The University of Washington released the non-conference portion of the Huskies men’s basketball schedule Tuesday, which features 10 contests at Alaska Airlines Arena, two road games and two neutral-site affairs.
The 10-game home schedule is highlighted by match-ups against five teams that played in either the 2012 NCAA Tournament or NIT, which is where Washington landed after infamously failing to make the NCAA Tournament as Pac-12 champion.
Washington will face Loyola-Maryland (Nov. 11), Colorado State (Nov. 24) and Saint Louis (Nov. 28), all of which made the NCAA Tournament, while Nevada (Dec. 8) and Northern Illinois (Dec. 22) played in the NIT.
The Huskies played Saint Louis and Nevada in road games last season, losing at St. Louis 77-64 and at Nevada 76-73 in overtime prior to heading to Madison Square Garden to face nationally ranked Marquette and Duke (lost both games).
The Huskies begin by hosting 2012 Division II National Champion Western Washington in an exhibition Oct. 24. The Vikings last faced the Huskies in 2008 at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Washington’s regular season bgins by hosting the campus-round portion of the Hall of Fame Classic Nov. 11 and Nov. 13 with Loyola (Md.) and Albany, respectively, before heading to Connecticut to play NIT participant Seton Hall Nov. 17 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT.
The winner/loser of that game will play Ohio State/Rhode Island Nov. 18.
UW returns home to host Colorado State and Saint Louis, before ushering in December with home games against Cal State Fullerton (Dec. 8) and Nevada.
The Huskies continue their rivalry against cross-town foe Seattle University (Dec. 13) at KeyArena.
UW wraps up the home portion of its non-conference schedule with three games in a span of a week — Jackson State (Dec. 15), Cal Poly (Dec. 20) and Northern Illinois — before heading across the country again to play in Connecticut. There, Washington will play at UConn, either in Storrs or Hartford, Dec. 29.
Washington’s Pac-12 schedule has yet to be finalized.
The 2011-12 UW men went 24-11, including 18-2 at home and 14-4 in conference play that enabled the Huskies to win the league’s regular-season championship. But the Huskies lost their last league game at UCLA 75-69, and then lost in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament to Oregon State 86-84.
With that, the NCAA Tournament made Washington the first conference champion not invited to the Big Dance.
In the NIT, Washington breezed past UT Arlington, Northwestern and Oregon before losing to Minnesota 68-67 in overtime.
Within days following the end of the season, Washington’s two leading scorers, Terrence Ross (16.4 ppg) and freshman Tony Wroten (16.0) announced they were leaving school and entering the NBA draft June 28.
NBADraft.Net projects Ross to go to Portland with the 11th overall pick and Wroten to go to Washington in the second round at 32nd overall. NBADraft.Net had Wroten projected as a first-round pick in March.
