A relieved Mike Hopkins and senior starter, David Crisp spoke to the media today via a scheduled teleconference, and here’s a quick run down of some of what we discussed.
Hopkins said “We did everything we could” to get the invite to the NCAA tourney, and said the team just needs to keep “Moving and getting better and get on a run”.
The Huskies will face off Friday against #8 seed, Utah State in the Midwest Regional at Columbus, and Hopkins said they will begin studying their team tomorrow, “I watched bits and pieces (of them) but I haven’t studied them yet”, he said.
Hopkins said the team is over the loss to Oregon last night, and David Crisp echoed this sentiment, “Our motto is ‘it doesn’t matter, get better'”. Crisp said they are easily able to bounce back.
Hopkins gave credit to Oregon for bringing it to the Dawgs lastnight and is hoping they go far into the tournament, he also said he “loves the ASU got in.”
Aside from the crazy loss to Cal, ASU and Oregon were the only other Pac-12 teams to be able to defeat the Huskies this season.
I asked Hopkins about how this helps the underclassmen going forward, and also how it can help in recruiting, “The younger guys learn from the seniors”, he said, noting that success helps build more success, “Once you see it you want to see it every year”, he said.
Crisp was very emotional in talking about his legacy at Washington, “You put your heart, your blood, sweat, and tears into putting this program back to where it’s been — it means the world to me…I can’t tell you how much it means.”
