Misery Loves Company: Huskies Lose, Finish as School's Second Worst Team

The University of Washington basketball season ended on Wednesday afternoon in the same place and manner in which it began.

With a loss in Las Vegas.

Not much changed over three and a half months.

Improvement was nil over 27 games.

It was wire-to-wire ineptitude.

Making it a campaign people won't soon forget for all the wrong reasons, the Huskies fell to the Utah Utes, losing 98-95 in the Pac-12 men's basketball tournament in a game that was a lopsided romp most of the way at T-Mobile Arena.

With the final setback, Mike Hopkins' fourth team finished with a 5-21 record — second worst in school history over 119 seasons to Bob Bender's first crew that went 5-22 in 1993-94.

"Obviously, we're disappointed with our record," Hopkins said. "We're not where we want to be. There's got to be some improvement."

The Huskies opened the season with an 86-52 defeat to now second-ranked and once-beaten Baylor in the same gym in late November.

They came in this one having won the previous match-up with Utah (12-12) in January, but memories were short. There was little mystery to this outcome until the very end.

The UW's first possession ended in a turnover, a travel by Erik Stevenson.

The first shot by Quade Green was swatted out of there.

Signs of what was to come.

Not even seven minutes into the action, the Huskies trailed by 11 when Utah's Timmy Allen drove to the basket, scored as he was fouled and converted the ensuing free throw for a 21-10 advantage.

By the 10-minute mark of the opening half, the Huskies had fallen behind by 17. The Utes' Alfonso Plummer sank a long 3-pointer for a 29-12 advantage and things had an oh so familiar look for Hopkins' team.

Bleak.

The UW wildly threw up 3-pointers that didn't have a prayer, missing 9 of 11 in the opening half, while turning the ball over 9 times.

Meantime, the defense was as porous as can be for this chronically undisciplined team.

It was the full spectrum.

"Our problem has been our defense," Hopkins said. "It's been way, way below what we've done. We've got to fix it."

Allen had 13 points inside and Plummer supplied 12 mostly from the perimeter as Utah settled into a 47-35 halftime lead. The Utes were good on 8 of 15 3-pointers, with Plummer sinking 3 of his 5, at the break.

Allen finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds to lead his team in both categories, while teammate Alfonso Plummer had 21 points.

Green, a senior, played like it was his final college game. He launched a lot of quick-trigger attempts, some from farther out than normal.

The Huskies trailed by as much as 19, the last time at 87-68, before closing the gap.

"We ran out of time," Bey said. "We had our chances to get back in the game."

Green, the one-time Kentucky transfer, finished with a career-high 31 points to lead the UW in scoring possibly one last time, though he rightfully could come back next season because of pandemic provisions.

Husky junior guard Jamal Bey backed him with 18 points, with the conference's leading 3-point shooter draining 4 of 8 of them.

The UW's other senior, Hameir Wright, scored 9 points in likely his final Husky game. He has the same option for returning as does the point guard.

Right now, playing more really bad basketball is probably the farthest thing from Green and Wright's minds.

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