Pac-12 Basketball: Way-too-early power rankings for 2020-21 season

Washington was supposed to compete for a Pac-12 title last year. Instead, the season was a complete disaster as they finished below .500 overall and in last place in the conference.

And things don’t look like they’re going to be much better in 2020-21.

Their two most talented players from last year’s time, five-star freshmen Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels, are both off to the NBA. The Huskies will get starting point guard Quade Green back (he missed the second half of the season after being ruled academically ineligible), but the rest of the core is the same group that struggled so immensely.

USC transfer J’Raan Brooks will help ease the loss of Stewart inside but, with his impact and Wichita State transfer Erik Stevenson’s status still uncertain, it remains to be seen how much they can be counted on.

Even with Steward and McDaniels, the Huskies were simply atrocious offensively last year. They struggled to shoot and were a collective turnover machine along with being a poor rebounding team. Those rebounding struggles came even though Stewart was one of the Pac-12’s best individual rebounders so, without him, it’s fair to wonder just how bad their struggles will be in that area.

All that said and despite their weaknesses, this group does have some talent and has the potential to be a quality defensive squad. If they can find some rebounding – from Brooks or someone else – and if Green can steady the ship at point guard, they’ll be able to avert a repeat of last year’s disaster. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be good.