In the midst of a four-game win streak that arguably kept the ship from sinking, Arizona State will look to protect their unblemished conference record in Seattle on Thursday, where they will face off with a Husky squad that hasn’t enjoyed the early goings of their conference slate as ASU.
Entering this week, the Sun Devils 4-0 mark in the Pac-12 has them in a tie for first in the conference, with impressive wins at home over two quadrant 1 NET-ranked opponents in Utah and Colorado. Washington, on the other hand, has stumbled from its stellar start in non-conference play, dropping three of their first four against Pac-12 teams, including road tilts against the same Utes and Buffaloes that ASU took down. Common opponents can be a litmus test, but Mike Hopkins’s group poses its own separate threat to the Sun Devils’ recent surge.
Sporting an overall record of 9-6, Washington picked up multiple head-turning results in November and December that have them on the radar of bracketologists nationwide. While the Huskies couldn’t pull off upsets of current top 25 Mountain West squads in San Diego State and Colorado State, Washington moved the needle in a neutral-site victory over KenPom top 50 Xavier and upped the ante in a five-point home win over in-state rival Gonzaga, a dominant mid-major program that hasn’t missed the NCAA Tournament since 1998.
The key to UW’s competitiveness against the nation’s 48th-hardest non-conference schedule (KenPom) has been a dynamic scoring attack, headlined by senior forward Keion Brooks Jr. Having been transferred to the Pacific Northwest from Kentucky following the 2021-2022 year, Brooks has taken a remarkable step from the raw talent he exhibited as an underclassman. Improving his point-per-game total by seven between his sophomore and junior campaigns, Brooks has thus far continued progression as a senior and currently sits as one of 23 players in Division 1 to average 20 points a night.
Brooks’s athletic 6-foot-7-inch frame with exceptional ball-handling skills make him a slashing threat on every offensive possession, and he’s recently become a serious threat to score on the perimeter as well. As a junior in 2023, Brooks averaged an elite 17.8 points per game despite shooting below 30 percent from deep. This season, his scoring uptick is due in part to his shot improvement, raising his three-point percentage to a respectable 40.7 mark. In addition to his prowess on the offensive end, his lanky frame combines with explosive speed to stop the ball on breaks, and is able to contest shots from all over the floor. His contributions as a defender show in his team-leading 7.4 rebounding average, easily the best on the team.
Another disciple of John Calipari’s in Lexington, point guard Sahvir Wheeler is an integral part of this Huskies offense, which ranks in the top 50 of KenPom of the nation’s most efficient. In his first season for the purple and gold, Wheeler has played well above his 5-foot 9-inch stature by averaging 15.2 points per game and dishing out 6.5 assists a night, top 10 among Division I players. Despite a paltry 17 percent three-point shooting, Wheeler is still the team’s second-best scorer while providing pressured defense at the top of the key, on top of being one of the best ball distributors in the nation.
With this tandem, Washington’s offense thrives off speed, as they play with the 56th-fastest pace in Division 1 per KenPom. It’s a style of play favored by 7th-year head coach Mike Hopkins, whose Husky squads have finished in the top 100 nationally of adjusted tempo in every season since 2019. Hopkins and Bobby Hurley have met nine times on the court in their current positions, and Washington’s pace of play hasn’t kept the Sun Devils from a winning record against the Huskies since 2018, with ASU holding a 5-4 record over UW in that time period, including a home-and-home split last year.
While Brooks and Wheeler are at the forefront of his offense, Hopkins also delegates duties to double-digit scorers to senior forward Moses Wood and hometown sophomore guard Koren Johnson. These two regular starters can provide points both close and from deep, while guard Paul Mulcahy is a threat to score inside the arc off the bench and
Franck Kepnang has been a force when healthy in the paint, but Washington has been without him due to injury for nearly a month, and their inside defense hasn’t been the same without their premier shot-blocker. To counter the loss, Washington utilizes a zone defense, trying to force more three-point shots out of their opponent in compensation for its struggles in rim protection. The Sun Devils enter this game tallying double-digit three-point baskets in three of their last four contests, shooting over 35 percent from that range. They will likely need a similar performance on Thursday to remain undefeated in Pac-12 play.
As a versatile scoring team that moves quickly on offense, Washington is capable of putting up points in bunches, a style of offense Arizona State has seen before this year in TCU and others. To pull out another road conference win, the Sun Devils will need to put on their usual defensive performance while taking care of the ball on the other side of the floor. The Huskies’ defense ranks in the bottom half of Division 1 in forcing turnovers on defense, which seemingly bodes well for an ASU offense that has found its stride amid their four-game win streak. While not among the nation’s elite in any major statistical category, the Huskies have plenty of talent. They are one of the most experienced teams in the country, which is no stranger to this ASU staff.
Another strength of the Sun Devils in their recent hot stretch has been their ability to close out games. Coming into this matchup, ASU is 5-0 in games decided by one possession this season. In comparison, Washington holds a 1-1 mark. Should this game come down to the wire, which both meetings between the teams did last year did, ASU will have the experience edge, and that could prove vital for them to pick up a notable road win to remain unbeaten in Pac-12 play.
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