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Undefeated Huskies are making the women's college basketball world take notice – The Seattle Times
The women’s college basketball world is starting to discover what Husky fans have known for weeks, if not months: Washington is pretty good.
Following last Saturday’s 60-55 upset win against then-No. 21-ranked Washington State, the Huskies nearly cracked The Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time since 2017.
Washington climbed to No. 31 in the NET and garnered team of the week honors from ESPN and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
The accolades and extra attention are new — and arguably a tad tardy — for a UW team that’s 10-0 and looking to tie the best start in school history with a win against Saint Mary’s (4-6) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Alaska Airlines Arena.
However, don’t expect Tina Langley to spend much time talking about Washington’s impressive streak or its unexpected rise in the rankings.
“The goal is the process,” the UW coach said. “Trust the process. Our goal every day is how will we do in this next drill and how will we handle this next scheme that we do.
“If we can keep our minds focused on that, then good things will come. … You have to break things down into small things. When we let our vision get too big, we usually don’t execute the way that we want to. Just focusing on the details is most important for us.”
In retrospect, the Huskies put everyone on notice last March when they won four straight games to advance to the WNIT semifinals.
Despite returning five of their top seven scorers from a 19-15 team that tied for eighth in the conference last season, Washington was picked ninth and 10th in the Pac-12 preseason media and coaches polls, respectively.
After completing more than a third of its 29-game regular-season schedule, UW has forged an unyielding defensive identity as one of the stingiest teams in the nation.
Simply put, the Huskies hate giving up points.
Washington is allowing 47.0 points per game, which ranks third nationally among 348 Division I teams.
Only No. 1-ranked South Carolina has a better opponents’ field-goal percentage than UW, which is holding foes to 31.5% shooting from the floor.
“Years of just watching great coaches do different things,” said Langley when asked where she developed her defensive schemes. “So many people in the game play it differently. There’s a lot of ways to win playing basketball. Through the years just seeing different things and then evaluating what works best for the people that you have.
“There are individuals who have helped us and carried us at times. Dalayah (Daniels) does a phenomenal job of being able to play multiple positions. She’s doing a great job in each little scheme that we have to defend and understanding it. She has a high IQ. And Jayda Noble does a great job of playing many positions as well. So when you can move people around per scout, it’s very helpful. Individuals make the defense work well if (coaches) do our job and put them in the right places.”
Washington rolled through its first nine tuneups by an average winning margin of 26.8 points and was expected to receive a challenge last Saturday from cross-state rival Washington State, which was averaging 78.8 points per game.
However, the Huskies held the Cougars to just two points on 1-for-15 shooting in the first quarter and took a commanding 37-17 lead into halftime before holding on at the end.
It was the first time Washington, which has the fifth-longest winning streak in school history, defeated a ranked team on the road since 2017.
With Lauren Schwartz (12.6 points per game), Elle Ladine (12.4 ppg.) and Daniels (11.9 ppg.) providing the bulk of the scoring and a potentially record-setting defense, Langley appears to have assembled her best UW team since coming to Montlake in 2021.
“I appreciate the girls and how hard they’ve worked and how they put us in this position,” Langley said. “We always celebrate each moment that shows growth whether it’s a great practice or a great game in that moment. Then that moment is over and then we have to go to our next moment.
“I think they do a great job, maybe the most mature team I’ve ever seen at ‘OK, what’s next?’”
Next up is Saint Mary’s, then a much-anticipated trip to No. 18 Louisville on Wednesday to close the nonconference schedule.
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