Washington (17-4, 8-0) vs. UCLA (12-9, 5-3)
Saturday, February 2nd @ 1:00 PM PST
Alaska Airlines Arena (Seattle, Washington)
Line: Washington -7.0
TV: ESPN2
Radio: 1000AM KOMO/97.7 FM
KEY PLAYERS: WASHINGTON
Guard – David Crisp
11.9 PPG
2.8 APG
Guard – Matisse Thybulle
9.5 PPG
3.2 RPG
Guard – Jaylen Nowell
16.7 PPG
5.3 RPG
KEY PLAYERS: UCLA
Guard – Kris Wilkes
17.7 PPG
4.8 RPG
PREVIEW
The Washington Huskies Basketball team enters this contest with some big momentum after a convincing 75-62 home win over the USC Trojans. The UCLA Bruins are coming off a dominating 87-67 road win over the Washington State Cougars. The Huskies will be looking for a 9-0 conference start and remain in first place in the Pac-12 standings. With a win over the Bruins tonight, the Huskies would extend their current winning streak to 11 games, dating back to December 21st.
ESPN MATCHUP PREDICTOR
HUSKY NOTES
• UW’s 8-0 start in Pac-12 play is its best since the 1952-53 season when it started 14-0 … additionally, UW was perfect in January for just the eighth time in the last 100 years (2018-19, 1952-53, 1935-36, 1933-34, 1928-29, 1923-24, 1922-23, 1921-22).
• UW has a perfect 11-0 record at Alaska Airlines Arena, it’s best home record through 11 games since 2010-11 when the Dawgs opened the season with 13-straight … also, UW is the only Division I team to have 1,000 wins in its current arena, now at 1,001.
• In UW’s 10-game winning streak, the Huskies have not allowed a team to score more than 70 points … additionally opponents in that span are shooting 28.6 from 3 and being held to 61.0 points.
• Washington’s 10-game winning streak is tied for the third longest active streak in Division I trailing Hofstra (16), Tennessee (15) and is tied with Gonzaga (10) and LSU (10).
• Six of UW’s eight Pac-12 wins have been by 10 points or more.
• Nowell is shooting 52.2 percent from the field in 21 games, its up from his 45.1 percentage a year ago … he is also shooting 49.9 percent from 3, up from 35.1 a year ago.
• Nowell is the first player since Isaiah Thomas (2010-11) to earn three Pac-12 Player of the Week Awards in the same season.
• UW has shot 50 percent or better from the field in 5 of its 8 Pac-12 games including 4 of the last 6 and is shooting 50.5 percent from the field overall in those 8 outings, which leads the Pac-12.
• UW is holding its opponents to just 64.6 points per game, which leads the Pac-12 and is 31st nationally … 17 teams have been held to 70 points or less and UW has won 16 of those games.
• Washington had 22 second chance points, 17 points off turnovers, 16 fast break points and 36 points in the paint against USC … additionally UW forced 18 turnovers marking the fourth-straight game UW has forced at least 10 turnovers.
• Dickerson recorded his seventh career 20 point/10 rebound game against USC with 21 and 14 … the last player to have that many 20/10 games in their career was Matthew Bryan-Amaning who had eight (2007-11).
• The Huskies scoring margin in league action of +13.0 leads the conference by almost eight points as UCLA is second at a +5.5 margin.
• In the last 20 seasons, Thybulle is one of just four players to average 2.0 blocks and 2.0 steals in a season, joining Shane Battier – Duke (1999-2000, 2000-01), Nerlens Noel – Kentucky (2012-13) and Zion Williamson – Duke (2018-19).
• With Thybulle’s start against UCLA, he will tie Chris Welp for the longest consecutive starting streak at UW at 121 games.
• Nowell has seven 20-point scoring efforts this season, and four in the last eight games … he now has 17 on his career … Nowell is sixth in the league in scoring averaging 16.7 ppg.
• Nowell has shot at least 50 percent from the field in 28 of his 55 career games (50.9 percent) … in those 28 games, UW has a 23-5 record.
