Mohegan — The night was a disaster. Period. All of it. The quality of play, officiating, techno music blaring and the 15-minute-late tipoff. Hard to remember a less enjoyable game in the now 14 summers of Sun basketball at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Where to begin? At the beginning.

The game was advertised as a 7 p.m. start. It began at 7:15. Why? A lengthy pregame ceremony, with many bells and whistles (although not nearly as many whistles as what would follow in the game), including introductions of every Sun player with mini biographies read about them.

It was well done. But I'm not sure why the show couldn't have started at 6:45 — sort of like the way UConn does Senior Night ceremonies a few minutes early — so that the game could tip on time. You advertise 7 p.m., you start at 7 p.m. This is professional basketball, no?

Then the game started. Or was it a night at Avalon, the nightclub at Mohegan Sun? The musical accompaniment that punctuated a game with 55 fouls and 68 free throws attempts was high energy techno. It was hard to hear the crowd — or the person next to you — through the jackhammering. Now I'm not sure if this decision to marry a concert with a basketball game came from a marketing class flunkie at the team or league level. But nobody in the crowd could yell "Let's go Sun" or "defense" or anything else. I'm not saying they have to play Sinatra. But this is what passes for ambience now in the 21st century?

The game was hijacked by a number of factors. Washington is far from having its full complement of players. The Sun have a new coach, a new system and some new players. It doesn't make for good aesthetics early in the year. And it's perfectly dreadful when the officials call a combined 55 fouls, creating all the flow of a tractor pull.

My favorite call of the game came from the immortal Tony Dawkins, who whistled the Sun for a 3-second violation with 1:17 left in one-point game in overtime. Once again: a three-second call with 1:17 left in a one-point game in overtime. Show me an official who makes that call and I'll show you a guy who should be doing the junior varsity the rest of his life. Talk about no feel for the game whatsoever.

And then the game ended. Washington won 84-76, improving coach Mike Thibault's record to 11-3 against his former team. A few writers, who went to Sun coach Curt Miller's press conference first, wanted to talk to Thibault's players after the game. They were told they'd have to wait until the players were finished showering. Given the time — late start and overtime — the writers were on deadline and couldn't wait that long. Hence, no interviews.

Why do I mention that? This is a league that needs media attention more than many of us need a lung. I'm not sure why the Washington players couldn't have sat there another few minutes until Miller's news conference ended. They're probably not conditioned to it, given the dearth of media coverage in any place not named Connecticut. I suspect this would have been a non-issue had Washington's director of media relations traveled with the team. But then, this is the WNBA, where Thou Shalt Save A Few Pennies is the only commandment.

I'm hopeful this will be a fun summer. Miller's energy and passion was fun to watch even in a loss. He wants to play a certain way. He'll demand nothing more and expect nothing less. My guess is that this will be a fun team to watch this summer.

As for the rest of it: Let's shoot for a 7 p.m. tip Thursday vs. Los Angeles in an atmosphere that suggests this is a basketball game. As for the officiating? Lost cause there.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.