The Huskies are back in Seattle after a longer-than-expected overnight cross-country flight home, complicated by an unexpected change of planes in Minnesota.
Here are the details from the GoHuskies.com website.
The Huskies’ season ended tonight with that 69-56 loss to West Virginia in the Carrier Dome. And so did the career of the team’s lone senior: Quincy Pondexter.
“I haven’t really had a chance to reflect,” he said a few minutes after the game. “… I think last year was a big step up from the (first) two years. And this year was remarkable how we played down the stretch. The grading for each of my four years has been different. I wish they could have all ended up with championships, but that’s not how it played out.”
Still, Pondexter …
Washington is 17-16 all-time in its NCAA tournament appearances, and 7-5 under coach Lorenzo Romar. … With 13 points in the season’s final game, Isaiah Thomas moved to 1,134 points in his first two seasons, the most ever for a Husky at this stage. … Matthew Bryan-Amaning had five blocks Thursday, giving him 141 in his career, third on the school list. … Venoy Overton had two steals against the Mountaineers. That gives him 141 in his three seasons, passing Nate Robinson for fourth on the UW list. … This was Washington’s 36th game, equaling the 1938 team for the …
“It’s always tough when you don’t win your last game and you have to look at the guys that have worked so hard all year and know this is it,” Romar said. “It’s very difficult. But I’m very proud of our team. For the last two months I thought we played exceptional basketball. We played against an exception team tonight, however, and they did a very good job against us.”
The Huskies season ends in Syracuse with a loss to West Virginia. UW couldn’t overcome a poor game from Quincy Pondexter, who was saddled with foul trouble in the first half and finished with seven points, and a sloppily played second half that saw the Mountaineers break open a close game and win easily.
Don said he will provide the usual postgame offerings as soon as he can.
Note: Don is having internet access issues. But it’s looking bad for the Huskies. Isaiah Thomas just fouled out with 2:41 to play and his team down by 12.
Halftime: Huskies up, 29-27.
Odd game. Pondexter no points for UW … but Holiday has 10. Butler has four points for WVU … but Deniz Kilicli has six.
3:01/1st UW up 24-23, but Quincy Pondexter is on the bench and probably through for the half with three fouls … and no points.
11:52/1st: One ugly basketball game so far. WVU continues to have trouble getting the ball up the court or from one Mountaineer to another. UW seems to be drawing iron on about 50 percent of its shots. However, style points don’t count at this stage, and it’s …
I am told that ESPN viewers have selected Washington as the underdog most likely to advance to the Elite Eight with a victory tonight over West Virginia.
UW received over 37 percent of the vote, with no other underdog getting out of the 20s. However, UW is a mild underdog at that, with the Mountaineers favored by around four points.
Meanwhile, ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb also picked Washington straight up. Interestingly, he picks that based on UW’s ability to speed the tempo, something coach Lorenzo Romar admitted yesterday will be difficult to do.
“Unless you just have superior, superior …