Dawgman Radio: A Washington Huskies athletics podcast

Washington Head Coach Kalen DeBoer met with the media today to discuss the players signed by the Huskies during the first day of the regular signing period for the 2022 recruiting class. The period extends through the middle of April. He broke down all the players that have since signed that he couldn't talk about six weeks ago during the early signing period, and took on a number of other questions too.

After winning their last four home games and five of their last six, the Washington Huskies are starting to gel into the team Mike Hopkins envisioned, even when the rest of the league had their doubts. Remember when the Pac-12 media picked UW to finish the season in 11th place?

Well, the Huskies are now tied for fourth place with Oregon and are about to hit the road to face California and Stanford. Could the Huskies come back to Seattle at 8-3 and 13-8 overall?

As long as they continue to focus on their short-term ambitions, Hopkins said to the media on Monday.

To finish the season the way they want to, it's going to require the Huskies to maintain their current mantra...get better every day.

It has been a tough couple of weeks for the Washington women's basketball team. They are currently on a six-game losing streaking, not having won a game since December 20th and then enduring a nearly three-week stretch of COVID-related quarantines. 

This past weekend, the Huskies played a rare home-and-home with cross-state rival Washington State, a team that entered their two games 11-6 on the season. 

In game one, which took place in Pullman, head coach Tina Langley's team played the Cougars tough and actually held a lead until very late in the game, but missed free throws cost them and when Washington State was able to push it to overtime, they were unable to hold on for the win.

On Sunday, the two teams took the court at Alaska Airlines Arena and the Huskies were run off the floor, losing 57-43, so when Langley met with the media via zoom to chat about things, we needed to know, how do you get better at the free throw line so you don't lose games like the one on Friday?

We also asked about the mental state of the team and Langley said she has gotten her players to focus on the process rather than the results, but that isn't always easy when you are competitors. However, being in their first season together and dealing with some of the COVID issues, it's been tough to focus on the process she so adamantly advocates for. That being said, she's seen the progress of the team during the process and said that some of the younger players have been coming along well even though they aren't seeing much in the way of game action at this point. 

She also was asked about the strength and conditioning staff and how she coordinates with them to focus on getting her players with the functional movements that are required to play basketball at a high level. 

The Huskies will travel to play Utah on Friday and Colorado next Sunday before returning home for games against USC and UCLA on the 11th and 13th of the month respectively.

Washington players Nate Roberts and Terrell Brown, Jr. spoke to the media after UW's 77-73 double-overtime win over Utah Saturday afternoon, as did UW Head Coach Mike Hopkins. And Hopkins isn't surprised the Huskies are at 6-3 right now in conference play, good enough for fourth place at the moment. In fact, he said there are a few players that can still get even better.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Chris Fetters and Scott Eklund - break down Washington's final recruiting weekend for the 2022 class as the Huskies prepare to finish things out starting with the first day of the regular signing period on Wednesday. Recruits can sign through mid-April, but we expect almost all of UW's business to be concluded Wednesday, with one major exception.

In the first part of the show, we talk about UW's sole official visitor, Roman Rashada, and how he fits into the 2022 picture, as well as how a potential commit by him might influence the recruitment of his younger brother, Jaden, arguably the top quarterback out west for the 2023 class.

With the recently committed twin defensive linemen from Michigan - Armon and Jayvon Parker - expected to sign with the Huskies on Wednesday, UW has room for a handful of others to reach their maximum number of scholarships - 85. A few of them could be local, too.

After a quick commercial break, the guys get right into another big event happening at Washington this weekend - Junior Day. It's the first one for a couple of years due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the new Washington staff is trying to make a big splash.

So what happens during a Junior Day? Will the players get a chance to see the basketball game between Utah and Washington, which starts at 2 pm? And who are some of the top prospects that will be on hand? Fetters and Eklund go through all that, as well as their thoughts on the staff's big Friday 'Loyal to the Soil' campaign blitz which saw a number of coaches canvas the state and hit a ton of the top high schools.

Finally, Scott gives us an update on a 7-on-7 tournament he'll be attending in Tacoma Saturday, as well as the news that one of the South Sound's top 2023 players, Lincoln QB Gabarri Johnson, was offered by the Huskies this week.

With as many offers already out for 2023 prospects as for the entire 2022 class, the new UW staff has definitely let it be known they are looking nationwide to find the best prospects available.

