Washington Huskies already battle tested before Pac-12 play begins
SEATTLE — It’s a new era for the Lady Huskies.
The University of Washington (UW) women’s basketball team has already proved that the 2021-22 squad is committed to growing the program. The Tina Langley era officially began on Nov. 12 with UW’s season opener against San Diego.
Coach Langley was hired in April after the school decided to go in a different direction last March. UW fired previous head coach Jody Wynn with two years and $700,000 remaining on her contract. Wynn held a 38-75 overall record during her four-year tenure.
As for Langley, she went 126-61 during her six seasons at Rice. She quickly became known as a coach who can quickly rebuild a program.
Following a 9-22 record in her first year as a head coach, Langley never had less than 21 wins in her other five seasons at the helm.
Her new team has already responded to her requests of “learning about one another” and “staying true to the process.”
Following the Huskies’ 57-51 victory to open the season, Coach Langley was proud of her squad.
“To be able to play a game together, it’s a lot of fun and an opportunity to evaluate where we are,” Coach Langley said after the game. “[I’m] just really proud of the way they stayed together and continued to fight and learn through adversity.”
The last time a UW women’s head basketball coach secured a victory right out of the gate was back in 1985 when coach Chris Gobrecht won their first game.
And the win didn’t come easy this year.
“I think San Diego is a really good team and they’re going to have a great season and so we started with very good competition,” Langley mentioned.
The Huskies have continued to be challenged against some of the best programs in the country to start the year. The team is now 2-3.
With more than a month since Pac-12 Media Day, the Huskies have had time to transition to this new era and new thinking of basketball.
But it was on Media Day when expectations were set publicly.
“I think Washington basketball will be an efficient style of basketball,” Langley said on Pac-12 Media Day. “I think very connected to one another, very team-orientated but a fun style to see.”
UW center Nancy Mulkey, a grad transfer from Rice, had several programs hoping to land the 6-foot-9 transfer’s services. However, Mulkey undoubtedly wanted to follow her coach to Seattle.
“It’s very rare that you find someone that cares for you on the court as well as off the court,” Mulkey said during Pac-12 Media Day. “And cares about your aspirations beyond just basketball, and so that was a major factor in, obviously, just coming to Washington and competing at the highest level that I can.”
Mulkey is the tallest player in Washington women’s basketball history. She ranks first in Rice All-Time rankings in career field goal percentage at 55.1% and first in blocked shots averaging 3.5. She will be a key piece to Washington’s success.
What about the Huskies’ most recent losses? UW fell just short of a comeback victory to the No. 10 team in the country, the Louisville Cardinals, 61-53.
With this team already welcoming in a top-10 team, the Huskies’ difficult non-conference schedule continued in the Bahamas.
VCU beat Washington 60-47 on Thanksgiving Day in the first game of the Goombay Splash as UW ran out of gas late. VCU closed out the game on a 12-3 run.
The Huskies were once again tested on Saturday when they faced North Carolina in the Bahamas. The undefeated Tar Heels secured their sixth straight victory to start the season following a 58-37 victory over Washington.
The Huskies shot just 28% from the field, but by holding the Tar Heels to 58 points for the game, it marked UNC’s lowest scoring game of the season.
As Coach Langley continues to build for the future, competing against a top 10 team in the country and an ACC team with rich basketball history is not a bad way to start for the immediate future.
Langley has described this year’s squad as a “selfless” group with “high character.” They’re already battle tested and it’s not even time for conference play.
Pac-12 conference play will tip-off Dec. 31 when the Huskies host the Stanford Cardinals.
For now, the first-year head coach is continuing to build solid team chemistry and as coach Langley puts it, “learning and growing together.”
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