The 25th-ranked Washington Huskies kicked off their season with a 73-55 win at home over the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

It featured everything you come to expect from a Husky basketball team playing against an over-matched opponent:  struggling early, long stretches of scorelessness, sloppy play, lots of foul trouble, poor 3-point shooting, and about 20 minutes of competent (and sometimes dominant) basketball.  The fact that we were down 36-27 at halftime, only to come back and win by 18 is pretty impressive.  But, a lot of it wasn’t anything to write home about.

Given our early foul trouble, you would’ve thought that we’d see a bigger swath of involvement, but other than 3 minutes of mop-up duty by Bryan Penn-Johnson, it was the 8-man rotation we all expected heading into this season.  Obviously, we’ll see more from our deep bench as the season goes along (though, apparently not from Nate Roberts, who will be redshirting this year).

Dickerson led the way with 18 points, 6 boards and 3 blocks.  Jaylen Nowell had 17 points on 7/15 shooting.  Mr. Statsheet, Matisse Thybulle, had 9 points (on a woeful 3/10 shooting, including 1/6 from 3-point), with 6 boards, 6 blocks, and a steal.  David Crisp had 13 points on 4/12 (2/6 from three), with 7 assists, 3 boards and 2 steals.  Our bench crew (led by Dominic Green’s 6 points and 4 boards) chipped in with 12 points total; they will see better days ahead.

All in all, nothing to get too worked up about one way or the other.  The Huskies won, let’s leave it at that.

Next up on Friday is the game in Auburn.  Between the football and the basketball team flying across the country … is there ever a time the Tigers are gonna come up here?  I know the SEC rules the roost in football, but they’re pretty average in basketball, so maybe let’s not suck their dicks in every single sport.  On top of which, the game is being televised on the SEC Network, which I don’t get.  So, for a game I actually have an opportunity to watch live (because I don’t have to work the next day or otherwise get up super early), I’m gonna have to listen to the radio.  What a crock of shit.