The Washington Men's Husky Basketball season starts in less than two weeks. Get hyped. The last time I was this excited for a season was Tony Wroten's year. We are preseason ranked 25, and granted we don't have 2 previous seasons with tournament appearances, but we have an incredibly experienced and skilled roster returning, with a coach who brought us to our first 20+ win season in years.



Three of our returners are on preseason watch lists (Matisse Thybulle, Jaylen Nowell, and Noah Dickerson) for the best player at their positions. Great preseason honors, but they do have to show some improvements. Matisse will have a lot to show on the offensive end (mainly his handles), Jaylen will drop his turnovers and maintain a killer instinct all year, and Noah's gotta show an off the dribble mid-range game to go along with is masterful post game.



We also have 2 other returners that made significant impacts last season in seniors David Crisp and Dominic Green. David Crisp put a lot on his shoulders last season running the point for the first time, while playing almost 35 minutes per game. I'm really curious see how he has progressed during the off season offensively, and to see if Jaylen brings the ball up from time to time. As for Dominic, I was definitely a hater after his first 2 seasons. He was supposed to come in as a sharpshooter, but he lacked confidence, and didn't show any ability to shoot. However, after seeing him last season as a spot shooter in Hop's system, I can see him leading the PAC 12 in 3 pointers this season; if he gets the minutes that is. Dom went from 28% to almost 43% in just one season. It will be fun to see how many time's he'll be on fire this year.



Now, we got to see how our Huskies might play during a charity scrimmage against preseason ranked #7 Nevada last week. And to put it bluntly, the Dawgs showed out. Even without Noah, the Huskies smashed the Wolf Pack by 18. Jaylen Nowell, David Crisp, Matisse Thybulle, and Dominic Green all came to play, and all showed how their experience is going to cause problems for opposing teams. Nowell dominated the game with 26 points on 12 of 15 shooting. Yes, 12 of 15. Crisp dropped a 20 spot, shooting 8 of 15 with 5 assists. Thybulle added 17 points on 7 of 13 (3/6 3pt) with 3 blocks and 5 steals, further proving why he was PAC 12 Defensive Player of the Year last year. And Green added 12 points on 4 of 5 from three. The huskies shot a team 61.7% and held Nevada to 38.8% (23.8% from 3). Yes, this was a preseason scrimmage, but we dominated a preseason top 10 team without Noah Dickerson.



The hype is real for Coach Hopkins and the Huskies. We're ranked 25 now, and many predict us to win the PAC 12. And if we can beat Auburn and Va Tech in the non-conference, we could easily be a top 10 or 15 team.



Go Dawgs!