Predicting the Huskies Basketball Season – The Non-Conference

This is part I of a three part series looking at the upcoming basketball season for the Huskies and analyzing how they will do. Part I will look at the non-conference portion of the season. Part II will analyze the Pac-12 portion of the season, as well as, where the Huskies might end up come tournament time. Part III will make predictions for the final standings of the entire Pac-12 and will analyze who will make the NCAA tournament, the NIT, and who will stay home (or play in the CBI).

So, let’s start off by analyzing the non-conference portion of the season. As mentioned in the post last summer regarding the non-conference strength of schedule, the opponents UW has scheduled this year are not particularly strong for the most part based on last year’s results. However, UW has four very scary games away from Hec Ed this fall, including trips to St. Louis, Reno, and the nationally televised games at Madison Square Garden in New York City against Marquette and Duke.

It is my prediction that UW will make it past the St. Louis game with a victory, but they are going to stumble in Reno. It could happen in reverse as well, but either way I predict UW will split those two true road games one-way or the other. I also believe that this inexperienced crew is going to struggle under the bright lights in New York City against Marquette and Duke.

I am not just saying this because of name recognition, but also because there is some history on my side. Romar has traditionally taken his teams to neutral sites for marquee games and they often end in losses. Think about the Kansas and Florida losses in Kansas City in 2008, the Georgetown loss in Los Angeles in 2009, and the losses to Kentucky and Michigan State in Maui last year.

Notice the three-game losing streak? When it happens, please don’t panic Husky fans. Things will come together nicely. By January, the Gaddy/Wroten show in the backcourt, the Wilcox/Suggs perimeter game, the Ross highlight reel, and the increased size up front will come together to be one of the most explosive teams in the Pac-12!

UW is more than strong enough to demolish the rest of the non-conference foes at Hec Ed. I predict many of those games will end up with the Huskies scoring more than 100 points and winning by 20-30 points. In the end, I see UW finishing with a record of 9-3 in the non-conference portion of the schedule. That is a record very similar to how they have finished the non-conference season the last several years. If they go 10-2 or 11-1, I would be ecstatic because then they would be in a very good position to get a high seed come NCAA tournament time. In my next post, I will make predictions about the Pac-12 portion of the schedule.