Un-Bear-able: Rudderless Huskies Lose in OT, Get Swept in Bay Area
For two optimistic months, Mike Hopkins was almost giddy whenever he talked about his Washington basketball team. Oh, the talent was deep, the possibilities endless.
The third-year coach now looks only panic-stricken and speaks in a halting voice. After losing point guard Quade Green to grades, his Huskies were swept in the Bay Area, on Saturday night losing to the California Bears 61-58 in overtime.
Hopkins' team is a total mess. A rudderless ship. Probably no longer an NCAA tournament hopeful.
"We didn't have a pop, didn't have a kick," the UW coach said on his postgame radio show.
A rebuilding Cal (8-8, 2-1) team led most of the way and by as many as 10 before needing guard Matt Bradley's heroics to pull things out in the extra session. From behind the arc, the thick-bodied sophomore from San Bernardino, California, hit a long bank shot over Jaden McDaniels' outstretched arm with 6 seconds left and the deed was done.
It's going to be a long season.
Without Green to worry about it, opposing teams have found it far easier to swarm around UW freshman sensation Isaiah Stewart and neutralize him. He scored just 4 and 13 points in these two road games after coming in with a 19.5 average.
Fellow freshman McDaniels, while immensely gifted, doesn't have a mature enough game to take over and right things. He had 12 points and 11 rebounds against the Bears for his second consecutive double-double, both coming in losses.
No one else on the UW roster has shown himself capable of stepping up and filling in the very obvious playmaking and 3-point shooting gaps for the Huskies (11-6 overall, 1-2 Pac-12), who have lost four of their past five games.
"We're not going to win a lot of games hitting 29 percent from the field," Hopkins said of 18-for-61 marksmanship, 8-for-32 beyond the arc.
The Huskies coach tried to shake things up by starting sophomore Jamal Bey at point guard rather than sophomore Elijah Hardy. Bey scored 12, but didn't have much impact in running the offense.
Hopkins also sent true freshman guards RaeQuan Battle and Marcus Tsohonis onto the floor for extended minutes. Tsohonis was redshirting until Green was lost. Each of the young guards hit a 3-pointer, but did little else.
The Huskies at least made a game of it, coming back to grab their first and only lead since the opening minutes, at 49-47, on Bey's reverse layin with 3:32 left to play.
Tied at 49, the UW had a chance to win in regulation but Naz Carter's 3-pointer missed at the buzzer. The junior forward hit a miserable 2 of 13 from the floor, 1 of 6 in treys.
In the OT, the Huskies tied the game three times, but never led. After Carter sank two of three free throws to tie the game at 58 with 34 seconds remaining, Cal's Bradley dribbled down the clock.
The Bears leader pulled up and let fly with a left-hander that slammed off the backboard, hit the rim hard and went in.
The outcome made a winner out of former UW assistant coach Mark Fox, entrusted with restoring the Cal program to respectability.
As for the Huskies?
They hardly resemble the team that upset now fourth-ranked Baylor and took now No. 1-ranked Gonzaga down to the final minute.
There's been talk that Green might be back in time for the NCAA tournament. His team is going to have to get there first, which is asking a lot.