Washington basketball visits the Bay Area

Washington basketball begins their weekend in the Bay Area with a matchup at Stanford

The Cardinal played Washington basketball tough last season, and even though the Huskies took both games, this should be a tough matchup for them on the road against an experienced Stanford squad.

The Cardinal have gotten off to a great start this year, coming in at 12-2 overall, with a 1-0 conference record after a win over Cal last weekend. Stanford’s only two losses came at the hands of Butler and #5 Kansas.

The Cardinal have three starters this year who started against the Huskies last season. Junior forward Oscar da Silva leads Stanford in scoring with an average of 17 points per game. Fellow junior, guard Daejon Davis out of Garfield High School in Seattle is averaging 9.1 points per game, and sophomore guard Bryce Willis averages 6.4 per game.

Freshman Tyrell Terry out of Minneapolis, Minnesota starts as the third guard, and he comes into the game second on the Cardinal in scoring, at a clip of 15.1 points per game. The fifth starter is another freshman, forward Spencer Jones, who’s currently averaging 9.4 per game.

The Cardinal run normally an eight-man rotation, but they run a very shallow rotation with most starters coming off the floor for only a short time, or when they’re in foul trouble. The three reserves are sophomore forwards Jaiden Delaire and  Lukas Kisunas, along with junior guard Isaac White average ten minutes a game. The Cardinal have freshman forward James Keefe playing ten minutes plus, but the bench as a whole averages 16 points per game.

The Cardinal are averaging 72  points a night, but the Huskies are averaging 73.6, so if the stats tell us anything, it’s going to be a close one. If the Dawgs can play the same kind of defense that they did against USC, they should be able to move to 2-1 in conference.