The Huskies, coach Mike Neighbors believed, entered the final week of the regular season comfortably in the NCAA women’s tournament field. He would know: For the past 15 years, the Washington coach has done meticulous research and kept detailed records on teams throughout the country, and said he usually projects most, if not all, of the NCAA field correctly.
His projection for his own team continues to look impressively prescient.
After a sluggish start Thursday night at home, Washington surged past Utah, 73-60, to further boost its NCAA tournament portfolio.
According to Neighbors’ research, it was the Huskies’ 11th win over a team ranked in the top 100 of the RPI this season; only three other teams in the nation have that many top-100 wins.