When the Washington Huskies get into Williams Arena on Saturday, February 1, Danny Sprinkle’s Washington Husky men’s basketball team will be focused on trying to snap a six-game losing streak when they meet up with the Minnesota Golden Gophers who have also struggled throughout this season.
Washington, at 10-10 overall and 1-8 in Big Ten play, is among the worst teams in the conference at the moment, but Minnesota hasn’t exactly looked much better than the Huskies have this season as they have an 11-10 record and are 3-7 when facing off against Big Ten teams this year.
But, Washington is winless on the road up to this point and Minnesota has managed to put up a 10-4 record at home. And two of those home wins include the Michigan Wolverines and Oregon Ducks. UW can’t really afford to assume that it will win this game.
And if the Huskies are going to find a way to come out on top, it’ll be because they find a way to limit some of the best players on Minnesota’s roster.
Washington Huskies vs. Minnesota Golden Gophers: 3 opposing players to watch
Here are three Golden Gophers that Danny Sprinkle and the Washington Huskies will need to find a way to slow down throughout this game. And that might honestly be more difficult than one would assume otherwise.
- Dawson Garcia is a terrifying scoring threat that UW will need to account for - The Washington Huskies will need to find a way to slow Garcia down as he’s scoring just shy of 20 points per game this season and grabbing 7.3 rebounds per game. Great Osobor and the UW frontcourt will absolutely have their hands full when trying to handle Garcia in this coming game.
- Mike Mitchell Jr. is versatile and could be a problem for UW’s backcourt - While he may not be the most explosive player ever or the most efficient player ever, it’s clear that Mitchell can be both pretty dang explosive and pretty dang efficient. Just ask the Michigan Wolverines, who he scored 20 points against in a fascinating upset win.
- Lu’cye Patterson is active enough to keep the Huskies on guard - Look, Patterson might not be the most dangerous scoring threat ever, but he is Minnesota’s third-leading scorer at 10.8 points per game and he’s active all over the court. Washington can’t afford to overlook him as they try to lock down Garcia and Mitchell.
Minnesota could be a problem. Or the Golden Gophers might be a mess. It’s hard to tell. Either way, the Huskies will need to find a way to slow the best players on their opponents’ roster. And we’ll see if that actually happens.