Huskies Do Serious Face Plant in Big Ten Home Opener Against USC

Danny Sprinkle's team never led and suffered a humiliating 85-61 defeat.

The Husky basketball team goes through pregame shooting before facing USC. / Dan Raley

All kinds of stuff was there to make Saturday afternoon's University of Washington basketball game truly memorable.

The first Big Ten Conference outing held at Alaska Airlines Arena, matching the UW against USC.

A reunion with a pair of former Husky coaches and standout players in Will Conroy and Quincy Pondexter, and with shooting guard Wesley Yates III, a franchise player for the UW before injuries got in the way and cost him his entire freshman season.

Finally, it was a chance to see the new-look, Danny Sprinkle-coached squad up close play someone more prominent than U Mass Lowell or Seattle Pacific, which was part of the light early season fare on the schedule.

In a two-thirds full arena, everyone with a local interest in the outcome was treated to an unforgettable if not brutal two hours of sloppy, unimaginative and one-sided basketball in which the Huskies never led.

Final score: USC 85, UW 61.

"I told the guys if we don't improve our habits and do some of the things we need to do to be a good team, there will a couple more nights like this," Sprinkle said flatly.

Appropriately so, Yates, who was making his first start for the Trojans (6-4 overall, 1-1 Big Ten), supplied the game's first points on a reverse lay-in, beating Wilhelm Breidenbach to the hoop inside, on his way to a career-best 19 points.

"Wesley Yates was tremendous from the jump," Sprinkle said.

Everything went downhill for the home team from there. The Trojans led by 10 points barely eight minutes in the game, were up by 16 points at the 11-minute mark, went comfortably out in front by 21 points with four minutes before intermission and were breezing along by 26 when Desmond Claude hit a deep 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer to stick a pitchfork in it.

The Huskies (6-3, 0-2) had no answer from anyone in a while jersey as they suffered through their worst outing of the season. They looked lost, fragile, defeated from the beginning. Things were so bad, they were loudly booed off the floor at the break.

Great Osobor, the UW's 6-foot-8 power forward and supposed Big Ten honors candidate, was not even good, average or plugged into what was going on.

He hit a first-half stretch in which he first was called for a shot-clock violation while backing in for a shot, oblivious to his surroundings. He next fumbled a pass inside. He had another feed down low go through his hands. Finally, he put a shoulder into a Trojans defender, made contact and was whistled for an offensive foul. All of this came over four dreadful minutes.

"Obviously I don't want to say I'm not worried, because teams are packing the paint right now," the big man said afterward. "But I believe in our guys."

Osobor sat down for good with seven minutes remaining with 9 points on 4-for-11 shooting with just 3 rebounds yet 4 turnovers.

"I've got to be better, for sure," Osobor said.

Junior guard and Rice transfer Mekhi Mason came off the bench to top the UW with 15 points. The only other UW player in double figures was freshman guard Zoom Diallo with 10.

Meantime, the 6-foot-4 Yates, had a dozen points by halftime, two off off his career best for the Trojans. The Beaumont, Texas, product, who missed all of last season for the UW with a broken foot, looked healthy enough in his return to Seattle. He helped the Trojans build their largest lead at 66-35 with 12 and a half minutes left to play.

Yates converted 7 of 11 shots, 3 of 6 from behind the line. He had a new career-best 17 points by the 13:24 mark of the second half after draining a 3-pointer from out front. His somewhat unguarded team shot 63.3 percent from the floor.

The Huskies have three days to regroup, readress or reset before hosting Eastern Washington (2-7) at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

"Fans might not come out," said Sprinkle, who isn't afraid to be blunt. "I don't know if I probably would come watch either if I was in the stands."

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