Ten Pac-12 games down, 10 to go.
The Washington men’s basketball team is locked in a three-way tie for seventh in the conference race with Colorado and Washington State at 4-6. UW owns the tiebreaker edge over CU after sweeping the Buffaloes.
This is a good time to review, reset and take a look ahead for the Huskies (12-9), who host Arizona State (15-5, 6-3) at 8 p.m. Thursday to start the second half of the Pac-12 season and a difficult stretch against four of the top five teams in the conference.
And we’ll hand out some Pac-12 midseason awards as well.
But first, here’s a brief recap of the past three months.
The good: Keion Brooks Jr. Undoubtedly, the Kentucky transfer has lived up to the billing while leading the Huskies in scoring in 14 of the 19 games he played. The 6-foot-7 senior forward also leads UW in rebounds (7.2 per game).
The bad: Senior guard Noah Williams missed 12 games early in the season and underwent surgery to repair a knee injury before returning Dec. 30. Meanwhile, backup center Franck Kepnang played eight games before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
And the ugly: Kepnang and newcomer Braxton Meah comprised a dominant pairing at the center position, which anchored UW’s defense. However, it’s been two months since Kepnang went down and the Huskies still haven’t developed a viable Plan B when Meah is out due to foul trouble or ineffectiveness. Along those same lines, the point guard position or floor general has rotated between PJ Fuller II, Keyon Menifield, Koren Johnson and Williams without anyone emerging to take command of the offense. Williams appears to be the natural choice, but he’s still hampered by the knee injury.
Let’s take a look at the key metrics for Washington.
The Huskies are No. 118 in the NET, 105th in the KenPom rankings and 97th in Sagarin ratings. Obviously, that’s not ideal territory for teams with NCAA tournament hopes considering there are 36 at-large bids in the 68-team field.
But the numbers tell half the story. Here’s what you need to know about UW after two-thirds of the season.
Simply put, the Huskies win with their unconventional 2-3 zone defense that’s first in the Pac-12 in blocks per game (6.0) and second in opponents three-point shooting percentage (29.5%).
Washington, which averages 69.9 points and allows 69.6 points, is 10-1 when holding opponents to fewer than 70. UW is 2-8 when teams score 70 or more.
Inexplicably, the Huskies are still searching for an offensive identity aside from isolating Brooks, who is second in the Pac-12 in free-throw attempts (5.4 per game) and has become more efficient in recent weeks while scoring in the paint on contested shots.
The other seven players in the rotation are a bit of mystery on the offensive end.
Senior guard Cole Bajema (10.0 points per game) is a reputed three-point specialist (37.2%) but is more productive drawing fouls and scoring at the free-throw line, where he leads the Pac-12 in shooting percentage (88.9%).
Meah, who averages 9.1 points and is first in the league with a 67.3% field-goal shooting percentage, is a bucket if the Huskies can get the ball to him around the basket. However, the 7-foot-1 junior ranks 31st in the league with 5.2 field-goal attempts per game.
Williams and Menifield have each scored at least 22 points this season, but their offensive contributions have been wildly inconsistent. Fuller and Johnson have been defensive stalwarts who occasionally provide a scoring lift.
And fifth-year senior Jamal Bey has struggled to regain the form when he averaged 10.3 points and shot 50.7% on threes as a junior during the 2020-21 season.
Last season, Washington started 7-3 in the Pac-12 before fizzling in the second half at 4-6 and finishing 11-9 in a three-way tie for fifth in the conference and 17-15 overall.
This time, the Huskies will need a far better second-half performance in the league to resuscitate their fading NCAA tournament dreams.
KenPom predicts UW will go 2-8 the rest of the way and finish the regular season at 14-17.
Pragmatically, Washington will need an 8-2 finish or better over its final 10 games to garner Big Dance consideration and would likely still need a win or two in the Pac-12 tournament to secure an invitation.
That’s a tall task considering UW has a four-game stretch including ASU and No. 6 Arizona before next week’s difficult road games against USC and No. 8 UCLA.
If the Huskies can split their next four games, the schedule becomes favorable and they finish against five teams with a combined record of 30-62.
Now let’s hand out some Pac-12 midseason awards.
Player of the Midseason: Azuolas Tubelis, Arizona. Leads the conference in scoring (19.5 points per game) and rebounding (9.5). Only six players have ever finished the Pac-12 on top of both categories.
Defensive player of the Midseason: Jaylen Clark, UCLA. The rangy 6-5 guard, who leads the Pac-12 in steals (2.7 per game), is a big reason the Bruins have the No. 1 defense in the conference, allowing 59.8 points per game.
Sixth Man of the Midseason: David Singleton, UCLA. The fifth-year senior guard has recorded career-high averages in scoring (10.3 ppg), rebounding (3.1 rpg) and steals (1.1 spg). He ranks second among all Pac-12 players in three-point shooting percentage (44.1%).
Newcomer of the Midseason: Keion Brooks Jr., Washington. The Huskies struck gold for the second straight year in the transfer portal with Brooks, who has essentially replaced one-year phenom Terrell Brown Jr.
Coach of the Midseason: Craig Smith, Utah. The Utes are in second place at 7-3, which is pretty remarkable considering they were finished 11th last season and picked 10th in the Pac-12 preseason media poll.
All-Pac-12 Midseason
First team
G Tyger Campbell, UCLA
F Jaime Jaquez Jr., UCLA
F Azuolas Tubelis, Arizona
C Oumar Ballo, Arizona
C Branden Carlson, Utah
Second team
G Jaylen Clark, UCLA
G Desmond Cambridge, Arizona State
G Boogie Ellis, USC
G KJ Simpson, Colorado
F Keion Brooks Jr., Washington