AND, Dawgman.com has a phenomenal Signing Day Special where new subscribers can get a year's membership for 60 percent off the regular price. NOW is the time to get involved, especially with so much recruiting news happening.

Washington players Terrell Brown, Jr. and Emmitt Matthews, Jr., as well as Head Coach Mike Hopkins, spoke to the media after their 60-58 win over Colorado Thursday night at Alaska Airlines Arena. Here's a sampling of what they said about the game, what went right for the Huskies, especially in the second half, and what they'll work on as they get ready to host Utah Saturday afternoon at 2 pm. 

The media spoke Wednesday with Washington Head Coach Mike Hopkins, who missed the last two games with the Huskies due to being in COVID protocol. That meant lead assistant coach Will Conroy moved into the head coaching chair, where he went 1-1 on the road against the Oregon schools.

Hopkins spoke to the media about being in protocol, what it was like to watch the games instead of coaching them, his advice to Conroy, as well as what UW should expect going up against Colorado Thursday night. The Buffaloes just beat Oregon in Eugene.

After two tough losses at home to Oregon and Oregon State last week, Husky head coach Tina Langley and her team have hit a tough stretch. Now that it is behind them, they will play cross-state rival Washington State (10-6) in a home-and-home situation.

Sitting at 5-7 (0-4 in conference) on the season, the Huskies seem at a tipping point right now, but Langley is still upbeat about what she has seen out of her troops.

Today Langley met with the media and she was asked about the addition of sophomore forward Lauren Schwartz who followed Langley from Rice.

So far this season, Schwartz has averaged just under nine points per game while chipping in with three rebounds and nearly three assists per game.

Last week, Schwartz led the team with 18 points in a seven-point loss to Oregon and Langley said one of her biggest attributes has been her versatility and willingness to play any position in order to help her team.

Langley noted that at Rice she played some point guard and some of the four position on the floor and she did it equal effectiveness.

She also discussed what have been some of the struggles that the team has experienced in their current four-game losing streak and how the team can overcome those deficiencies and how changing the culture is a process and they have been pleased by the growth of the team over the 12 games so far this season.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Chris Fetters and Scott Eklund - take a deep dive Saturday morning to break down what's going on with Washington recruiting as we're roughly 10 days away from the start of the regular signing period for football.

The Huskies signed four high school players in the mid-year signing period back in December: Ryan Otton, Parker Brailsford, Lance Holtzclaw, and Denzel Boston. They also signed three transfers: Demario King, Michael Penix, Jr., and Jordan Perryman. So that's seven players so far this cycle.

We know Washington is hosting a handful of recruits this weekend (you can find the current list of the ones we know about HERE) , and they'll undoubtedly host a handful during their final recruiting weekend before Wednesday's Signing Day.

Eklund breaks down the 7 players he knows are visiting this weekend - Grady Gross, Derek Boyd, Tristan Dunn, Emar'rion Winston, Vega Ioane, Aaron Dumas, and Junior Alexander, who recently committed to UW after the former ASU receiver put his name in the transfer portal.

We also know of at least one player that will be visiting next weekend, QB Max Brown. He's currently committed to Central Michigan but is right now officially visiting Florida. What if he commits to the Gators? That's where Joshua Wood may make an appearance. Eklund talks about the visit the UW coaches made to Graham-Kapowsin this week to see Wood, and how Brown's trip to Gainesville might alter their outlook on Wood. Could they offer a scholarship? Could they offer anyway and approach it as first-come, first-served?

After a quick break, Fetters and Eklund talk about the recent scouting trips done by the new UW staff, including places like North Carolina and also territory like Idaho, which is in their natural footprint but not recently a landing spot for a lot of UW recruits. Are we seeing this as a function of the new staff offering more players, hence they need to work harder to be in more places to show more recruits and high schools love? Is it a function of social networks being more on top of it and more willing to make sure fans know coaches stopped by their schools?

To wrap things up, the two get back to the ultimate question; how many players will Washington eventually sign in this cycle? Believe it or not, with as many twists and turns as this cycle has taken, complete with a whole new staff coming to UW, the number isn't really off from what Eklund predicted many months ago. Goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same. But that do ...

Kalen DeBoer takes over at Washington and has a tall task in front of him of rebuilding Huskies recruiting both in-state and throughout the country. Scott Eklund of 247Sports' Dawgman.com joins Lance Glinn to break down UW recruiting under DeBoer, some of the top targets remaining in 2022, and how the new head coach can lock down the home state!

Host: Lance Glinn

Guests: Scott Eklund

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