Photo by Kurt Howard

The University of Washington's Riley Sorn (52) battles Dishon Jackson of Washington State University in a 2021 game.

Husky men have been up and down

By Tim Clinton

It has been an up-and-down ride for the University of Washington men's basketball team in its history that dates back to 1896.

The Huskies happen to be on a down cycle right now, not making an NCAA tournament appearance since 2019 and struggling to a 4-16 record in their just completed first season of Big 10 Conference play and going 13-18 overall.

The last high point did come n the 2018-2019 season, when the UW finished 27-9 overall, won the Pac-12 regular season title with a 15-3 record and advanced as far as the NCAA tournament round of 32.

The brightest highlights immediately previous to that were the 2009-2012 seasons.

Washington won the Pac-12 regular season title in 2009 and 2012 and took the Pac-12 Tournament crown in 2010 and 2011.  The Huskies gunned their way into the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2010, made the round of 32 in 2009 and 2011, and the NIT semifinals in 2012.

The Huskies also made the NCAA Sweet 16 after second place Pac-12 regular season finishes in 2005 and 2006, and the first round after taking second in 2004.  They won the Pac-12 Tournament in 2005.

The UW had made NCAA appearances in 1998 and 1999 ahead of and after other dry spells, reaching the Sweet 16 in 1998.

You have to go all the way back to 1984 and 1985 to find more Pac-12 regular season titles ahead of a 1986 NCAA appearance on the heels of those qualifying years.  The UW reached the Sweet 16 in 1984.

Washington made the round of 32 in 1976, their first NCAA appearance since reaching the Final Four for the one and only time in 1953.

The Huskies were at the end of a heyday then, also making the Elite Eight in 1943, 1944, 1948, 1951 and 1952 as well as in 1953.

Prior to the arrival of the NCAA tournament in 1939, Washington won conference regular season titles in 1911, 1914, 1915, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936 and 1937.

Washington plays its home games at what is now called the Alaska Airlines Arena on campus, which has gone by Hec Edmundson Pavilion since 1948.  The building has housed the team since 1927, when it was first called the University of Washington Pavilion.

Edmundson served 27 seasons as the head basketball coach at the UW prior to 1948 and remained as the head track coach through the 1954 season.