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March 15, 2012

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• NIT Central | NIT Bracket
• Washington Release | Northwestern Release
• TV: ESPU (Roxy Bernstein & Mark Adams)
• Video Stream: ESPN3.com

SEATTLE - The Washington Huskies (22-10, 14-4) earned their first National Invitation Tournament win in 25 years with an 82-72 victory over UT Arlington on Tuesday.

Up next for the regular season Pac-12 champs is Northwestern, who are making their fourth consecutive NIT appearance. The state of Washington has not been kind to he Wildcats' over the last calendar year as their 2011 season came to an end in a quarterfinals loss in Pullman. The winner will advance to face either Oregon or Iowa in the quarterfinals on March 20 or 21.

Washington is making its first appearance in the NIT since 1997 and its sixth overall trip to the post-season tournament. The Huskies also played in the 1996, 1987, 1982 and 1980 NIT and have compiled a 4-5 overall record. A total of 4 teams from the Pac-12 Conference earned spots in the tournament: No. 1 seed Arizona and No. 3's Stanford and Oregon.

Friday's game will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU with Roxy Bernstein and Mark Adams calling the action. Bob Rondeau and Jason Hamilton will provide home radio coverage on KJR 950 AM & 102.9 FM and the Washington IMG College Sports Network throughout the Pacific Northwest. UW Director of Writing Gregg Bell will host a LIVE chat on GoHuskies.com.

Washington-Northwestern History
Friday's meeting will be the first game between the two teams since they played in the 1975 Far West Classic in Portland, Ore. Washington holds a 5-2 advantage, which includes a 3-0 mark at home, 2-0 record at neutral sites and 0-2 record in Evanston. The Huskies also won in 1970 at the Sun Devil Classic and carry a current two-game win streak over the Wildcats. Northwestern last beat UW over 51 years ago on Dec. 20, 1960. The last time the teams met in Seattle was Dec. 21 and 22, 1959 when Washington swept a two-game series vs. the Wildcats. This is the first time Lorenzo Romar and Bill Carmody have coached against each other.

Scouting Northwestern
Northwestern fell just short of earning their first-ever NCAA tournament bid. They are 19-12 overall and were 7th in the Big Ten at 8-10. They lost five of their league games by a total of 12 points ... Bill Carmody is in his 12th season at Northwestern (179-190 record) after spending four years as Princeton's head coach ... The Wildcats are lead by 6-foot-9 Jon Shurna, a first-team all-conference senior who is the school's all-time leading scorer with over 2,000 points. He led the conference in scoring with 20.0 ppg and is averaging 19.9 points in all games ... Northwestern beat Akron on Tuesday in the first round of the NIT, 76-75, behind Shurna's 23 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 blocks. He was also 5-of-11 from 3-point range ... Junior forward Drew Crawford was 3rd-team All-Big-10 after scoring 16.5 ppg ... Northwestern led the Big-10 with 9.0 3PT makes per game.

UW NIT History
Washington is making its first appearance in the NIT since 1997 and its sixth overall trip to the post-season tournament. The Huskies also played in the 1996, 1987, 1982 and 1980 NIT and have compiled a 4-5 overall record after earning their first victory in 25 years on March 13 vs. UT Arlington. The Huskies have only hosted three games and are 2-1 in those home contests. They previously hosted a game on March 16, 1987 when the beat Boise State 73-68 before losing on the road in the third round to Nebraska in Lincoln. The only other home game they hosted was a 1982 second round contest that they dropped 69-65 to Texas A&M.

Post-Seasons Under Romar
For the fifth-straight year Washington is making a post-season appearance. After playing in the 2008 CBI, UW made three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. In all, Washington has made 8 post-season tournaments in Lorenzo Romar's 10 years tenure. The Huskies are 9-7 in tournaments, including 8-6 in six NCAA appearances and 0-1 in the 2008 CBI and 1-0 in NIT appearances. This marks the first NIT appearance for Washington under Romar. Romar led his Pepperdine Waves to the 1999 NIT in his last season coaching there and lost in the first round.

How The Huskies Got Here
Washington was 6-5 in non-conference action during the preseason. Four of their five losses came to teams that made the NCAA tournament field (Duke, Marquette, South Dakota State and Saint Louis). Their other loss came to WAC regular season champion and NIT participant Nevada.

The Huskies won the regular season Pac-12 championship after posting a 14-4 record, just the fourth time they have had that many conference wins since the Pac-10 started in 1979. Despite the great stretch, UW was denied an NCAA tourney bid. It's the first time a "power" conference regular season champion has been denied an invite to the Big Dance and just the first time since 1954 that the Pacific Coast Conference/Pac-10/Pac-12 regular-season champ was left home.

Husky Quick hitters...
• Tony Wroten was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and was 1st team All-Conference. Terrence Ross was 1st team All-Conference, C.J. Wilcox was honorable mention All-Conference, Aziz N'Diaye was 1st team All-Defensive.

• Abdul Gaddy has 290 career assists and will become the 10th Husky with 300 in their career. His needs 4 more this season to pass Chester Dorsey for 3rd on the single-season list.

• Darnell Gant set a new UW record for games played (137) after the first round of the NIT.

• Terrence Ross and Washington State's Brock Motum are the only two Pac-12 player to be ranked in the top-10 in both scoring and rebounding.

• C.J. Wilcox is the 10th player in UW history with 100 or more career 3-pointers. He is tied for 6th all-time in UW history with 128.

• Wroten is one of five Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year candidates. He joins Kentucky teammates Anthony Davis & Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Indiana's Cody Zeller and Duke's Austin Rivers on the list.

• Wroten and Detlef Schrempf (1985) are the only Huskies with 500 points, 150 rebounds and 100 assists in a season.

• Wroten owns the UW freshman record for steals and his total is 2nd on the UW single season list. He is also second on UW's all-time freshman scoring and assists lists.

• Desmond Simmons is 5th all-time among UW freshmen with 162 rebounds, while Wroten is sixth with 156.

• Wroten has attempted 34% of the Huskies free throws this season and made 32% of the teams' total. His 247 attempts are 4th most in team history

• Wroten leads all Pac-12 freshmen in scoring, steals and assists. He ranks 4th among all freshmen nationally in scoring and 2nd among all BCS conference freshmen.

• Wroten set a new UW freshman record with 29 points vs. Oregon St. in the Pac-12 Tournament, eclipsing the previous high of 27 that he shared with several other players.

• In 10 years with Romar at the helm, UW is 145-27 (.843) overall at home, 74-6 (.925) in non-Pac-12 games.

•Dating back to 1911, UW has won 23 conference titles. Eighteen of those crowns are outright, but only two of those have come in the last 58 years (2009 & 2012).

•Washington was 14-4 in conference play, the 9th time they have achieved as many league wins since 1931 and just the 4th time since Pac-10 play began in 1979.

•The Huskies are the first "power" conference regular-season champ to not earn an NCAA tourney bid and are the first Pac-12/10/PCC regular-season champ since 1954 to be left out of the dance.

• UW has won 20 or more games in four-straight seasons for the first time in school history.

• UW leads the Pac-12 in total rebounds (39.9) and rank 5th nationally. They have led the conference in rebounding three straight seasons and will become the first team to lead the conference in rebounding four-straight years since UCLA did it 9 times from 1966-74.