Huskies Have No Chance Against Arizona, Right? Don't Forget 1994

A bad UW basketball team pulled a stunning upset of the high and mighty Wildcats.

Dan Raley | Dec 31, 2020

A University of Washington basketball team struggling mightily hosts typically high-powered Arizona.

This match-up, or should we say mismatch, takes place on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Alaska Airlines Arena, in a game broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.

The Huskies (1-6) don't have a chance against the Wildcats (7-1), right?

Well, the beauty of college basketball is such that effort sometimes trumps talent.

Twenty-seven years ago, Bob Bender's first team of Huskies took a woeful 2-15 season record and a nine-game losing streak — the latter tying a school record for ineptitude — up against a 17-3 and 12th-ranked Arizona team coached by the legendary Lute Olson.

Final score: UW 74, Arizona 69.

For one night, Bender's guys, who were deemed 14-point underdogs by the Las Vegas sports bookies, played out of their minds and forgot who they were.

This remains the most unexpected Washington basketball outcome ever.

On Saturday, Feb. 5, 1994, these imperfect but suddenly re-energized Huskies raced out to a 36-23 halftime lead, withstood a late Arizona run that narrowed the score to 64-61 and held on and won.

The UW's Maurice Woods, a 6-foot-10 senior, supplied 20 points and 10 rebounds for the 14-point underdogs. Jason Tyrus, normally a Husky sub, got a late starting assignment because of a teammate's illness and chipped in 20 points of his own.

"I just decided nobody is going to come into my home and hit me in the face anymore," Woods said.

The Huskies went on to finish 5-22 during the 1993-94 season, making them the worst team in program history, a distinction that still stands.

For the Wildcats, they regrouped, won 12 of their final 14 games, finished 29-6 and advanced to the Final Four in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Along the way, Arizona brought the UW back to reality, beating them 95-62 in the rematch in Tucson.

Yet for one glorious night amid a lot of suffering and hopelessness, the Huskies showed anything is possible.

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Published Dec 31, 2020

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.