Huskies in Trouble: Lose Green to Grades, Flunk Test Without Him
The Washington basketball team dressed like it was in mourning at Stanford. The Huskies wore black uniforms. It was not a cheerful night at all.
After losing point guard Quade Green to academic ineligibility prior to tipoff, the UW badly missed his leadership coming down the stretch, was outscored 14-1 to the end and lost 61-55.
In so many ways, the Huskies (11-5 overall, 1-2 Pac-12) now look like a team in trouble.
After a couple of feel-good seasons, Mike Hopkins faces what likely could be his toughest challenge as the UW coach--the potential of wasting a pair of NBA-bound players that are extremely hard to come by.
Just a week ago, Hopkins, in the accompanying video, spoke about using more players in his rotation and shaking things up a little in dispersing minutes.
While the coach likely knew in advance of Green's academic struggles, no one outside of the program could have envisioned all of the churn that would take place all at once.
"We've got to bounce back," Hopkins said, incredibly not mentioning Green once in his his postgame radio interview. "We've got to get over it."
Certainly the Huskies have a lot to overcome before playing at California (7-8, 1-1) on Sunday night.
Stanford (13-2, 2-1) did what no one else has this season--it completely shut down Isaiah Stewart. The 6-foot-9 freshman wunderkind, with two players draped on him whenever he had the ball, took only 8 shots and scored 4 points, 15 under his game average.
"They loaded up on him and the other guys just have to step up," Hopkins said.
With Green no longer available this academic quarter, sophomore Elijah Hardy made his first start as a point-guard replacement and he handled the ball adequately. Yet he provided almost no offense, scoring just 2 points on 1-for-7 shooting.
Redshirt freshman forward Nate Roberts entered the game within the first few minutes for struggling starter Hameir Wright and contributed 7 points and 8 rebounds. However, Roberts barely got on the floor in the second half. For that matter, the chronically ineffective Wright took 4 shots and scored 4 points.
The only saving grace was Jaden McDaniels, at least for most of the game. With Green out and Steward under wraps, he assumed an authoritative role, commanded the floor at times and turned in his first career double-double: 18 points and 15 rebounds.
But like everyone else in a black uniform, he had nothing to offer over the final minutes.
For the second time in four games, the Huskies blew a double-digit lead, letting Stanford rally from 12 down after coughing up a 14-point lead to Houston on Christmas day. Both times, they were helpless to respond. Once with Green, and once without.
After trailing 8-7 in the game's first five minutes, a retooled UW played surprisingly inspired, especially on defense, and didn't give up the lead again until the final two minutes. But when it went, it went fast.
Daejon Davis, the former Garfield High standout and Huskies commit, tied the game at 55 for Stanford with a 25-foot trey as the shot clock nearly expired on him with 2:39 left.
Freshman guard Tyrell Terry put away Hopkins' team with another trey with 1:34 remaining, sending Stanford on top for good at 58-55. It was hard to watch.
"We had control of the game," Hopkins said. "We were doing a great job at the 3-point line (on defense). All of a sudden, we couldn't get anything going."
Without their point guard, it might become an ongoing problem.
