Jaime Jaquez, Jr. was one of three Bruins who scored at least 16 points in Thursday’s win over Wazzu. (Photo Credit: UCLA Athletics/uclabruins.com)
This afternoon, the UCLA Bruins will face the Washington Huskies at Pauley Pavilion at 2 pm.
While the Bruins come into today’s game undefeated in conference play, the Huskies have yet to win a game in conference action.
Mike Hopkins is now in his fourth season as the head coach of the Huskies. Unfortunately for Washington fans, the Huskies seem to have peaked in Hopkins’ second season when Washington went 27-9. Last season, they slipped to a 15-17 record and, so far this year, they are just 1-10.
That makes today’s game a possible trap game. If the Bruins come out flat, Washington could leave with their first conference win of the season. One thing in the Bruins favor is the fact the makeup date for December’s postponed game against Oregon has been moved to February 1st instead of the original makeup date of January 19th.
Starting Five
Let’s look at the Huskies’ starting lineup.
The Huskies are led by senior guard Quade Green who is the only guy on the team averaging in double figures in points with 14.5 per game. Against Southern Cal on Thursday, he put up just five points, going just 2 for 11 from the field and 1 for 5 from the free throw line. Looking at Quade’s stats, it’s pretty clear that the reason he scores as much as he does is because he way more than anyone else on the team. In fact, he has more shot attempts than the next two guys on the team combined. Thankfully, Quade is a below average three-point shooter, shooting just 27.3% from behind the arc.
Jamal Bey is the opposite of Quade. The junior guard from Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas is a higher percentage shooter from behind the arc, where he’s shooting 47.6%, as well as from the field, where he’s shooting 45.5%. The saving grace is that Bey shoots much less than Quade. He’s third on the team in field goal attempts and, while he’s the Huskies’ best three-point shooter with more than ten attempts, he’s just fifth on the team in three-point tries.
Junior guard Erik Stevenson transferred to Washington from Wichita State where he was second on the team with 11.1 points per game, but his game has suffered in Seattle. This season, he’s averaging just 7.0 ppg.
The Huskies round out their starting five with a pair of forwards who are each averaging less than 6.5 ppg. Redshirt sophomore Nate Roberts has been averaging 6.4 ppg while senior Hameir Wright is putting up just 4.9 points per game. At least, the pair leads the team in rebounds with 7.4 and 4.5 per game, respectively.
Look for junior transfer Nate Pryor to get significant minutes off the bench. Pryor has been averaging more than 22 minutes per game and is tied for third on the team with an average of 7.0 points per game.
Overall, this isn’t a very good Washington team. The result of this game may just make Thursday’s win over Washington State look like a close game — as long as UCLA doesn’t come out flat.
Listen to the Game Here on TMB!
The TuneIn player won’t embed here on Substack, but you can open another tab to listen. Today’s game is on Pac-12 Networks with Ted Robinson and Casey Jacobsen calling the game. If you would prefer to listen to Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray call today’s game instead you can listen to today’s game online.
Join your fellow Bruin fans discussing today’s game below.
This is your Washington Huskies at UCLA Bruins game thread.
#21 UCLA Men’s Basketball (10-2, 6-0)
Opponent: Washington Huskies (1-10, 0-6)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 101-43
When: 2:00 pm PT, Saturday, January 16, 2021
Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA
TV: Pac-12 Networks National, Los Angeles, and Washington with Ted Robinson and Casey Jacobsen
Radio/Audio: AM 570 in Los Angeles with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray Satellite Radio: SiriusXM Ch. 373 (UCLA Call) And, of course, in The Mighty Bruin Game Thread!
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Cheering from So Florida today so we’re covered from coast to coast!
U!
UW coming out swinging.
Singleton is hot
playing bad. Mick gonna need to work for this
Not great Tyger so far tonight
Juzang looks off
UW with nothing to lose. In years past, this is exactly the kind of game we would drop. Lets see if Mick is up to the challenge
The bench played well
Kyman lucked out!
We seem afraid to attack
Didn't realize Cameron Dollar on the Wash bench
W shooting 55%. Nothing is dropping for us.
Really weak half for us
Not going to earn much respect playing like that
Cody's not here yet.
Bad Campbell showed up today and he needs to stay on the bench
Washington allowed 80+ points to opponents last 4 games... UCLA should be scoring at will inside but they look hesitant
wonder what Coach said at halftime
Good hands Riley
Dang, I hope Cody is back in it!
Jewels!
We are going to have to dig deep to win this.
Better defense gets it done
Playing soft defense leads to us playing odd offense
UCLA playing abysmal defense today
Phantom foul on Riley
another gritty win
We just didn't have our best. But still enough. We'll take it.
Huskies played at a magical level.