March Madness 2019: 10 teams that will bust your bracket
No. 3: Washington Huskies
This Washington team made it to the Pac-12 championship game this season against the Oregon Ducks, and were easily handled by them. Mike Hopkins’ Huskies were given a No. 9 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament, despite finishing with statistics and reputation that landed them at just 51st in the KenPom rankings.
The Huskies came in at No. 119 in adjusted offense. In terms of pace, the Huskies are a slow-moving team, coming in at No. 263 in tempo, which could serve to suffer at the hands of faster teams in this year’s tournament, which complement the ever-increasing speed of modern basketball.
Washington was 1-7 against teams that reached the NCAA Tournament this year, with their only win coming earlier in the season against an Oregon team that later beat the Huskies, as was stated above. The Pac-12 managed to squeeze three teams in this year, and the Huskies landed in as one, thus breaking an eight-year drought.
Their competition, the eight-seeded Utah State Aggies, come into Friday’s game riding on the tail end of a 10-game winning streak, including a win that saw them top the Mountain West Tournament. The Huskies are looking very beatable in this bracket for a hot Aggies team coming into Friday’s contest in Columbus.
If Washington manages to evade a loss in their first round competition, I don’t look to them to make it very far afterwards, despite receiving a seed inside of the top 10 in the region.