BY DOUG DROWLEY

LAS VEGAS - The sigh of relief covered the entire 1,700 miles from southern Nevada to Seattle.

Despite controlling the pace almost from start to finish, the No. 1-seeded Washington Huskies needed a mistake from eighth-seeded USC with five seconds to play to ensure a 78-75, first-round Pac-12 Tournament victory (box) Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena.

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After a relatively easy dispatch of ninth-seeded Arizona 78-65 Wednesday in the opening game of the Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tourney in Las Vegas, eighth-seeded USC draws No. 1 seeded Washington at noon Thursday in a quarterfinal matchup.  The Huskies beat the Trojans 75-62 in the teams' only meeting Jan. 30 at Hec Ed.

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Big awards day for University of Washington men's hoops.

The Pac-12 Conference announced Monday that sophomore guard Jaylen Nowell was player of the year and coach Mike Hopkins repeated as coach of the year, as did senior Matisse Thybulle for defensive player of the year.

Since the inception of the defensive award 16 years ago, it's the first time all three awards have gone to the same school in the same season.

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Matisse Thybulle and Jaylen Nowell, dominant forces that led the Washington Huskies to the Pac-12 Conference regular-season championship, were named to the 10-member All-Pac-12 first team Monday, as was Washington State's Robert Franks. UW's Noah Dickerson was an honorable mention. It was the fifth time in Pac-12 history UW had three selections.

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For those who look upon on the NCAA men's basketball industry as only slightly less corrupt than the Pentagon, more eyebrows broke the arch limit Friday. Louisiana State coach Will Wade was suspended after a report that he was recorded on an FBI wiretap talking to convicted fraudster Christian Dawkins about making payments to a recruit who became his starting point guard.

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The annual trip to the Bay Area brought the Huskies men's basketball team back to earth. But at least they are not beneath it.

Three days after a grim loss to a Cal team that had been winless in Pac-12 Conference play, Washington rediscovered its defense just enough to hang on, 62-61 against Stanford Sunday afternoon in Palo Alto.

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As Gonzaga rose to No. 1 Monday, the Washington Huskies for the first time this season made the Associated Press's weekly top 25 college basketball poll, ranked 25th with 92 points, two ahead of Louisville.

While the ranking in February is amusing but nearly meaningless, it does prompt a couple of valid questions:

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As long as Seattle-area college sports fans keep eyes on the Huskies' success this season in football and men's basketball, there's not much urgency to ask about that smoke rising on the Pac-12 Conference horizon. Then again, the University of Washington is perhaps only a Jaylen Nowell ankle sprain or a torn labrum for Jacob Eason from feeling the heat like everyone else.

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For more than a half Saturday night in Pullman, the Huskies, who lost at Arizona State a week earlier, looked as if they were ready to resurrect last season's late fade. But senior Noah Dickerson wasn't having it, getting his final bucket and rebound of an 18-and-10 evening with a tip-in that sealed Washington's 72-70 victory (box) over Washington State.

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It is popular these days to bash the Pac-12 Conference for its competitive lameness in football and men's basketball. Relative to other Power 5 conferences in the big revenue sports, the Pac-12 is doing a masterful Jar-Jar Binks impression.

No one is quite sure of the source of the malaise, so the designated target of scorn is Commissioner Larry Scott, who has yet to brick a free throw or drop a touchdown pass.

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For the basketball connoisseur, the taking of a charging foul is a sly, tasty morsel of the game, not something fated to take the top off an arena. But as the season's first sellout was ready to rock Hec Ed Saturday afternoon, Sam Timmins executed a flop that popped rivets in the old barn.

"That," Timmins said with a huge grin, "was a moment three years in the making."

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The Washington Huskies Wednesday night nearly rocked the college basketball world.

A valiant effort in the hostile confines of McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane was thwarted when Rui Hachimura's jumper with .6 seconds left gave unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Gonzaga an 81-79 win over UW.

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At Washington Hall in Seattle’s Central District in September, a group called Historic Seattle hosted the ninth annual Preservation Awards Benefit. The event honors individuals and community groups that preserve and protect older Seattle buildings. That idea may seem incongruous to the reality of modern Seattle, where nearly every other block holds a construction crane.

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Matisse Thybulle opted not to join 236 undergrads and international players declaring  early entry for the NBA draft June 21. The Pac-12 Conference defensive player of the year is returning for his senior season at the University of Washington.

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In case you thought the feds were too busy investigating the White House, the FBI had enough depth Tuesday to bring fresh indictments against two more men's college basketball programs, Kansas and North Carolina State, in its continuing investigation of systematic bribery schemes steering players to certain schools that put money in the pockets of players from agents and sports apparel companies.

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Despite a fade in the final six weeks, the Washington men's hoops turnaround under first-year head coach Mike Hopkins was a revelation. He took holdovers from the collapsed regime of Lorenzo Romar, added a local recruit he convinced to stay, Jaylen Nowell, instilled organization and inspiration, and went from nine wins to 21.

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Is it possible to fire a college basketball conference?

Perhaps that is a question for the experts at the White House, who have managed to disrupt entire institutions with mere tweets.

The Pac-12 Conference is certainly worthy of disruption. If the course remains steady, it will soon join LaVar Ball in Division III Lithuania.

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The Huskies nearly blew a 17-point second-half lead, including a 10-point advantage with 44 seconds to go, before surviving against No. 4 seed Boise State 77-74 in a first-round National Invitation Tournament game at Hec Ed Wednesday night. Fifth-seeded Washington (21-12) moves on to play No. 1 seed and West Coast Conference power St. Mary's (29-5) at 8 p.m. Monday in Moraga, CA.

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Given how they finished a year ago, Sunday's news that the Huskies' men's hoops team  will host a first-round game in the National Invitation Tournament against Boise State would have been celebratory news. But the startling, abrupt success new coach Mike Hopkins created with mostly the same players Lorenzo Romar had gave Huskies' dreams of the Big Dance.

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The surprising season of the Huskies' men's basketball team clanked to an unceremonious end Wednesday night in the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas when seventh-seeded Washington (20-12, 10-9) fell 69-66 to 10th-seeded Oregon State in overtime. UW's sixth loss in the final nine games virtually assured denial of entry to the NCAA tourney on Selection Sunday.

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