Seattle @ Washington preview
Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion
Last Meeting ( Dec 17, 2019 ) Seattle 59, Washington 81
The Washington Huskies look to start digging out of a season-opening 0-3 hole Wednesday night when they host crosstown opponent Seattle University.
The good news is that the Huskies have defeated the Redhawks 15 consecutive times and hold a 31-4 series edge. The bad news is that Washington has dropped its first three games for the first time since the 2002-03 season, which was Lorenzo Romar's first campaign at the helm.
Perhaps worse is that the Huskies lost the three games by an average of 21 points. Baylor rolled to an 86-52 victory, UC Riverside shockingly recorded a 57-42 triumph, and Utah delivered a 76-62 decision last Thursday in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.
Washington's offense has been abysmal, averaging just 52 points, as the Huskies are shooting a subpar 33.9 percent of the field and a ghastly 18.9 percent (14 of 74) from 3-point range.
"We're getting decent shots," Huskies coach Mike Hopkins said after the loss to the Utes. "You got to knock them down. We'll have a few days to work before we got to play our next game. We got to work them really hard and get their legs right."
Senior guard Quade Green leads the squad with a 13.7 scoring average but nobody else averages more than 7 points a game.
The Huskies also know help won't be coming from senior forward Nahziah Carter after his suspension was finalized last week and he announced his departure from the program on Friday. The discipline stemmed from a university hearing, which determined Carter violated the school's policy against sexual assault in two separate incidents earlier this year.
Carter averaged 12.2 points and 4.9 rebounds last season.
Seattle (3-3) will be seeking to end a three-game slide as it plays in its home city for the first time this season.
The Redhawks are coming off Sunday's 80-75 road loss at Long Beach State in which sophomore Darrion Trammell scored a career-best 32 points and junior forward Riley Grigsby added 24.
The duo combined to make 11 of 17 3-point attempts with Grigsby sinking a career-best 6 of his 7 attempts. Trammell made 5 of 10.
Trammell (18.8 scoring average) and Grigsby (18.2) have combined to score more than half the points for Seattle, which is averaging 69.3 per game.
"Riley and Darrion played really, really well," Redhawks coach Jim Hayford said after the Long Beach State game. "We need the supporting cast to step up and join them. When we put it all together we'll have a team that's on the other side of these close games."
All four of Seattle's wins over Washington occurred in the 1970s. The Huskies rolled to an 81-57 victory in last season's meeting.
--Field Level Media