Inside The Huskies

Hopkins Junks Zone, UW Basketball Picked 9th in Pac-12

Husky forward Keion Brooks is one of 10 all-conference selections.

Dan Raley

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Even with a pair of former Kentucky starters in its lineup, the University of Washington basketball team still couldn't persuade media voters that its final season in the Pac-12 will be noticeably different from the most recent ones.

Coming off a 16-16 showing, the Huskies on Wednesday in Las Vegas were saddled with a ninth-place prediction, which places them in the lower third of the conference, ahead of only Washington State, California and Oregon State. 

Yet Mike Hopkins' seventh UW team, indeed, will be different. At media day, the veteran Husky coach confirmed he has dumped his trademark zone defense. 

With former Kentucky players in forward Keion Brooks and point guard Sahvir Wheeler reunited in Seattle this season, the coach chose to do something that better fit his talent.

"The big thing is the personnel that we've got," Hopkins said. "Sahvir Wheeler is an elite defensive player, puts a lot of pressure on the ball. We've got good rim protection. We've got good size in the wings. I think style. We just wanted to play a little more up-tempo, a little bit faster."

As often is the case, the Arizona Wildcats were tabbed as the Pac-12 basketball preseason favorites, pulling 18 of the 26 first-place votes, leaving them 39 points ahead of their nearest challenger, USC. 

Brooks, a 6-foot-7 senior forward, was named to the Pac-12's 10-player first team. He finished as the league's third-leading scorer last winter, averaging 17.7 points per game.

Overall, Hopkins welcomes six new transfers to remake a majority of his team, having been given a reprieve to continue on with the program in spite of multiple break-even or sub-.500 seasons. The Huskies have been to the NCAA tournament in just one of the past dozen seasons. 

"I think we've always had really good players," he said. "I don't think we've had a great combination of complimentary talent."

To get started, the UW will host an exhibition game against St. Martin's on Oct. 29 before opening the regular season against Bellarmine on Nov. 6 with a curious bit of scheduling — an 8:30 p.m. tipoff at Alaska Airlines Arena on a Monday night. 

The school will hold a basketball doubleheader that day that includes the UW women's team, coming off a 19-15 season. Tina Langley's Huskies will play earlier in the day against Sacramento State, though no tipoff has been revealed.

 

PAC-12 PRESEASON POLL

1. Arizona 303 (18)

2. USC 264 (4)

3. UCLA 249 (4)

4. Oregon 228

5. Colorado 210

6. Arizona State 148

7. Utah 139

8. Stanford 131

9. Washington 108

10. Washington State 94

11. California 67

12. Oregon State 42

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Dan Raley
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.

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