2014-15 Pac-12 Conference Preview: #7 Washington Huskies
By Daniel Tran
2013 Season Results: 17-15 overall, 9-9 conference record. 9th place in the Pac-12, 61-67 first-round loss vs. Utah in the Pac-12 tournament
Key Losses: C.J. Wilcox (Graduated/NBA Draft), Perris Blackwell (graduated)
Key Returns: Nigel Williams-Goss, Andrew Andrews
2014 Recruiting Class (247 Sports Composite No. 85 in the Nation): SF Donaven Dorsey (3-Star), SF Quevyn Winters (JuCo, 3-Star), PF Tristan Etienne (Unrated)
You win some; you lose some. That seems to be the running theme for the Washington Huskies for the past 2 seasons, going 18-18 in conference play during that span. This cycle of mediocrity doesn’t look like it’s going to break this year.
Roster turnover has been a big factor in the Huskies inability to make the next step to legitimately contend in the Pac-12 Conference. After they went 24-10 in 2011-12 and went to the NIT semifinal, Washington was without top players Terrance Ross and Tony Wroten for the 2012-13 season when they both entered the NBA Draft. Though they recruited top prospect Nigel Williams-Goss and retained C.J. Wilcox in 2013, they also lost talented scorer Scott Suggs, Abdul Gaddy, and leading rebounder Aziz N’Diaye.
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This season the Huskies return Williams-Goss and Andrew Andrews, but lose leading scorer C.J. Wilcox (18.3 points per game) and leading rebounder Perris Blackwell (6.8 rebounds per game). With no obvious stars in their 2014 recruiting class, the Washington Huskies are looking at a season where they hover right at .500 or just above.
When Wilcox and Blackwell departed, the Huskies also had captain vacancies that needed to be filled. The burden of that responsibility has been unsurprisingly put on Williams-Goss and Andrews, who were the next leading scorers after Wilcox. A lot of pressure will be put on the starting to backcourt carry the offense. Williams-Goss will especially be depended upon to improve on his impressive freshman campaign where he averaged 13.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game.
Washington is going to need their young backcourt to perform at a high level especially with the lack of eye-popping talent from their incoming recruiting class. 3-star forward 6’7 Donaven Dorsey is good at a lot of things, but he is not extraordinary at anything. He has a decent three-point shot and he can make the extra pass. He is strong on the inside and is explosive enough to finish in traffic. He will be a good glue guy for this team.
6’5, 205 pound Quevyn Winters is transferring in from Indian Wells Community College where he averaged 11.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Winters can add scoring off the bench, but he will be hard pressed to take any minutes away from Mike Anderson or Darin Johnson.
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With the First Pick
Unrated power forward Tristan Etienne also joins the team this season with little chance of cracking the regular rotation. At 6’10, 215 pounds, Etienne is slow of foot and plays almost exclusively under the basket. He does possess impressive vision and passing from the post, but his lack of athleticism will keep him on the bench pending major injuries to rotation players.
For as up and down the Huskies were last season, there were factors beyond their control that kept them having a better season. Specifically, there were two big factors. 6’10 Forward Jernard Jarreau was poised to have a breakout season in 2013-14 only to tear his right ACL in Washington’s season opener. Fresno State transfer center 6’11 Robert Upshaw also had to sit out the 2013-14 season in accordance with NCAA transfer rules.
It’s impossible to say how well Washington would’ve done with that kind of skill and size on the floor last season, but Jarreau and Upshaw will certainly be an X-factor this season and hold the key to how far the Huskies go. Washington was tied for 9th in the conference for total rebounds. With Jarreau and Upshaw sharing the same frontcourt and the Huskies returning 70.1% of the team’s total rebounds, Washington can potentially add another dimension to their team that they were lacking last season if they can gel together quickly.
The good news for the Washington Huskies is that they are returning a talented backcourt and adding a big, skilled frontcourt they didn’t have last year. The bad news is that they haven’t had any real court time together to mesh. The on-court chemistry will be off, but not enough to cause a catastrophic collapse. Washington has enough talent coming back to show flashes of great basketball powered by their guard play, but their lack of depth and dependable production aside from Williams-Goss and Andrews will doom them to the middle of the Pac-12 for another year.
Projected Finish: 7th Place