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DawgmanRadio: Husky Women Happy To Be Back On The Court Together Jan 13, 2022

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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).

DawgmanRadio: Hopkins Happy To Be Back Home Jan 10, 2022

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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...

Hopkins hopes Huskies continue to play strong from the jump Jan 06, 2022

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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.

Mike Hopkins: "I feel like we're the guinea pig" Dec 28, 2021

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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.

Mike Hopkins: "It's like a slow drip" Dec 22, 2021

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Senior guard Terrell Brown, Jr. and Head Coach Mike Hopkins spoke to the media Tuesday night after Washington lost to Utah Valley 68-52. Despite missing a starter (Jamal Bey) and three assistant coaches (Wyking Jones, Will Conroy, Quincy Pondexter), Hopkins said it was the slow start that put the Huskies behind the 8-ball and gave UVU the impetus they needed to push ahead.

Missing foul shots and three-pointers was akin to a 'slow drip', according to Hopkins. Adding to their problems was getting out-rebounded by 18 and poor offense bleeding over to the defensive side of the ball.

DawgmanRadio: Wrapping up the coaching hires, stoking the transfer portal during the holiday season Dec 21, 2021

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The guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - sat down and went through the Washington news of this past week or so, namely the hiring of the rest of Kalen DeBoer's staff, and also the comings and goings through the transfer portal - and there were a few to talk about.

To start with, the Gatorade had barely been dunked by the Fresno State players after their bowl win over UTEP before Washington announced the remaining hires of Kalen DeBoer's coaching staff.

This is DeBoer's staff heading into the 2022 season:

Kalen DeBoer, head coach

Offense:

Ryan Grubb, offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach

Junior Adams, wide receivers coach

Scott Huff, offensive line coach

Lee Marks, running backs coach

Nick Sheridan, tight ends coach

Defense:

William Inge, co-defensive coordinator, linebackers coach

Chuck Morrell, co-defensive coordinator, safeties coach

Inoke Breckterfield, defensive line coach

Julius Brown, cornerbacks coach

Eric Schmidt, special teams coordinator, defensive ends coach

Ron McKeefery, head strength & conditioning coach

Courtney Morgan, Director of Player Personnel

The Dawgman guys first talk about any surprises from that list, including the coaches that were retained (Huff/Adams), then briefly discuss the general makeup of the offensive staff and speculate as to why DeBoer would want to keep on two offensive coaches from the previous staff considering how poor UW's offense played as a whole in 2021.

The next segment took time to speak directly about DeBoer's two significant support hires; Courtney Morgan and Ron McKeefery. How will recruiting fundamentally change from an organizational standpoint? And with the Strength and Conditioning program, will former head S&G man Tim Socha want to stay on, or move away from Seattle?

After a quick break to pay some bills, the Dawgman guys come back to talk mostly portal news and recruiting. Washington picked up a couple of players in the portal (Michael Penix, Jr. and Jordan Perryman), while many UW players decided to move on (Sam Taimani, Sawyer Racanelli, Mark Redman,

Huskies talk about what it took to defeat Seattle University Dec 19, 2021

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Terrell Brown, Emmitt Matthews, and Mike Hopkins spoke post-game after Washington defeated Seattle University, 64-56 on Saturday night. The Huskies had to withstand a poor first half and used a 17-2 run to start the second half to turn a 7-point halftime deficit into an eventual 8-point win.

Mike Hopkins hoping to get hoops back to a sense of normalcy Dec 18, 2021

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Washington men's basketball head coach Mike Hopkins spoke to the media Friday ahead of their scheduled game with Seattle. It's the first game for the Huskies since their loss to Winthrop on November 27. Since that time they've dealt with COVID-related issues that forced them to reschedule a game at Arizona and cancel a game against Gonzaga in Spokane. They also had to forfeit their December 5 game against UCLA.

Kalen DeBoer dishes on Washington's mid-year signing class, coaching updates Dec 16, 2021

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First-year Washington Head Coach Kalen DeBoer has had a very busy couple of weeks since being announced as UW's newest head man. He's had to go about assembling a coaching staff and also try and put the finishing touches on a small, but talented group of mid-year signings - including two that will enroll in January.

DawgmanRadio: Catching up on a busy week on Montlake Dec 10, 2021

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It's been a heckuva week on Montlake, and we didn't even get a chance to sneak in some volleyball or soccer news. That's the kind of week it's been for Washington Athletics, and the guys from Dawgman.com - Kim Grinolds, Chris Fetters, and Scott Eklund - go over all the major talking points.

To start, they go over the most recent coaching hires, as well as the hire of Courtney Morgan to be Washington's new Director of Player Personnel.

And who is going to become Washington's Defensive Coordinator? The Huskies have already made one defensive coach hire in cornerbacks coach Julius Brown. And is there a chance DeBoer keeps more of the current staff on? Junior Adams will stay as his receivers coach; could Scott Huff and Ikaika Malloe also stick around?

Next, they delve into the transfer portal, the recent departure of Cooper McDonald, and the Jake Haener saga that saw the former UW quarterback enter the portal then back out of it once Jeff Tedford was hired as Kalen DeBoer's replacement at Fresno State.

After a quick break to pay some bills, the three get into a recruiting discussion that hits on a few of the key thoughts as Washington heads into the start of the mid-year signing period starting Wednesday.

Who are the prospects taking official visits this weekend? We know current UW commit Germie Bernard is one. And who has DeBoer and his staff targeted? There's no question the new staff has some very different recruiting ideas in mind compared to the previous UW staff.

The Dawgman guys also talk about the recent UW de-commitments (Jackson Stratton and Chance Bogan), and talk about other available players, depending on if they sign somewhere else starting Wednesday. The recruitniks need to keep watch of the signing lists on Wednesday to see who didn't sign. Could UW target some of them?

The next topic is the Oregon coaching search and how it might affect Washington, as well as the rest of the Pac-12. Could the Ducks hire a coach that would make as big a splash as Lincoln Riley did at USC? Or will they struggle to find a replacement for Mario Cristobal?

The men's basketball team, in a little over a week, has had a game rescheduled, has had to forfeit a game, and had to cancel their game at Gonzaga this Sunday due to 'COVID-related protocols'. This has not been a great time for Mike Hopkins and the team. They haven't been able to practice. How do they regroup and get back on track before conference play starts back up in late December?

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