Washington Basketball: Huskies’ fine season comes to a close in loss to UNC

The Washington Basketball squad saw its NCAA Tournament run arrive at an end, although the future looks extremely bright for the Huskies.

Perhaps the scariest issue facing the Washington basketball team as it prepared to square off with North Carolina is that the Tar Heels compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference. As such, UNC is quite familiar with the zone defense employed by fellow ACC member Syracuse and the Huskies, a unit guided by Mike Hopkins, a long-time former assistant coach with the Orange.

In Washington’s round of 32 duel versus the No. 1 seed Tar Heels at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, an 81-59 setback, North Carolina (29-6) absolutely shredded the Huskies’ zone defense, utilizing the high post with proficiency, sharing the ball with precision, crushing Washington on the glass to generate a ton of second-chance points, and connecting on 43 percent from downtown.

The Huskies (27-9), the No. 9 seed in the Midwest Region and suiting up in the Big Dance for the initial instance since 2011, hung tough with UNC and its high-octane offense for the most part, but ultimately the Tar Heels possessed too much firepower for Washington, which did itself in by shooting at a poor clip from the field, from the charity stripe, and from beyond the arc. North Carolina, which never trailed in Sunday afternoon’s encounter, advances to the Sweet 16, where it will do battle with No. 5 seed Auburn.

While it’s a bummer that the Huskies’ 2018-19 campaign is over, the Washington fan base should feel tremendous excitement as it pertains to this program’s near-term outlook. The Huskies captured the Pac-12 Conference regular-season crown, swept the league’s primary awards, and earned an at-large invite to March Madness. Hopkins has also agreed to remain on Washington’s sidelines through 2025.

While multiple starters on the Huskies roster are graduating, Washington will witness a handful of key guys returning, plus a really strong recruiting class that will join this crew next fall. Among those prospects is five-star center Isaiah Stewart, who is rated as one of the top-10 players in the class of 2019 across the entire country. It always stings when your group gets bounced from the NCAA tourney, however, I for one am undeniably pleased at the progress that Hopkins has instilled in the Huskies in just two years at the helm.