Husky tourney hopes fade to black

Unfortunately UW men’s basketball has taken a turn for the worse.  As most teams are scrambling to make the NCAA tournament, the Dawgs have dropped 7 in a row and sit near the basement of the Pac 12 conference.

Its hard to keep a positive spin on a season that looked so promising.  A season that started with an 11-0 non-conference may end the regular season on a 12 game losing streak.  After “blacking out” against Arizona on Friday the 13th, the Huskies failed to play the necessary defense in the closing minutes against Arizona State to win.  The Huskies have dropped two straight home stands which has not happened in the Romar era.

The Huskies now have an RPI of 99 sitting 9th in the conference.  At 14-11 they have a non-conference resume of 11-1 but are 3-10 in conference play. I have not checked, but this has to be one of the more lopsided non-conference versus conference record differential in the nation. Although they sport impressive wins against teams with good RPIs (i.e., San Diego State (19) and Oklahoma (16)), they also have losses against teams with terrible RPIs (i.e., Stony Brook (118) and Wazzu (128).

As for the NCAA tournament, barring an unprecedented Pac 12 tournament run in Vegas, the Huskies will not have made it back since the 2010-2011 season.

As for the bracketologists, things are getting interesting for the Pac 12 conference. While it appeared that the conference were going to get 3 teams. There is a chance for actually getting 5 teams in.

Although it has not fallen off as bad as the Huskies, Stanford is on a losing skid.  The Cardinal have lost 4 out of 5 with games against the Oregon schools at home and a tough trip to the Arizona schools to end the regular season. On the other hand, UCLA and Oregon have both surged to put themselves on the bubble.

Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has the Cardinal out while UCLA and Oregon a couple of the last teams in.  Arizona and Utah are comfortably in the tournament according to Palm.

In Joe Lunardi’s February 16th’s Bracketology, Stanford and UCLA are in the tournament while Oregon is out.  Arizona is in as a 2 seed and Utah a 3 seed.

SB Nation’s Chris Dobbertean predicts 4 Pac 12 teams with Arizona, Utah, Stanford and UCLA. Oregon just misses Dobbertean’s Bracketology.

At this point, the Huskies needs wins any way they can get them.  If the Dawgs fall to the Cougs on Sunday, it would mean that they would not have won in a month.Moreover, if the Huskies don't put together any wins, they will miss the NIT as well.