Huskies headed to the NIT

by: Griffin Bennett

**UPDATE** 6:14pm

The Huskies are the overall #1 seed in the NIT and will play UT-Arlington on Tuesday at 7pm at Hec Ed. It will be televised on ESPNU. Click the link for the full bracket. 

Well, the day that we all feared is here. Judgement Day arrived and our Washington Huskies came up short. The Dawgs’ non-conference record was poor and the blowout home loss to North Dakota State by 19 is a key game to point to.

UW had a 7-6 record in non-conference play but cleaned up in conference with a 14-4 record and the regular season title. Looking back, it seems that the Dawgs’ fate might have been sealed before the regular season even began.

The Pac-12 was 1-29 in non-conference games against the RPI top 50. With no single Pac-12 team carrying any serious RPI weight, there was nothing for the Huskies to gain by beating up their terrible conference. The Pac-12 dug itself a hole that was insurmountable. It’s the reality of the college basketball game today.

The losses against North Dakota St., Nevada, and Marquette are games that could have turned their season around. It’s unacceptable to have your best non-conference win be against UC-Santa Barbara.

Even with all of that going against the Huskies, all they needed to do was beat Oregon State in the conference tournament. More so to protect themselves from another bad RPI-loss than to upgrade their own resume.

They lost that game and now they only have themselves to blame as they sat watching Selection Sunday and failed to hear their names called. Snubbed? The Huskies deserved their fate.

Now the Huskies wait until 6 to hear where and when they will play in the NIT, the Pac-12 of post-season tournaments.

So much talent. So much promise. So few leaders. So much disappointment.

Today is not a fun day.