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Crucial season for Washington begins with discouraging loss to Yale

Lorenzo Romar's team dropped its season opener against Yale on Sunday night (Getty Images)
Lorenzo Romar’s team dropped its season opener against Yale on Sunday night (Getty Images)

Washington’s bid to prevent its NCAA tournament drought from reaching six years is off to a very rocky start.

The Huskies opened their season on Sunday night with a discouraging 98-90 home loss to unheralded Yale.

Although Yale won the Ivy League last season and upset Baylor in the opening round of the NCAA tournament, the Bulldogs are not expected to approach such heights this year. Three of last season’s four top players have exhausted their eligibility and first-team all-league guard Makai Mason suffered a broken foot earlier this month, leaving Yale without a single returner who averaged more than 5.7 points last year.

You’d have thought Yale had a roster full of proven scorers the way the Bulldogs sliced up Washington’s swiss-cheese defense.

Freshman guard Miye Oni scored 24 points, senior forward Sam Downey tallied 22 and sophomore forward Blake Reynolds had 19 as Yale built a 20-point first-half lead and survived a furious second-half charge by Washington. Not only did Yale hurt the Huskies on backdoor cuts and pick-and-pop jumpers, on the off chance the Bulldogs didn’t score the first time, they were typically also quicker to the rebound as they finished the game with a 21-4 edge in offensive boards.

Lackadaisical defense and inept rebounding spoiled an encouraging debut by Washington freshman Markelle Fultz, a contender to be taken No. 1 overall in next June’s NBA draft. Fultz needed only 17 shots to torch Yale for 30 points and added seven rebounds and six assists, but the Huskies got no closer than within four the entire second half.

Washington’s inability to capitalize on Fultz’s brilliance is a bad omen for a Huskies program that lately has squandered elite talent all too often. NBA draft picks Terrence Ross, Tony Wroten. C.J. Wilcox, Dejounte Murray and Marquese Chriss have each played for Washington during this five-year stretch without an NCAA bid.

While Lorenzo Romar led Washington to two Pac-12 titles, three Sweet 16s and six NCAA bids from 2004-2012, his inability to meet that standard lately has ratcheted up the pressure on him entering this season. Another loaded 2017 recruiting class might ensure Romar’s job through the end of next season, however, he needs to ride some of his NBA talent to an NCAA bid in order to quiet calls for a change in leadership.

Had either Murray or Chriss returned for their sophomore seasons, Washington’s chances of reaching the NCAA tournament or contending in the Pac-12 would have been much stronger. The Huskies instead will lean on Fultz to prop up a roster that returns nobody who averaged more than 7.5 points per game last season yet is hardly devoid of talent.

Swingman Matisse Thybulle scored 20 points on Sunday night and has breakout potential this season. Guard David Crisp is a volume shooter who can pile up points in a hurry when he gets on a hot streak. Forwards Sam Timmins, Noah Dickerson, Matthew Atewe and center Malik Dime form a potentially strong frontcourt when they’re disruptive on defense and active on the glass.

But all that talent will go to waste once again if Washington can’t fix a defense that also yielded 103 points to Western Washington in an exhibition victory on Nov. 3.

A year ago, Ben Simmons performed well enough to be taken No. 1 overall in the NBA draft, but he could not carry LSU to the NCAA tournament. The same fate could befall Fultz this season at Washington if the Huskies don’t fix the mistakes they made Sunday night.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!