Press release from the University of Washington….
UW (17-8, 7-5) vs. Utah (15-9, 7-6)
UW returns to Alaska Airlines Arena for a pair of games with the Mountain schools starting with Utah on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 6 p.m. The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks with Daron Sutton and P.J. Carlesimo on the call. Additionally, fans can tune into KOMO 1000AM and 97.7 FM to hear the official UW radio broadcast from Tony Castricone and Jason Hamilton.
The Coach
Head Coach Mike Hopkins is in his first year at Washington, and first as a head coach becoming the 19th head coach in UW history. After spending 22 years as an assistant at Syracuse, Hopkins oversaw teams that reached the NCAA Tournament 16 times including the 2003 National Championship, four Final Fours, five Elite Eights and 10 Sweet 16s along with four NIT berths. Syracuse never dipped below a 55.0 percent record while Hopkins was on staff.
Quick Hitters
• Junior Noah Dickerson became the 38th player in UW history to reach the 1,000 career scoring mark after scoring a career-high tying 28 points at OSU .. he is he currently has 1,025 points
• Dickerson is averaging a career-best 15.5 points per game and has reached double-figures in seven-straight games … over his last four, he is averaging 22.0 points and 11.5 rebounds
• Additionally, junior David Crisp is close to getting to 1,000 career points as he is at 964 career points
• The Huskies had four players with over 44 minutes against OSU, led by David Crisp’s 50 minutes
• Washington defeated its third ranked opponent of the season in No. 9 Arizona and won four-straight Pac-12 games for the first time since the first four league games of the 2012-13 season.
• With its wins over No. 25 ASU and No. 9 Arizona, it marked first time UW defeated ranked teams back-to-back at home since the 2006-07 season where it defeated No. 23 USC (85-70) and No. 2 UCLA (61-51) on March 1 and March 3, respectively
• Junior Matisse Thybulle owns the UW single-season steals record as he now has 77 with six games still remaining in Pac-12 play … the previous record was held by Bryan Boston (67-1994-95, 27 games) … his 77 steals are tied for third in the NCAA and are four off of the national lead … he also ranks 13th amongst active Division I players with 181 career steals
• Per Elias/Pac-12 Conference, over the last 40 seasons, only two league schools began its conference slate 6-3 or better the season after having no more than two conference victories. Stanford started 1993-94 with a 6-3 record after going 2-16 in 1992-93.
• Junior Matisse Thybulle recorded back-to-back 18-point outings against Colorado and WSU to mark the first time in his career with two-straight games with at least 18 points … he also averaged 58.3 percent shooting, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists with just one turnover in those two games
• Junior Noah Dickerson recorded his third 20-point/10-rebound double-double of the season against OSU with 28 points and 12 rebounds … he now has five 20/10 double-doubles on his career
• In the Huskies last four wins, they held opponents to 65.8 points per game, 24.7 percent shooting from 3-point range and outrebounded them by a 4.5 margin.
• Since Pac-12 play has started, UW has held all but two of its opponents to a lower 3-point FG percentage than they had entering the game and on average are holding opponents to 3.2 less 3’s per game compared to their season average
• Washington recorded a season-high 50 rebounds at Colorado, its most since 54 at Gonzaga a year ago (Dec. 7, 2016) … additionally UW had two players with 10 or more rebounds in Noah Dickerson and Matisse Thybulle for the first time this season
• UW has recorded 10 or more steals 11 times this season in its 25 games … the last season where UW had at least 10 steals nine times was the 2005-06 campaign
• Thybulle became the first Husky in program history to rank in the career top 10 in both categories … Thybulle has 181 career steals (2nd) and 91 career blocks (8th).
• In 25 games, freshman Jaylen Nowell has recorded eight 20+ scoring efforts while leading the team in scoring 10 times … he has scored at least 10 points in 23 of his 25 career games
• Washington has overcome 10 point deficits three times this season in wins over Belmont, USC and Washington State .. additionally, UW has trailed by at least five in seven of its 17 wins
