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UW, WSU Reportedly Will Discontinue Basketball Series Apparently Marv Harshman just turned over in his grave, as did George Raveling and Hec Edmundson.
The Spokane Spokesman-Review has reported that the University In the 2024 game in Pullman, WSU guard Isaiah Watts passes the ball against UW's Braxton Meah and Anthony Holland.
| USA TODAY Sports via Reuters ConnectThe Spokane Spokesman-Review has reported that the University of Washington and Washington State will discontinue their men's basketball series for the first time in 111 years, supposedly unable to reach an agreement on the annual rivalry game for the coming season.
The Spokane newspaper cited a source close to the situation in revealing the development.
A UW spokesman, however, said the Husky schedule has not been finalized and could not verify the game won't be played.
With nothing sacred anymore across college sports these days, with the advent of the transfer portal and NIL money and very few rules to abide by, tradition is taking a beating at nearly every turn.Looking back, there were signs last season that this match-up might might not have future legs to it."To be truthful, it's a rivalry, it wasn't that important to to keep it on the schedule," UW coach Danny Sprinkle said before facing the Cougars last November.
"It's important to like a lot of other people.
" If this cross-state game is suspended as suggested, this will mark the second Northwest basketball rivalry that the Huskies have let fall to the wayside.When Sprinkle took over as UW coach for the 2024-25 season, he felt no need to preserve the annual UW-Gonzaga game, which had been decidedly one-sided in favor of the Zags.
The Huskies and Cougars will take a break after playing each other exactly 300 times, with the UW winning 189 of them.
The Spokesman reported an exhibition game or scrimmage in October might take place, but not an official game.From 1930 to 1954, the schools played each other four times a year -- and sometimes in four consecutive games.
Since then, the UW and WSU had played a home-and-home series each year with the exception of 1965, 1967, 2007 and 2013.
They met three times in 1967 because of a Far West Classic meeting, three times in 2007 because of a Pac-10 Tournament pairing and three times in 2013 because of Pac-12 Tournament match-up.The last time they didn't play was in 1916, or halfway through World War I, when the UW had just a 14-game schedule that season.
These past two years, since the Huskies left the Pac-12 for the Big Ten and the Cougars had to fend for themselves, the teams played one a game a year.
The UW won 89-73 in Seattle and 81-69 in the Palouse.
Loading recommendations...Please wait while we load personalized content recommendationsDan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer.
His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time.In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S.
Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.