Dawgman Radio: A Washington Huskies athletics podcast

As the Washington Huskies get set to face off against the Oregon schools starting Thursday night in Corvallis, UW Head Coach Mike Hopkins spoke to the media today about the two 'incredible opportunities' that lay in front of the Hoop Dawgs. And they couldn't be more different.

On Thursday, UW will play a struggling Oregon State (3-13, 1-5) team, less than a year removed from a truly remarkable Elite 8 run in the NCAA Tournament. And then Sunday night the Huskies travel to Eugene to take on a resurgent Oregon (11-6, 4-2) squad, fresh off a LA sweep of UCLA and USC. They're on a current five-game winning streak, compared to Oregon State, who have lost three in a row, including a two-point loss to the Ducks in Corvallis back on January 10.

After a three week layoff, the Husky women's basketball squad took to the floor last week in Los Angeles. While the results were losses, first year head coach Tina Langley saw some positives and she told the media on Tuesday, that she and the rest of the team are excited to return home and play in front of Washington fans on their home court.

Before she got to questions, Langley noted that the team will host former Husky assistant coach Kevin Simmons, who recently announced a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, and to bring awareness to disease and how to help fund he and his family in their fight.

One of the first questions to Langley was about senior center Nancy Mulkey's big game against USC where she almost single-handedly helped lead the Huskies to win by posting 26 points in 25 minutes of play. She noted that the transfer has always worked hard, but that she is naturally a versatile player and scorer and she loves the game of basketball, which helps her find success.

Langley also talked about some of the positives from the two losses as well as some things they still need to work on.

The Huskies will take on Oregon Friday night and then they host Oregon State on Sunday.

Dawgman.com's Kim Grinolds caught up post-game Saturday night with the Head of Hoops, Aaron Beach, to break down Washington's 67-64 win over Stanford, as well as what went well for the home team as they continue to build on their offensive and defensive identities and what they need to continue to work on both sides of the floor.

It's always a good time to catch up with the Head of Hoops to get his thoughts on what he has seen so far from this year's group of Hoop Dawgs.

They also talk specifically about certain UW players like Terrell Brown, Jr., Jamal Bey, Daejon Davis, and Nate Roberts.

And they also talk about the stark differences between this year's team and last year's UW team and what their ceiling could be moving forward.

Jamal Bey, Terrell Brown, Jr., and Mike Hopkins spoke post-game after the Washington Huskies defeated Stanford 67-64 Saturday at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The guys from Dawgman.com - Chris Fetters and Scott Eklund - get right to the heart of the matter when it comes to Washington Football at the moment. With Kalen DeBoer hiring JaMarcus Shephard as UW's Receivers Coach and Passing Game Coordinator, it's now all hands to the pump to finish off the 2022 recruiting class the right way. And there's less than three weeks to go before the regular signing period begins, so there's no time to waste!

In the first part of this hour-long recruiting spectacular, Fetters and Eklund lay out Shephard's importance, how it may have helped to keep some of Washington's current receivers like Jalen McMillan and Rome Odunze, as well as how Shephard will see the room going forward and whether or not he will want to add another high school recruit to join up with Denzel Boston, or whether he'll try and add through the transfer portal. And if so, would Junior Alexander be an obvious target?

And more to the point, are we going to see more in-state players like Alexander that moved out of state to start their college careers want to come back and play closer to home like we've seen with the Washington men's basketball team? Or is that just wishful thinking?

After a quick break to pay some bills, Fetters and Eklund get right to how they see Washington finishing out the 2022 class. With 7 players having signed or transferred in so far, there's up to 10 more spots the UW coaches could use to get to the 85 allowed scholarship players on their roster (assuming no more attrition). Does Scott see the coaches trying to sign up to 10 more players? And what would the mix look like between high school and portal players?

There are a number of top prospects still out there, starting with the two in-state offensive linemen in Josh Conerly, Jr.. and Vega Ioane. Where does UW stand with those prospects, and are there any other in-state players for the 2022 class that UW could make a late move on, like Graham-Kapowsin QB Joshua Wood?

And will we start to see more of the top, top prospect like Conerly keep their recruitment going until the end of the regular recruiting signing period in mid-April, or even longer - like what happened with J.T. Tuimoloau? Chris and Scott have differing opinions on how the elite prospects might go about the recruiting process in coming cycles.

