Washington Takes Aim at 3-0 Start

SEATTLE – Washington (2-0) hosts Utah Tech (0-1) on Monday night at 7 p.m. at Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Ed. AJ Kanell and Edridge Recasner have the call on Pac-12 Washington and Tony Castricone and Jason Hamilton will call the action on the Husky Sports Network, locally on Sports Radio KJR-AM 950.
 
The Huskies host the Trailblazers for the first meeting between the teams. It is one of two home games for the Dawgs this week before the team heads to Anaheim for the Wooden Legacy tournament. Washington is coming off of a 75-67 win over North Florida in which freshman Keyon Menifield provided a huge spark in his first career start. Menifield became the first Washington freshman to lead the team in scoring in a game since Isaiah Stewart in 2020.
 
Utah Tech seeks its first win of the season after dropping the opener to Nevada. The Huskies are looking to start a season 3-0 for the first time in the Mike Hopkins era and first time since 2015-16.
 
A look at the 2022-23 Washington Huskies:

• The Returners: Jamal Bey headlines the group as the leading returning scorer from a season ago and entered this season with 119 steals, just outside of the top-10 in program history. Cole Bajema and PJ Fuller II played in all 32 games in 2021-22 while Langston Wilson factored into 28. 

• Experienced Transfers: The Huskies added four transfers from Division I schools -- Keion Brooks Jr. (Kentucky), Franck Kepnang (Oregon), Braxton Meah (Fresno State) and Noah Williams (Washington State) -- that bring with them 10 combined years of high-level playing experience. The foursome enters the year having played in 278 games (112 starts). 

• Freshmen Additions: The Huskies added 6-7 forward Tyler Linhardt (Seattle, Wash./King's HS) and 6-2 guard Keyon Menifield Jr. (Mount Morris, Mich./Phoenix [Ariz.] Prep) to the roster for 2022-23. Lindhardt was the No. 1 rated player in the state of Washington and averaged 21.8 ppg, 12.3 rpg and 3.5 apg as a sophomore. Menifield played four years at Beecher HS in Flint, Mich. and was the Michigan Division 3 Player of the Year in 2021 after averaging 26.0 ppg, 9.3 apg, 6.6 spg and 4.7 rpg.

• Head Coach Mike Hopkins (91-80 at UW/6th season): Hopkins is a two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, winning the honor in each of his first two seasons with the Huskies as he led UW to back-to-back 20 win seasons with postseason appearances each year, including the NCAA Second Round in 2019. Hopkins has coached four McDonald's All-Americans and has mentored five players that have been selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. During his 22 years as an assistant at Syracuse, Hopkins was a part of teams that reached the NCAA Tournament 16 times including the 2003 National Championship team, four Final Four teams, five Elite Eights and ten Sweet 16s.

 
Season tickets, passes and single-game tickets are available.