Defense hasn’t been a problem since Tina Langley took over the Washington women’s basketball team in 2021.
During her six seasons at Rice, she built a mid-major powerhouse that captured three straight Conference USA regular-season titles from 2019-21 on the premise of shutting down opposing offenses.
Midway through her second season with the Huskies, Langley is facing the question if her defensive-oriented philosophy can be successful in the Pac-12 where four teams rank among the Top 25 nationally in scoring.
Or more to the point, can a pedestrian UW offense that’s last in the league in scoring sustain the momentum from last week’s 79-point explosion during a blowout win at Oregon State for the remainder of the season?
“When you talk about the future and even this season, I think you can see we have the ability to put up a good amount of points,” Langley said. “We just have to continue to learn what is best for us efficiency wise so we can compete against people’s strengths. So, if it’s a high-transition team that we’re playing against that really shoots the ball well and they do that better than we do, then we’re going to try to make good decisions about what we should do.
“But I do like how we’re growing on that end of the floor. We’re continuing to stay committed to defense, but I do see something there that’s getting pretty fun to see with our offense and our systems and the time that we’ve been able to spend together. I think there can be a lot of growth there still.”
There’s no disputing the tenacity of UW’s defense, which allows just 58.6 points per game and ranks third in the Pac-12.
In part due to their deliberate pace and a plus-9.7 rebounding differential, the Huskies have allowed 70 or more points in two games.
Washington’s stingy defense will be put to the test 7 p.m. Friday by No. 9 UCLA (15-3, 4-2 Pac-12), which is coming off an 87-70 rout over California on Sunday.
“They’re a great team and incredibly well coached,” Langley said. “They run a really good system. They have a lot of experience blended with some young newcomers that are talented. It’s going to be a great challenge for us. It’s a team that has a lot of experience in different types of styles of play in their nonconference play.”
Washington (10-6, 2-4) is looking to snap a 36-game regular-season losing streak against ranked opponents.
“One thing that our team has learned and processed in a good way is we played against some great teams in the Pac-12 to start our season and now played in some great environments,” Langley said. “We continue to compete and learn and get better in those environments.
“When you just look at how much we still believe in what we can become is a tribute to the young women and the culture that they’re building because you could have gotten a little discouraged during our stretch when we played such great competition. But I feel like we continue to work and believe we can get better.”