WSU men’s basketball (15-6, 6-4 Pac-12) plays Washington (12-9, 4-6 Pac-12) Saturday. The Huskies’ departure from the Pac-12 means that this game marks the beginning of the last in-conference Apple Cup Series, at least for the foreseeable future.
The Cougs swept the Huskies last year, winning in Pullman by a score of 56-51 and in Seattle by a score of 93-84. WSU has won six of its eight matchups with UW since the start of the decade and with the season hanging in the balance they are looking to continue that pattern on Saturday.
The Huskies are led by Keion Brooks Jr., who declined the draft and stayed for his fifth year after a breakout season in Seattle. So far, it has been the right decision. Brooks Jr. is averaging career-highs with 20.6 points and 7 rebounds, leading the team in both stats and the conference in scoring.
Most impressive and most daunting for the Cougs, though, are his shooting percentages. After spending his entire college career shooting under 29% from 3-point range, Brooks has added an elite outside shot to his game this year. Shooting 40.5% and taking almost four threes a game, Brooks is significantly more offensively dynamic than he was last year.
Perhaps equally frightening is Sahvir Wheeler, the Huskies starting point guard. Also a fifth-year player, Wheeler was teammates with Brooks at Kentucky but did not join him in Seattle until a year later. His collegiate career has been up and down, having his best year before this one at Georgia during the 2020–21 season.
Wheeler is having a career year of his own with the Huskies, scoring a career-high 15.4 points per contest and adding 6 assists, good for second in the conference. While he is not a shooting threat, he scores plenty. Wheeler has only had three games below double digits this season.
Despite those two, UW has lost two of their last three games. They gave up 90 and 98 points in those losses.
However, their most recent game was a convincing win over Utah. The Huskies beat Utah by 25 points, scoring 98 points by hitting 45.8% of their 3-pointers and 57.4% of their field goals.
To call the Huskies hot would be inaccurate, but they have proven they are capable of putting together a good game and beating a good team.
The Cougs managed to beat the Huskies last year in opposite ways. The first time out they did it with their defense, holding Brooks Jr. to eight points and the Huskies to only 51 points overall. The second time, they did it with offense, as TJ Bamba scored 36 and the team put up 93 points.
Those Cougs are no more. The new era Cougs have a different identity on both ends. No longer is the philosophy live by the three, die by the three. Instead, WSU pounds the paint, going for dunks and layups. The 3-pointer is not gone, but it has become just part of a complex offense.
The Huskies have struggled defensively on the interior this season, sitting 159th in the country in opponent 2-point field goal percentage. The Cougs, for reference, rank 15th in the same category.
By that metric and almost all other defensive analytics, the Cougs are a much better team defensively than the Huskies. The question then becomes, how do the offenses match up?
That is where the Huskies start to have some upside. UW shoots better than the Cougs from 2-point range and 3-point range, although they curiously shoot a slightly worse percentage overall than the Cougs.
Offensively, it is something of a wash. Both teams have dynamic scorers, solid shooting and solid passing. Like all league games, it will not be easy. The Cougs have been caught off-guard before this season by Cal, and they cannot come into this game with the same issues or they will struggle.
A win (along with some other things) could put WSU on top of the conference, while a loss could stop the season in its tracks.
Tip-off is 6 p.m. Saturday in Seattle and the game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
