This past Sunday, aka “Selection Sunday”, the Washington Huskies (19-13 overall, 9-9 B1G) found out they went from a team “on the bubble” to officially selected for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since their 2016-2017 season.
The Huskies’ inaugural Big Ten conference schedule consisted of two consensus top 10 programs, UCLA and USC, plus 10 legitimate tournament-level.teams per their NET schedule strength rankings (i.e. #19 Ohio State, #21 Michigan State, #23 Michigan, #24 Iowa, #28 Maryland, #32 Illinois, #34 Indiana, #39 Minnesota, #41 Oregon and #43 Washington).
A late season 5-game winning streak (including a win over Oregon and two wins over Minnesota before losing to Michigan in the Big Ten tournament) elevated Washington’s resume enough to qualify as a NCAA tournament participant –albeit in the last-four-in category.
As a result of that conference schedule strength, Washington is now slated for a play-in game to qualify for the 11th seed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
In other words, the Huskies will play a loser-out elimination game versus Columbia to earn an 11th-seed and face their first round opponent — #6-ranked West Virginia in Chapel Hill, NC.
So sit tight Huskies fans and tune-in Thursday at 4pm to find out if the Dawgs can survive and advance versus Columbia.
This past Sunday, aka “Selection Sunday”, the Washington Huskies (19-13 overall, 9-9 B1G) found out they went from a team “on the bubble” to officially selected for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since their 2016-2017 season.