Tyger Campbell will be back on the floor for the Bruins tonight after missing Thursday’s game for a violation of team rules. (Photo Credit: Scott Chandler/uclabruins.com)
At long last, the UCLA Bruins will face the only Pac-12 opponent they have yet to face this season when the Washington Huskies visit Pauley Pavilion tonight.
It’s been a rough few seasons for the Huskies under Mike Hopkins. Many of the Washington faithful have wanted the Huskies to make a change in head coaches but, after finishing the past two seasons in 12th place and 11th place, respectively, the lowest Washington can finish at this point would be 9th place and, right now, the Huskies are in 5th in the Pac-12 standings.
Unfortunately, four of Washington’s remaining six games come against the same two teams — UCLA and Washington State. Then, in the final week of the season, they will face the Oregon schools.
So, Washington has a lot riding on their two games with the Bruins. Whether or not they can do anything about it remains to be seen after the Huskies have lost three of their last four games. Before losing to Southern Cal by ten on Thursday night, they split a pair of games with the Arizona schools last weekend in Seattle, beating ASU and losing to UofA by 24 points. Prior to those games, they lost to Stanford by 18 in Palo Alto.
It doesn’t look like Washington is going to finish the regular season very strong.
Let’s look at the Huskies’ starting five.
Starting Five
Senior guard Terrell Brown, Jr. is clearly the leader of this Washington team. Not only is he one of just two Husky starters averaging in double figures in points, he is averaging 22.2 ppg in addition to leading the team with an average of 4.4 assists per game. He also leads the team with 58 steals on the season. He scored 23 on Thursday against the Trojans.
The only other Husky averaging in double figures is forward Emmitt Matthews, Jr. The 6’7” tall senior is averaging 11.6 ppg but he also scored 20 points Thursday night by hitting three shots from behind the arc.
Redshirt junior Nate Roberts is the Huskies’ defensive leader. Roberts leads Washington with 6.8 rebounds per game along with 20 blocks for the season. Hopkins won’t get much out of him offensively, though, as the forward only averages 4.8 points per game.
Senior Jamal Bey will be one of the Huskies’ other starting guards. Bey has averaged 8.6 ppg this season and he is second on the team in blocked shots with 18.
The third starting guard for Washington is up in the air. The Seattle Times reported that Daejon Davis was expected back for Thursday’s game against Southern Cal, but Davis did not play that night. Will he be back for tonight’s game against the Bruins? That remains to be seen. Davis is a graduate transfer who joined the Huskies this season from Stanford. He has been averaging 7.8 ppg for the Huskies.
If he can’t go, look for junior PJ Fuller to get another start. Ironically, Fuller has also been averaging 7.8 ppg in mostly a reserve role this season.
Outlook
Wtih Tyger Campbell coming back after serving his one-game suspension on Thursday for violating team rules, the Bruins should be back at full-strength. That doesn’t bode well for a Washington team that’s dropped three of their last four.
As a result, tonight’s game should be a relatively easy win for the Bruins. I’ll be surprised if they don’t win by at least ten points.
Listen to the Game With TMB!
TuneIn.com now has UCLA’s games listed as “premium” content. So, rather than using TuneIn, you can just listen through the official website like we have done with the small sports for a long time in order to listen to Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray call today’s game and you just might want to tonight. That’s because tonight’s game will air on Fox Sports 1 with Noah Eagle and Steve Lavin on the call. If you don’t want to listen to them, just be sure to right-click on it so that you can open up another tab and have it going while you chat in the comments below. Listen to today’s game online.
In the meantime, here’s how to watch tonight’s game:
This is your Washington Huskies at #13 UCLA Bruins game thread.
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It took a minute for us to figure out how to attack the 'cuse 2-3 zone (like football teams who don't see the option all that often) but once we started getting good entry passes to the elbow/free throw line, only easy misses have kept it as close as it is
U clap, clap!
C clap clap!
Ucla now down to 9 active scholarship players tonight if Campbell doesn’t come back
Tyger back on bench. Is he good to go?
What's up with Tyger?
Guessing he got hit on the funny bone
He left 15 seconds in holding his arm but he’s back in… hopefully that doesn’t affect his shooting
Missed dunk… Jules come on man
What happened to Juzang?
Sore hip. Most likely Cronin playing it safe with a game on Monday
Soe hip(s)?
Flagrant for that?! Are you kidding me
That was a joke.
Riley also in sweats - not sure why he's out but can't believe they aren't feeding the post everytime down to get Myles in foul trouble
Riley and juzang out? Could be an interesting game
I think he has a hip injury, too.
Singleton for 3!
doubleton!
Myles! Where was that all season long!!
Perhaps some coaching, but from where?
tripleton!
Luck, I'll take it!
Jaylen!
It took a minute for us to figure out how to attack the 'cuse 2-3 zone (like football teams who don't see the option all that often) but once we started getting good entry passes to the elbow/free throw line, only easy misses have kept it as close as it is
Myles is a man tonight.
Love the way Myles is playing right now
Singleton up to 20 points!
Washington has only scored 26 total lol
Clark has got a new career high in points for the second game in a row as ucla goes up by 30… playing without Riley or Juzang
A lot of players of the game tomight. Singleton. Clatk. Myles. All 3 have been outstanding.
Watson has had a few really nice passes today. He’s got great vision
Yes. Doesn’t force things. Defends. Rebounds. Blocks shots. He just needs to shoot it better. It’s all that’s missing from his game.
Wow we are playing well!
Interesting choice to shoot technical free throws
Myles needs the practice lol
Post game Cronin said "when you dominate the boards like he did, you earned the free throws"
Huskies have given up. Bring in Stong!!
We want Russell chants started at 11:55 to go!
Opportunity, The rest of our team gets to play!
Great team win, good night, Bruins!
Cronin says Juzang injured himself falling off a scooter, Riley out due to load management