Nothing New, NCAA Tourney Will Go On Without Huskies
It's a lot like your neighbors annually throwing a block party and inviting everyone but you.
This is the fate of the University of Washington basketball program.
Coming well before Mike Hopkins took over.
In Seattle, there's no personal connection to March Madness this year.
Not even a little silliness.
Again.
Once more, the NCAA tournament will go on without us.
The Huskies have entered the event a not-sweet-enough 17 times, and just once over the past 11 seasons.
We deserve better.
Holy Marv Harshman, we've hosted the Final Four five times (1949, 1952, 1984, 1989 and 1995).
Yet the Huskies have competed in it only once — and that was 68 years ago!
Instead, we'll have to watch the Pac-12's USC, UCLA, Colorado, Oregon and, are you kidding me but happy to see it, Oregon State try to survive the opening rounds.
We'll watch former Husky point guard commit JaQuori McLaughlin work to get UC Santa Barbara an opening victory.
We'll check on Eastern Washington's progress and see if it can get to a second game.
And all of us watch closely to see if unbeaten Gonzaga, which used an inspiring NCAA tourney run in 1996 to build a sturdy national program and become the college basketball kingpin of this state, win it all.
Meantime, here's a NCAA tourney refresher on the Huskies.
It's not long.
A quick read.
A fast shuffle
Maybe some day, the UW will add to it.
Husky NCAA Tourney Appearances:
1943 — Two years into World War II, Hec Edmundson's Huskies appeared in the fifth NCAA tourney held. They lost to Texas 59-55 and to Oklahoma 48-43 in Kansas City.
1948 — Back to Kansas City again, Art McLarney's UW team lost to Baylor 64-62 but won its first NCAA game, 57-47 over Wyoming in a consolation game.
1951 — The Tippy Dye-coached Huskies won two of three games, beating Texas A&M 62-40 and BYU 80-67, but lost to Oklahoma State 61-57 in between.
1953 — Bob Houbregs, the NCAA Player of the Year, led the Huskies into Kansas City and the Final Four as the favorite after beating Seattle U 92-70 and Santa Clara 74-62 in the regionals. Alas, Kansas slyly put Houbregs in phantom foul trouble, fouled him out and won 79-53. The UW bounced back to beat Bob Petit and LSU 88-69 in the consolation game.
1976 — After a 23-year tourney absence, a towering Husky team led by 7-foot-1 James Edward and coached by Harshman played Missouri in Lawrence, Kansas, and dropped 69-67 heartbreaker.
1984 — This one was fun. Detlef Schrempf led the Huskies to the Sweet 16, upsetting Duke 80-78 in Pullman of all places. This UW team opened with a 64-54 win over Nevada in the Palouse and closed with a tough 64-58 loss to Dayton in Los Angeles.
1985 —Harshman's coaching career reluctantly came to an end in Salt Lake City with a tough 66-58 opening-round loss to Kentucky.
1986 — The Huskies, with new coach Andy Russo taking over, traveled to Dayton, Ohio, made their third consecutive tourney appearance in three years and lost to Michigan State and Jed Heathcote 72-70.
1998 — After a 12-year absence, Bob Bender took the Huskies to the Sweet 16 for just the second time and it ended on a buzzer shot. The UW beat Xavier 69-68 and Richmond 81-66 in Washington, D.C., before Richard Hamilton made UConn a 75-74 winner in Greensboro, North Carolina, when he sank the clutch game-winner.
1999 — Bender had the UW back in the tourney a year later but the Huskies fell to Miami of Ohio and Wally Szczerbiak 59-58 in New Orleans.
2004 — Lorenzo Romar took the Huskies to the first of their six NCAA appearances on his watch and lost to UAB in a shootout 102-100 in Columbus, Ohio.
2005 — The second-best team in Husky history went 29-6 and made it to the Sweet 16 behind Brandon Roy, Nate Robinson and Will Conroy. They beat Montana 88-79 and Pacific 97-79 in Boise, Idaho, but fell to Louisville 93-79 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
2006 — Another UW postseason run was spoiled by UConn, this time in overtime. After the Huskies beat Utah State 75-61 and Illinois 67-64 in San Diego, Roy and Company lost to those East Coast Huskies 98-92 in overtime in Washington, D.C.
2009 — An Isaiah Thomas-powered team took the Huskies to the first of three NCAAs, beating Mississippi State 85-73 before losing to Purdue 76-74 in Portland.
2010 — The fifth and so far final Sweet 16 trip for the UW went like this: Thomas and the Huskies beat Marquette 80-78 and New Mexico 82-64 in San Jose, California, before falling to West Virginia 69-56 in Syracuse, New York.
2011 — Thomas and his teammates beat Georgia 68-65 but lost to North Carolina 86-83 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
2019 — Hopkins had the Huskies in the NCAAs in his second season in charge, and they earned a 78-61 win over Utah State before taking an 81-59 pounding from North Carolina in Columbus, Ohio.
That's it.
Put your feet up.
It's going to be a while before the Huskies get back to the big dance.
Maybe a long time.
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