Dawgman Radio: A Washington Huskies athletics podcast

Washington used balanced scoring and a blend of man and zone defense to upend Western Washington 87-63 in an exhibition game at Alaska Airlines Arena Thursday night.

The only sore spot for the Huskies was that they were inefficient from the free-throw line, going 15-32 from the stripe.

"It's one of those games, the first time there...these guys are good shooters," UW Head Coach Mike Hopkins said after the game. "They make them all the time. Sometimes you have that night. Tonight was that night. You just can't have too many of those nights."

The Huskies took a 46-23 lead into intermission, but could only extend the lead out to 30 with 4:26 left in the game. The Vikings were living and dying by the 3-pointer, going 12-32 on the night, but 8-16 in the second half.

"Second half, they did a good job moving the ball," said Hopkins. "We missed some shots and they made 'em. I was unhappy with the 8 3-pointers in the second half. To me, I was a little frustrated with the defensive part, because that's what we have to be able to be great at. We have the potential to be great at that. So we've got to clean that up.

"I thought in the first half, we started in man and we were aggressive. The big thing we wanted to do is we wanted to defend without fouling. I thought, for the most part, we did a good job. Got into their zone. Tried to hold them...one of our goals is five threes or less. We held them to four (in the first half), they were able to make a couple late in the clock. We've got to clean that up, that can't happen anymore."

Jamal Bey led four Huskies in double-figures with 20 points and 5 steals off the bench. True freshman forward Isaiah Stewart added a double-double in his first UW game (14 points, 11 rebounds), while another true freshman, Jaden McDaniels, chipped in with 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.

Trevor Jasinsky led the Vikings with 19 points, the only Western Washington player to score in double-figures.

A lot of coaches would love the fact that they get two bye weeks in a season, and Chris Petersen is probably one of them...with a caveat. He gets to choose when the team gets them.

So it wasn't a surprise Thursday that the UW Head Coach, in an ideal world, would have wanted to get a bye week just a little earlier in the schedule. Right before the Oregon game, Washington was the only top-25 team to have played in 7 games, so you can see where Petersen feels like the schedule could have put them at a bit of a disadvantage compared to other Pac-12 opponents. And it also affects their future practice schedules because of a second bye week that happens right after their next game, a Friday night affair at Oregon State. 

But none of that is at issue this weekend, because Washington is rested off their first bye week and ready to square off against a Utah team playing as well as anyone right now. They just skunked California in Salt Lake City and are brimming with confidence as they come to Seattle with a bit of revenge on their minds. Not only did they lose on a last-second field goal to the Huskies their last trip to the 206, but they also lost twice to UW last year: 21-7 in Salt Lake City and 10-3 in the Pac-12 Championship game.

Petersen knows they are going to be in for the fight of their lives this weekend, which is exactly how he believes Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham would want it. The Utes have a new offensive coordinator (kind of) in Andy Ludwig, who also was Utah's OC from 2005 through 2008, and they have a defense that is only allowing an average of 56.4 rush yards per game, something Petersen admits he's never seen before this late in a season.

Petersen also talked about going up against the two-headed QB monster of Tyler Huntley and Jason Shelley, as well as what he thinks Puka Nacua's older brother Samson, a Utah receiver, could do on Saturday.

In UW personnel news, Petersen talks about junior WR Ty Jones and whether or not he'll redshirt, Chico McClatcher, and others. He was also asked about the NCAA decision to allow players to profit off their name, image, and likeness.

The media also broached the hard-hitting subjects, like what Halloween costume Petersen might wear for the trick-or-treaters. You might be surprised at his answer!

The season is basically upon us already, and we barely had time to catch our breath. But for Mike Hopkins and the Washington Men's Basketball team, Thursday's Halloween exhibition game against Western Washington has been months in the making, especially for those players who had to sit with the NCAA Tournament second-round defeat to North Carolina in their gut for the summer.

Hopkins spoke to the media Wednesday ahead of the game, where he was able to address a number of player-specific questions, namely about the availability of Jaden McDaniels and Quade Green, as well as others about Isaiah Stewart and Elijah Hardy.

Hopkins was also asked about developing this particular roster, the options he will have available to him but also acknowledging the team will go through some growing pains as the talented youngsters gel with the veterans.

