18. Washington (3-1)
Making a major conference change in the offseason was already a challenge, but there’s a lot more new for Washington this season. The Huskies made a head coaching move, dismissing Mike Hopkins after seven underwhelming seasons, with Washington not having reached the Big Dance since 2019. An afterthought in the Pac-12 in recent years, can Danny Sprinkle and a new cast of characters make headway in the Big Ten?
When you look at just the final results, these first four games haven’t been super surprising, though a deeper look is more damning. A road loss at Nevada isn’t awful, especially with how the Wolf Pack are expected to play this season, but Washington trailed by double-digits at the half against Seattle Pacific just a few days later. Obviously, they played much better in the second half, but their poor shooting was a major factor in struggling to put UC Davis and UMass Lowell away until late in their other wins.
The big roster news was luring Great Osobor to town with a major NIL deal, though Osobor was reunited again with Sprinkle at a third different school. He’s averaging 14.8 points and 13.0 rebounds per game and is playing about as expected, but he’ll need some of these other Huskies to step up. If these Huskies can’t make shots at home against mid-majors, then these struggles certainly won’t go away when Big Ten play begins later in the season.