Mike Hopkins: "I feel like we're the guinea pig"

Washington Head Men's Basketball Coach Mike Hopkins met the media via Zoom on Monday afternoon, harkening back to times when the only press availability was done remotely.COVID-19 and the Omicron variant has swept through the ranks, and Washington has suffered its share of setbacks because of it. They had to reschedule one game (at Arizona), and forfeit a home game versus UCLA that was later deemed a postponement due to the Pac-12 changing back to last year's rules regarding not being able to field a team due to COVID protocols.A few days ago it was announced that the rescheduled Arizona game, initially expected to be played on January 25th in Tucson, will be played in the desert on January 3rd.With Washington going to Washington State for a game Wednesday against the Cougars, and then a road swing through Utah and Colorado, it means the Huskies will have taken six flights in 12 days and played four games in 12 days.This may sound more like an NBA-style schedule, but if the game had been played on its original rescheduled date, Washington would have played four games in seven days (at Oregon, at Arizona, then home to host Colorado and Utah), so in some ways Hopkins will accept the tradeoff, even if it means Washington plays their first four league games on the road.But that doesn't mean he's thrilled with it, calling his team the 'guinea pig' of the Pac-12 when it comes to retooling the schedule to make sure all the games are played.