on Saturday night at 7 at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Loser gets the cellar all to itself.

Flirting with last place hasn't happened very often in the storied history of the Washington program, but lately Mike Hopkins' outmatched Huskies haven't known much else.

Over the past 105 seasons, the UW has finished behind everyone else just four times.

If the Huskies do it again this season, they'll be left with back-to-back disastrous campaigns.

A year ago, Hopkins' guys finished 12th, going 5-13 in conference games, 15-17 overall.

In 1991, Lynn Nance's second team ended up 10th in the then Pac-10, going 5-13 in league play, 14-14 overall.

In 1960, a John Grayson-coached UW team turned up fifth in the five-team and convoluted Athletic Association of Western Universities, stumbling to a 2-9 conference record, 15-13 in all games.

And In 1949, the post-war Huskies coached by Art McLarney finished dead last in the Pacific Coast Conference, its 6-10 ledger leaving it fifth among five teams, and 11-15 overall.

Washington and Cal's current teams previously met in early January in Berkeley, California, and Cal came away an 84-78 winner in spite of Erik Stevenson's season-high 27 points for the Huskies.

Following Saturday night's game, the Huskies and Bears will have another week of games to close out the regular season.

The UW next travels to the state of Arizona to play 10th-place Arizona State (7-10, 4-7) on Tuesday and Thursday and a regular-season finale at sixth-place Arizona (14-7, 8-7) next Saturday.

The Huskies have won just one of six road games this season.

The Bears will finish up the regular season with games against seventh-place Oregon State (11-10, 7-8) and third-place Oregon (13-4, 8-3) at home.

Correction: Husky Maven erroneously reported on Friday that the last-place conference team wouldn't be included in the Pac-12 tournament, which has an 11-team bracket.

That's not true.

Arizona has opted out of all postseason play because of program infractions.

The conference failed to mention the Wildcats' self-punishment in its tournament release.

Also, the then-Pac-10 conducted tournaments in 2002-05 where it kept the two-worst teams home.

So regardless of who wins the UW-Cal game on Saturday and who comes in last, they'll both advance to Las Vegas.

Three first-round Pac-12 tournament games will be held on Wednesday, March 10, followed by four quarterfinal games on Thursday, a pair of semifinals contests on Friday and the championship game on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

The top five teams draw first-round byes.

Game times have been adjusted to enable testing and sanitation protocols between games.

Pac-12 Tournament Schedule

T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas

Wednesday, March 10
Game 1: No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed, 1:00 p.m. PT - PAC12
Game 2: No. 7 seed vs. No. 10 seed, 4:00 p.m. PT* - PAC12
Game 3: No. 6 seed vs. No. 11 seed, 7:00 p.m. PT* - PAC12

Thursday, March 11
Game 4: No. 1 seed vs. Game 1 winner, 11:30 a.m. PT - PAC12
Game 5: No. 4 seed vs. No. 5 seed, 2:30 p.m. PT* - PAC12
Game 6: No. 2 seed vs. Game 3 winner, 5:30 p.m. PT* - PAC12
Game 7: No. 3 seed vs. Game 4 winner, 8:30 p.m. PT* - ESPN

Friday, March 12
Game 8: Semifinal 1, 5:30 p.m. PT - PAC12
Game 9: Semifinal 2, 8:30 p.m. PT* - ESPN

Saturday, March 13
Game 10: Championship, 7:30 p.m. PT - ESPN

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