Husky-Utah Basketball Game Moved to December

UW outing against the Utes gets rescheduled twice because of travel shutdown.

The Huskies huddle during warm-ups before Colgate opener. | Dave Sizer

While it's normally just a short hop to Salt Lake City, the air travel shutdown forced the University of Washington basketball team to reschedule and then postpone its game against the University of Utah.

Originally slated for Saturday at 4 p.m. -- or just as the UW football game at Michigan State was ending in the Midwest -- the Huskies and Utes moved their non-conference basketball outing to Sunday morning at 11 a.m. before finally announcing they would wait until Saturday, Dec. 5 to play it.

A tipoff time and a TV broadcaster is still to be determined for that one.

One reason the UW football team played its game this weekend and the Husky basketball team did not was the latter flew a chartered jet to Michigan while the former was booked on commercial flights in and out of Utah.

Ryan Beasley shows a little frustration during the Husky opener against Colgate. | Dave Sizer

While none of this matters to the current Husky players involved, this Utes game represents sort of a nostalgic match-up -- the first in Utah since Pac-12 broke up and held at the Jon M. Huntsman Center that was once an annual stop-off.

The UW last played at Utah on Dec. 31, 2023, with Mike Hopkins' final team losing 95-90 to the Utes.

Once the Pac-12 was expanded in 2011 to include Utah and Colorado, the Huskies were 3-8 while visiting the Huntsman Center.

Lathan Sommerville puts up a shot in the opener against Colgate. | Dave Sizer

Marv Harshman coached his final college basketball game at the bowl-like Salt Lake City arena in 1985, when he took a Detlef Schrempf- and Christian Welp-led team up against Kentucky there and lost 66-58 in the NCAA Tournament.

In 1970, the Huskies split a pair of games at the Huntsman Center while appearing in the Utah Classic, beating Navy 80-69 and losing to the host Utes 89-78.

In 1968, the UW opened the season in Salt Lake City with an 82-74 loss to Utah.

The Huskies' first visit to Utah came in 1951, when a Bob Houbregs-led team opened the season at the Huntsman Center and lost 62-61 on the first night and won 60-44 on the second. That UW team would finish 25-6.

With this particular Utah game pushed back three weeks, the current Huskies team (2-0) doesn't play again until Thursday night when it faces Utah Tech (1-3) at Alaska Airlines Arena at 6 p.m., with the game streaming on B1G+.