Well, the Huskies were run out of the gym against the Cardinal, then took care of business against the inferior Golden Bears.  So, it was a lot like the Utah/Colorado series the week before.

I don’t really have anything to add that I haven’t said about this team countless times before.  This team is what it is.  On its best nights, they play savage defense and make enough shots to get the job done.  On most nights, the defense comes and goes, and the offense goes in the tank for long stretches.  On its worst nights, the offense never shows up and there are too many turnovers for comfort.

With two games to go in the regular season, the Huskies are 19-10, 9-7 in conference.  They’re tied for 7th in the conference with Oregon – who we play on Saturday.  Arizona and USC are solidly in the top two spots, with Stanford, UCLA, and Utah all within striking distance.  Stanford goes to the Arizona schools; UCLA goes to USC; Utah is home against Colorado.  Top 4 seeds get a first round BYE in the Pac-12 tournament, so the Huskies are going to have to win out and get some help.  However, considering how we’re on the bubble, it might not be beneficial to skip any games, as we’ll need all the wins we can get.

I think the Huskies need to win both games this weekend, finish at the 5th seed in the conference Tourney, win a cheap game against a bad team, and win a second game against a good team.  I think Arizona and USC are locks for the NCAA Tournament (which is good for us, because we beat both of those teams this year), I think one of either Utah or UCLA will get in as a low seed, meaning we need to somehow distinguish ourselves from the other, as well as likely Stanford and ASU.  I can’t imagine more than four Pac-12 teams making the NCAA Tournament, so a school like Stanford winning it all would be very, VERY bad for the Huskies.  If we can work it out to where we play either Utah or UCLA in the second round and BEAT them, I think that might be enough to leapfrog us into the tournament.  Short of that, I think we’re a lock for the NIT.

Gotta take care of business this weekend, though.  Another home loss, and we’re looking at needing to win the entire Pac-12 Tournament just to get in.  That isn’t to say we’re not capable of that, but considering how off we are most games – particularly on offense – that doesn’t seem very likely.