It’s been 14 years since the Washington Men have finished a season undefeated at home but they are two games from doing exactly that. Their first obstacle is an Oregon State team that is third in the conference but in a bit of a slide of late…
Who: Oregon State Beavers (17-11, 9-7) @ Washington Huskies (23-6, 14-2)
When: Tonight, 2019 – 7PM Tip-off
Where: Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle, WA
How to Watch: Pac-12 Networks (7 Day Free Trials on FuboTV and Sling)
The Beavers have lost 3 of 4 and last week were swept at home by the Arizona schools. They lost to the Wildcats on a buzzer beater on Thursday and to the Sun Devils on Sunday when Stephen Thompson Jr. missed a potential game-tying 3 pointer at the buzzer.
Thompson Jr’s brother Ethan was an assist away from recording the third triple-double in Oregon State history against ASU (Gary Payton I and his son Payton II had the first and second). Ethan Thompson finished with 20 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assist.
Oregon State is currently in a 3-way tie with UCLA and Utah for the 3rd seed in the Pac-12 tournament. Arizona State clinched the 2nd seed with their win over OSU and so whoever finishes 3rd would avoid a meeting with Washington until at least the Pac-12 Championship should they advance. In an ideal world for Washington, Utah would finish fourth as the Huskies appear to match up better with them than any other team but that’s not something the Dawgs can necessarily control.
Oregon State Notes: Stopping Trey Tinkle is paramount to stopping the Beavers attack. Had the Beavers not faltered so much down the stretch I think Tinkle would have been a compelling dark horse for Pac-12 Player of the Year. He leads his team in scoring (20.1 ppg), rebounding (8.0 rpg), assist (4.0 apg) and steals (1.6 spg) and is the only player in the Pac-12 in the top 10 of all those categories.
Oregon State’s lack of depth has been costly, they have just three players averaging over 7.5 points per game. The Beavers continue to struggle shooting the 3-pointer ranking last in the Pac-12 at just 32.2%. Thompson Jr. in particular has struggled with his percentage this season but he never struggles to shoot against the Huskies notably beating them with a buzzer-beater last season and torching the Huskies from beyond the arc earlier this year. More on that in a moment.
The Last Time: Washington 79, Oregon State 69 on January 26th.
Washington started the game on an 11-0 run and led by as much as 21 in a game they controlled from start to finish. Thompson Jr. had 30 points and made six 3-pointers to solidify his reputation as a Husky killer. Jaylen Nowell led the Huskies with 19 points and Naz Carter provided 18 off the bench.
‘Give credit to Washington for coming out and being the aggressor, knocking us back on our heels,” said Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle after the game.
Matchups to Watch
Huskies vs. Nation’s Leading Shot Blocker
OSU 7 footer Kylor Kelley leads the NCAA with his 3.54 blocked attempts per game. Of the 28 games he’s played this season, the only one where he failed to record a block was the previous meeting with Washington. Washington did a nice job keeping Kelley in foul trouble (he finished with 4 in just 19 minutes) and there was no better signal Washington wouldn’t be intimidated than when Naz Carter rose up on him for a postering dunk with some help from Noah Dickerson. With no Kelley to protect the rim the Huskies were able to shoot 58.3% from the field which was their most accurate percentage of any game this season.
OSU Forward Tres Tinkle vs. Husky Zone (Round II)
Tinkle averaged 21 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.3 assist 2 steals in 3 games against the Huskies last year but really struggled in this season’s first meeting. Tinkle played all 40 minutes and shot just 4 of 12 from the field. He also struggled playing the high-post against the one where he had just 1 assist (the fewest he’s had in 16 Pac-12 games) versus 2 turnovers. Tinkle found ways to score getting to the free throw line 12 times in the 1st meeting where he shoots 77.5% from the stripe. No other player in the conference makes more free throws per game.
Squad Rotation
With Washington having locked up the Pac-12 title it will be interesting to see how Mike Hopkins manages his team. They are relatively healthy which you don’t want to take for granted but the team has plenty to play for in hoping to avoid a #8 or #9 seed that would see them face a #1 seed in the Round of 32 should they advance that far. Considering the Huskies will want to build momentum I expect Hopkins to stick with his usual nine man rotation but perhaps he’ll continue to give more minutes to Jamal Bey and Hameir Wright who took advantage of the extended run against Stanford.
Prediction: Washington played much better defense against Stanford earning a split in the Bay and while Matisse Thybulle had a solid week averaging a block and 2 steals per game he returns to Alaska Airlines Arena where in Pac-12 play he is averaging a mind-blowing 5 steals per game and 2.9 blocks per game. The Beavers have their back against the wall and we’ve seen desperate teams (Arizona State and Cal) give Washington a good punch when they have nothing to lose but those were home games for them and this is a Washington team that has won every Pac-12 home game by at least 9 points. I think the Huskies complete the season sweep of the Beavers with some relative ease.
Washington 79, Oregon State 66
Last Game Prediction: Stanford 66, Washington 64
Actual Score: Washington 62, Stanford 61
