Husky Basketball Bottoms Out with Ugly Loss to UCLA

Talk of Mike Hopkins' job security should come into question once more.

A new year usually holds promise for everyone, a chance to right a wrong, lose some extra pounds, basically start over.

Someone needs to tell that to the University of Washington basketball team.

On New Year's Day, the Huskies couldn't shake their lingering malaise from 2022 and lost for the fifth time in their past eight outings, dropping a 74-49 decision to the 11th-ranked UCLA Bruins as the calendar unceremoniously flipped over at Alaska Airlines Arena.

As the losses continue to pile up and another mediocre season begins to emerge, discussion over UW coach Mike Hopkins' job security inevitably will come into play in a big way.

He's in season six in Montlake and his program currently isn't offering much of anything to get excited about these days, which largely was the case the three previous seasons.

After what happened on Sunday afternoon, Hopkins could be in huge trouble now. There were major trouble spots that were hard to ignore throughout this encounter.

"We just have to fight and get better," Hopkins said, sounding a little personally defeated. "That's all you can do."

While the Husky coach has collected some interesting pieces in Kentucky transfer Keion Brooks, freshman guard Keyon Menifield and 7-foot-1 center Braxton Meah, the Huskies (9-6 overall, 1-2 Pac-12) simply don't look very well-coached at all, especially on the offensive end.

They tend to waste a somewhat promising big man in Meah, a Fresno State transfer who looks like he's becoming more confident inside even while he doesn't see the ball very often. He was the only UW player in double figures with a career-best 20 points, dropping in 9-of-10 field-goal attempts, almost all on dunks, and added 7 rebounds and 3 blocks against the Bruins.

Instead, Hopkins permits his poor outside-shooting team to fire at will from beyond the 3-point line — in particular, these Huskies went 1 for 14 in the first half to effectively determine the outcome of this game early. The finished a horrible 2 of 24 with no intervention from the sideline staff. Just let it fly and clank or miss everything.

Unexplained was the absence of senior guard PJ Fuller, an 8.1-point scorer who was the only UW player to start the team's first 14 games. He was in uniform, but sat this one out, occupying a spot on the bench next to the coaching staff. Hopkins said that he wasn't feeling well.

Early in the second half, the Huskies lost the services of Menifield, who ran into a Bruin big-man screen and dropped to the floor in agony before being helped away, and he didn't return.

The recently returned Noah Williams, playing in his second game after coming back from knee surgery, fouled out for the Huskies in the closing minutes and the veteran guard inexplicably headed straight for the locker room without looking back or at the bench.

Also, the 6-foot-7 Brooks appears to have a significant amount of talent, but he's not nearly as adept at creating his own shot as leading scorer Terrell Brown was the season before. Brooks could use some serious coaching help to become a bigger contributor. He finished with a season-low 6 points on 1-for-7 shooting.

And so the Huskies were no match at all for UCLA (13-2, 4-0). It wouldn't have mattered if it was 2022 or 2023 or any other year. 

The home team went down 26-12 midway through the opening half before pulling within 36-27 by intermission.

Midway through the next half, the Bruins, with their bigger and better-coached lineup, pushed the lead to 20 at 61-41 and the only mystery that remained was how bad it would get. Adem Bona led four UCLA scorers in double figures with 18.

"This is all about us," Hopkins said.

Even with the new year, there's no relief in sight for the immediate 2023 future for the Huskies or the no doubt job-endangered Hopkins as they head to the desert this week to face fifth-ranked Arizona (13-1, 2-1) on Thursday and rejuvenated yet unranked Arizona State (11-3, 2-1) on Sunday. 

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