The Washington Huskies men’s basketball team was hoping to
make the NCAA tournament after having a season most did not expect. Having a
season where they won twenty games and new coach Mike Hopkins was named Pac 12
coach of the year it would have been nice to see them go further but they lost
in the first round in the Pac 12 tournament to Oregon State in overtime 69-66.
It really did not help that the officiating was questionable
in my mind which shouldn’t be a surprise because the officiating in the Pac 12
has been questionable for years. The Huskies had two of their top players fall
out in the overtime. Jaylen Nowell
fouled out on an offensive foul which true to me since he did put his shoulder
into but the call against Noah Dickerson was pretty minimal at best. He may
have grazed the opposing player but the official should have left the play go.
This is especially true when they let other things go being a physical game. Those
watching especially Beaver fans may have thought Dickerson deserved to foul out
of the game however players should not be forced out on a picky play like that
to me. This game was very important to the Huskies to win and they may have if
Dickerson didn’t foul out. Of course we will never know for sure but officials
should only make calls that will affect the game. That is my opinion and I will
stick to it. LOL
Being a Husky fan I figure they deserve a better fate but
thing like that doesn’t always happen. There will always be human error in
basketball. Though they won’t make the NCAA tournament there is a good chance
they will play in the NIT we should know the results in a few days.
The Huskies do return most of their players next season so
the likelihood of them making the tournament next year looks pretty good. They had
some good upsets against teams like Kansas and Arizona. They had struggles
though against the Oregon schools along with Stanford. We hope there will be a
turnaround next season against those teams.
The Huskies sister school the Washington State Cougars had
the same fate against the Oregon Ducks in the tournament losing 64-62. They
played a close game in the regular season winning last Thursday over the Ducks
78-76 in Pullman however two weeks earlier they lost big time in Eugene 84-57.
The Cougars ended the season in eleventh place in the Pac 12. They had a record
of 4-14 in conference with a total record of 12-19. The question now will the
Cougars make a switch far as coaches go into next year and they can have a
turnaround like the Huskies did this year. In the days ahead we will see. The
Cougars do have a new athletic director so that could possibly happen.
We hope the future goes ahead for the Huskies and Cougars
while Gonzaga again will play in the NCAA tournament again this year. At least
we know that we have one team in the state that we can root for again in the
tournament. Go Gonzaga!!
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