I’m still absolutely dumbfounded.  The Oregon game, I could sort of understand, but Oregon State?  Come on, man!

I don’t care that it was on the road, it’s absolutely inexcusable that the Huskies would lose to this team.  I mean, they’re only the third-worst team in the conference because Wazzu and Cal are a couple of the worst teams of this generation.  Also, to lose while scoring 94 points?  Double overtime or not, what the hell???

Dickerson, Nowell, Thybulle, and Naz Carter all had pretty good offensive games, but no one played well defensively, and that’s this team’s bread and butter.  Ultimately, this team will only go as far as David Crisp can take them; he’s the straw that stirs the drink, and all too often, when he takes it upon himself to be the focus offensively, this team struggles.  It’s fucking absurd, with his inability in shooting the long ball, that he’s jacking up 6 fucking 3-pointers (making only 1, naturally, because he’s a fucking terrible shooter).  It’s even more absurd that he only attempted 3 free throws, when his game is much more tailored to using his speed and ball-handling ability to get in the paint and draw contact.

I mean, I just don’t understand him.  I can’t stop harping on it, because he’s so integral to everything the Huskies do offensively!  He thinks he’s something he’s not, when if he just played within the flow of the game, and stopped forcing his own shot, the Huskies would be winning games like these!

It sucks, because the Huskies are so close.  Unlike some people, I don’t think they’re out of NCAA Tournament contention, not by a long shot, but with every loss to inferior opponents, they cut their margin for error razor thin.  As it is, they can’t afford to drop a single home game the rest of the way, and would be well served in finishing the regular season 5-1, while still probably needing a win or two in the Pac-12 Tournament.

Big picture, obviously this has been a dream season, compared to pre-season expectations.  But, after that Arizona win, everything changed.  Expectations always change on the fly, and this season it’s no different.  Now, failing to make the Tourney would be a huge disappointment, whereas if you told me before the season that the Huskies would have one of the higher seeds in the N.I.T., I would’ve been ecstatic!

The saving grace is that I have pretty high expectations for the 2018/2019 season.  I’m heading into the next month’s worth of games under the impression that everyone will be back.  Yes, Jaylen Nowell has been a fantastic Freshman, but I absolutely don’t believe he’s a first round pick in the NBA right now, and as such it would be foolish for him to declare.  With him back, with a more-experienced point guard (either on our bench now, or among the incoming Freshman class), we won’t have to rely so much on David Crisp (who hopefully will finally mature as a Senior, and modify his offensive game accordingly) and the sky is the limit for the future.

But, for the here and now, it’s time to hold onto our butts.  Couple of must-win home games against the Mountain schools this week.  Let’s go!