The UW takes a three-game losing streak up against Minnesota on Saturday night.
The breakthroughs came in signing one of Europe's very best players in power forward Hannes Steinbach. Returning guard Wesley Yates III to Montlake. Keeping guard Zoom Diallo in town. And having center Franck Kepnang healthy for the first time in four seasons.
On Valentine's Day, the struggling University of Washington basketball team brings a three-game losing streak into a home game against Minnesota , this after falling to then last-place Penn State 63-60 three nights earlier. A year ago, the Huskies, with an almost completely different roster, dropped their final six games to finish up completely demoralized and at the bottom of the conference standings. The questions entering this 6 o'clock tipoff at Alaska Airlines Arena are this: 1) are the Huskies totally done, such as last season? 2) will anyone show up to watch them play, especially while enjoying the glow of a Super Bowl victory for the city? 3) are any of the players already mulling exit plans?After this team hit a two-year program low point against Penn State, Danny Sprinkle has to somehow get his team ready to play under difficult circumstances, not let his players emotionally cash out and enable them to feel rewarded again, lest those with eligibility remaining all head for the transfer portal.After coming halfway around the world to play his college basketball, the 6-foot-11 Steinbach from Wurzburg, Germany, deserves much better than this. He has 16 double-double performances. He took just 12 shots against Penn State. Not sure why it's so hard for the Husky guards to understand this: that they need to get the ball to Hannes. Over and over. From start to finish. Coming off a midseason broken wrist, Yates is probably lucky to be playing right now. Maybe just set some screens for him and let him shoot it.All of a sudden, he's hit the wall. Against UCLA, he drew five- and three-second calls while picking up his dribble. He's not plugged in like he was. Against Penn State, he hit just 3 of 15 shots.Maybe the Huskies should limit his minutes some if he's reached a level of exhaustion and give extended time to fellow guards Quimari Peterson or Courtland Muldrew. Kepnang doesn't have the greatest hands inside, but let him shoot a few more one-handers and see what happens. With six regular-season games and at least one Big Ten tournament outing remaining, the season doesn't have to be over just yet.Yes, he's lost four players to season-ending injuries and a fifth to a supposed redshirt year and is nowhere to be found. The coach still has 10 scholarship players to work with. Bottom line, the Huskies need to honor Detlef Schrempf with his jersey retirement in two weeks and they don't want to be doing this in front of an empty house with a demoralized team.Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.
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