And to finish out the podcast, Scott talks about the upcoming UW Junior Day, some of the recent 2023 offers, like Ashton Cozart, and if he could see any early 2023 commitments? Would there be any in-state prospects, like Micah Banuelos, Landen Hatchett, or Michael Montgomery, that could cut their recruitment short? And will this new UW staff try and push for earlier commitments? Are they going to show a more aggressive streak in this area compared to the last two UW staf ...

Daejon Davis, Terrell Brown, Jr., and Mike Hopkins spoke to the media after Washington's 64-55 win over California Wednesday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.

It's been nearly three weeks since the Husky women's basketball team has been on the court together. To say they are happy to be back is an understatement.

Head coach Tina Langley and veteran players Haley Van Dyke and Nancy Mulkey took the time to chat with the media recently and they covered a number of subjects, not the least of which is what it's been like to be back out on the court together.

One of the biggest concerns is their loss of conditioning, so Langley and her staff are working to assess where each of their players is at, but it's also been the continuity of the team and the possible mitigation of the progress they had been making on the court together.

For her part, Mulkey, who was with Langley at Rice last season, is excited to be back and loves her new home and teammates.

Van Dyke, one of the leaders of the team, said the players have taken this is stride and have just been focused on maintaining things until they got back. She feels the team has a positive attitude and will be ready for their road games at UCLA (Friday) and USC (Sunday).

After a long road trip that saw them play three games in six days, Husky head basketball coach Mike Hopkins is happy to be back in Seattle. While his team came away with a 1-2 record, the fourth-year head coach said he was happy with a lot of what he saw, but there team still needs to put a whole game together.

Hopkins said he's happy with the progress that both Jackson Grant and Cole Bajema have shown, including the latter's three-point consistency over the past couple of games.

Even with the lack of success at times on the road, Hopkins also noted that there were some positive things that happened, including the bonding that happened on a trip to a Benihana on one of the team's off days where players got to spend a lot of time together away from the basketball court.

In addition to looking back, Hopkins also looked ahead to the team's next two games, home games against Cal (Wednesday) and Stanford (Saturday). He believes that Cal has shown themselves to be one of the most improved teams in the country since last season and he expects them to be a tough opponent when the two teams tip off.

The listen to the 20 minute podcast, click on the audio link below...

On Monday, the Pac-12 Channel announcers kept noticing that the Washington Huskies weren't going away. A few times they talked about how Arizona's pressure - especially at home - was typically too much for opponents to handle, and all it took the Wildcats was 10 minutes to usually pull away and coast to a win.

After 10 minutes of the game between Washington and Arizona, the game was still there to be won by either team. After a couple of three-pointers by Dalen Terry, it sure looked like the Huskies were going to be another early victim.

But they didn't go away. Every time Arizona tried to extend their lead past 13 points, it never happened. Instead, the visitors slowly clawed their way back to being down only six with 30 seconds to play in the first half.

It's not always been that way for Washington, who has struggled with slow starts the past two seasons. But UW Head Coach Mike Hopkins talked about the lessons learned in Tucson, as well as how the play of guys like Riley Sorn and Daejon Davis can help them Thursday at Utah and Sunday at Colorado.

Washington Head Men's Basketball Coach Mike Hopkins met the media via Zoom on Monday afternoon, harkening back to times when the only press availability was done remotely.

COVID-19 and the Omicron variant has swept through the ranks, and Washington has suffered its share of setbacks because of it. They had to reschedule one game (at Arizona), and forfeit a home game versus UCLA that was later deemed a postponement due to the Pac-12 changing back to last year's rules regarding not being able to field a team due to COVID protocols.

A few days ago it was announced that the rescheduled Arizona game, initially expected to be played on January 25th in Tucson, will be played in the desert on January 3rd.

With Washington going to Washington State for a game Wednesday against the Cougars, and then a road swing through Utah and Colorado, it means the Huskies will have taken six flights in 12 days and played four games in 12 days.

This may sound more like an NBA-style schedule, but if the game had been played on its original rescheduled date, Washington would have played four games in seven days (at Oregon, at Arizona, then home to host Colorado and Utah), so in some ways Hopkins will accept the tradeoff, even if it means Washington plays their first four league games on the road.

But that doesn't mean he's thrilled with it, calling his team the 'guinea pig' of the Pac-12 when it comes to retooling the schedule to make sure all the games are played.