• UW has had six different players lead the team in scoring through 21 games in David Crisp (1), Noah Dickerson (6), Jaylen Nowell (9), Dominic Green (2), Naz Carter (3) and Matisse Thybulle (2).
• Crisp has had a standout start in Pac-12 play, averaging 15.6 points, on 46.1 percent shooting from the field (41-of-89), a Pac-12 leading 50.0 percent from 3 (23-of-46) and dishing out 2.4 assists.
• Nowell has seen an uptick in not just his scoring production (16.7 ppg) but in his assists as well as he currently leads the team with 71 (3.4 per game) which is up from an average of 2.7 a year ago.
• Thybulle is the only player in Division I averaging at least 2.1 blocks and 3.0 steals per game.
BRUINS NOTES
• UCLA has shot 47.9 percent from the field in 13 home games, going 10-3 in those contests … in contrast, UCLA has shot 42.0 percent in seven games away from home (three neutral site games and four road contests).
• Nine of the 11 UCLA players who have secured playing time over the past several weeks are either freshmen or sophomores … six are freshmen (includes two redshirt freshmen), three are sophomores, and two are redshirt juniors.
• The Bruins have posted an 11-3 record this year when leading at halftime … those three losses were against North Carolina in Las Vegas (Nov. 23) and versus Belmont (Dec. 15) and Arizona State (Jan. 24) in Pauley Pavilion.
• The Bruins have gone 1-6 when trailing at halftime, with the victory being a dramatic comeback win in overtime at Oregon on Thursday, Jan. 10 … UCLA trailed by as many as nine points with less than one minute to go in the second half.
• UCLA has made at least 15 free throws in 10 games … the team made a season-high 25 free throws (25-for-33) in a home win over LMU … UCLA shot a season-high 76.2 percent from the line against Presbyterian on Nov. 19 (16-for-21).
• Kris Wilkes has scored in double figures in all 21 games this season … he leads all current UCLA players in most career points (824), career field goals made (298), career three-pointers made (101) and career free throws made (127).
• Kris Wilkes is one of three Pac-12 players to have scored in double figures in every game played this year … he is joined on that list by Oregon State’s Tres Tinkle (19 games) and Oregon’s Bol Bol (9 games).
• Kris Wilkes has scored at least 20 points in six games this season, totaling a career-high 34 points in Bruins’ 90-69 win at home versus Arizona (Jan. 26) … he made a career-high 12 of 16 shots in the win against Arizona.
• In Dec. 2018, Jaylen Hands became the first UCLA player with multiple games of at least 10 assists in the same season since Lonzo Ball finished his freshman year (2016-17) with seven games of at least 10 assists.
• Prince Ali made a career-high five three-pointers (on six attempts), totaling a career-high 23 points, in the team’s victory over Hawai’i (Nov. 28) … he was a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point range before the 16:00 mark in the first half that night.
• Moses Brown became UCLA’s first player with at least 19 points and 17 rebounds in his collegiate debut since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) tallied a then-school-record 56 points and grabbed 21 rebounds on Dec. 3, 1966.
• Moses Brown had eight blocks in the team’s win against Saint Francis U (Nov. 16) … since the school began to officially record blocks in 1978-79, only three other players at UCLA have recorded at least eight blocks in one game.
• Jalen Hill tallied a season-best 20 rebounds in the team’s victory over Presbyterian (Nov. 19) … that marked the highest single-game rebound total by a Bruin since Kevin Love had 21 rebounds at Oregon State on Jan. 26, 2008.
• UCLA has made a season-high 10 three-pointers in two games – against North Carolina in Las Vegas (Nov. 23) and at home against Hawai’i (Nov. 28) … the Bruins shot a season-best 50.0% from 3-point range against Hawai’i (10-for-20).
• Presbyterian attempted 45 3-pointers in UCLA’s 80-65 victory (Nov. 19) … that marked the highest total attempted against UCLA since the NCAA adopted the 3-point line (prior to 1986-87) … Presbyterian made 13 of 45 3-point attempts.
