Washington @ Stanford preview
Maples Pavilion
Last Meeting ( Feb 20, 2020 ) Stanford 72, Washington 64
Stanford's men's basketball team returns to what has been a friendly home-away-from-home Thursday night when the Cardinal and Washington meet in a Pacific-12 Conference game in Santa Cruz, Calif.
Forced out of its home arena because of COVID-19 regulations, Stanford (6-3, 2-1) will be playing its third game at the California coastline site, about 45 miles south of campus, having already beaten Arizona and Cal State Bakersfield there.
It's become part of the reality of the Cardinal's season, one that took another detour last week when Thursday's game at Oregon State was postponed to Monday after Stanford had flown north.
A three-day trip having turned into five, Stanford coach Jerod Haase was happy to escape with an 81-71 win over the Beavers in the make-up game after suffering a 73-56 defeat at Oregon on Saturday.
"The Oregon trip has been an extended trip," Haase noted after Monday's win. "It is going to be exciting to go back to California."
Stanford has survived undisclosed injuries to Daejon Davis and Bryce Wills to win five of six. It's unclear when Davis and Wills will return.
Michael O'Connell picked up some of the slack off the bench against Oregon State, hitting four 3-pointers to account for his 12 points.
Stanford swept Washington in the season series last year, winning 61-55 at home and 72-64 in Seattle.
The Huskies (1-7, 0-3) didn't have Kentucky transfer Quade Green available for those games after he's been ruled academically ineligible at midseason. The junior has returned this season to lead the team in scoring at 15.5 points per game.
Green drew praise from his coach, Mike Hopkins, after last Thursday's home loss to Arizona for his all-around game that included two assists and three steals.
"I felt Quade did a really good job of being a leader where he was a little lackadaisical in the past," Hopkins assessed. "He was really telling everyone in timeouts what they needed to do. Now he needs to have some support."
Green scored 23 points in the 80-53 drubbing by Arizona, hitting eight of his 21 shots overall and three of his 13 3-point attempts.
His teammates combined for just 30 points on 12-for-43 shooting, including 3-for-18 from deep.
The Huskies have lost four in a row since their only win of the season, 73-41 at home in a non-conference game against Seattle.
--Field Level Media