The Husky men’s basketball team is predicted to finish 10th in the Pac-12 in the conference’s preseason media poll.
Mike Hopkins will be coming in as the new head coach at Washington. Hopkins is a longtime Syracuse assistant coach and will be replacing Lorenzo Romar.
“I don’t look at the past,” Hopkins said during an interview on the Pac-12 Networks. “I look at the future and what we’re going to bring and the system. We’re all new. The staff is new. We’ve never worked with each other.”
“The players are learning a new system, but you got to give them a lot of credit. They’ve bought in. They’ve worked exceptionally hard and we look like we’re moving in the right direction.”
The Huskies will be playing without guard Markelle Fultz, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft. They do have three starters and four of their top five scorers, including David Crisp, Noah Dickerson, Matisse Thybulle and Carlos Johnson returning this year.
The Huskies went 9-22 last season and was 11th in the Pac-12 at 2-16.
2017-18 Pac-12 men’s basketball preseason media poll:
(First-place votes in parenthesis)
1. Arizona (22) – 273
2. USC (1) – 251
3. UCLA – 223
4. Oregon – 203
5. Stanford – 182
6. Arizona State – 182
7. Utah – 129
8. Oregon State – 125
9. Colorado – 112
10. Washington – 71
11. California – 46
12. Washington State – 33