Can the Washington Huskies Overcome a Loaded Pac-12 Tournament Bracket?
By Ben Renner
The Washington Huskies women’s team is ranked tenth in the nation entering a loaded Pac-12 Tournament bracket. A good showing in Seattle will give them a favorable seed for the National Tournament.
The Washington Huskies women’s team, along with regular season Pac-12 champion Oregon State, Stanford, and UCLA, earned first round byes in the Pac-12 Tournament, which starts tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. with California taking on USC.
Those top four teams are all nationally ranked inside the top 15. It’s been one of the most competitive Pac-12 basketball seasons on the women’s side in history. Oregon State won its third consecutive Pac-12 regular season title and is currently ranked sixth in the nation.
The Beavers’ Gabriella Hanson earned Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year honors while Sydney Wiese earned a place on the all-conference team for the fourth straight year. They’re on the other side of the bracket from the Washington Huskies.
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Kelsey Plum, fresh off of re-writing the record books for the Washington Huskies and the entire league this year, will be the key of course for the Dawgs. She and Chantel Osahor will have their hands full when they likely meet Stanford in the Semifinals on Saturday. Stanford, ranked 10th in the nation, will see the winner of Washington State and Colorado, who play tomorrow evening.
The 11th-ranked Washington Huskies will take on the winner of Arizona and Oregon, who play late tomorrow.
Obviously, winning the Pac-12 Tournament gives the Huskies an automatic bid in the NCAA Women’s Tournament. Not only that, but coming out of the best conference in the country to take the tournament crown would likely vault them into two- or even one-seed status. It would likely mean beating two top-15 opponents.
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Catch the opening round action starting tomorrow morning on Pac-12 Network. The Huskies face either Oregon or Arizona at 8:30 p.m. on Friday.