"It's going to be amazing to get back in front of our fans and the Dawg Pack," Hopkins said. "Hopefully everybody has a lot of trick or treat bags. I was talking to my wife and she was saying they were going to go trick-or-treating, and I was like aren't you going to the game? But anytime you get to play at home, it'll be a great night. I know these guys are really excited to go out there and play against somebody else."

After a week off, the Huskies got back to work on Monday with a focus on Utah, which has one of the top defenses in the nation and head coach Chris Petersen listed why they are so good during his Monday press conference.

"They have one of the best defenses in the country. I don’t know what all the stats are saying and all that stuff, but there is no doubt this is one of the best defenses in the country. They pack the box and they play man coverage. They mix in some zone coverage just to keep you off balance. They do a great job. Bring enough blitz pressures to (force you) to account for all those different type of things. But at the end of the day they can just line up with good players and guys who are trying to make plays downfield. They don’t make many of them downfield because they've got guys who can cover in the secondary and that’s an awesome combination to have.”

Faced with that daunting task, the Husky offense has its work cut out for it.

Washington offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan says they got some good work in over the bye week and they are just continuing to focus on executing the offense and making the right calls at the right time in order to find some success.

Keith Bhonapha talked about the progress of some of his runners, including freshman Cameron Davis who saw his first game reps against Oregon two weeks ago, while wide receivers coach Junior Adams discussed why players like Terrell Bynum and Puka Nacua have seen an increase in reps and targets.

Salvon Ahmed, Jordan Chin, Jacob Eason and Trey Adams all talked about the Utah defense and what makes them so tough as well as what they did during the bye week with some of their free time.

Elijah Molden called it 'old school football'. He said it's like going into an alley to see who comes out last. And really, it's about what you'd expect from the Utah Utes and Washington Huskies, who have had a handful of knock-down, drag-out brawls on the football field the last few years. The series record may be 12-1 in UW's favor, but that doesn't do the rough-and-tumble nature of this series justice.

And, at least talking to the Washington defensive players and coaches on Tuesday, they understand it. They may be coming off a bye week where they feel as refreshed and as rested as they have since the season began, but that doesn't mean they don't know what they're going to be up against on Saturday. They will be matched against a Utah team playing arguably the best ball in the Pac-12. They just dominated California 35-0, a team that beat Washington in their house in week two. Their defense has been dang near unstoppable this year, allowing only 10 points per game.

But the defensive coaches and players wanted to talk about a Utah team with a new offensive coordinator in Andy Ludwig (in his second stint as OC for the Utes), a quarterback in Tyler Huntley playing as efficient as any in the conference, a running back in Zack Moss who is first in the Pac-12 in rushing touchdowns and second in rush yards per game.

Senior defensive back Myles Bryant called Utah a 'well-rounded team', essentially one where, as a defense, you're going to need to choose wisely when attacking a certain aspect of their offense. If you try to shut down their run game, Huntley will just take it himself and RPO you to death. If you try and shut Huntley down by not allowing any deep shots, they'll bleed you out by moving the chains, thereby keeping your offense off the field. And they will be physical with you.

"We got some good work done. I think guys appreciated last week just in terms of how it went, the time off, the practices we did. Get a chance more than anything is get rested up. A lot of times it’s more healed up or more rested up, probably more rested up. It was good and on to a really good, really good Utah team. Those guys are doing a phenomenal job. Kyle always does. Nothing different. I think He’s playing exactly the style of football in general he’s always wanted to play which is great defense and tough run offense. It keeps defenses off balance with some of the shots they take and those types of things. Big challenge. This team is certainly playing as well as anybody around."

That was Chris Petersen's opening statement, and there were certainly a lot of questions during Monday's weekly press conference with the Washington head coach, but generally not a lot of detailed answers. In fact, with the bye week in the rearview and Utah next in line, Petersen was about as vague as he's been all year long on almost every topic brought up. Even when he was asked right out of the gate about the departure of redshirt freshman receiver Trey Lowe, he wouldn't provide any details, other than to cryptically suggest that 'the program isn't for everyone'. And there were plenty of queries about the health of certain players that have been dealing with injuries, but they weren't going to get much from Petersen anyway in that regard. 

Here's more from Chris Petersen's Monday press conference ahead of their game against No. 9 Utah this weekend.

In talking to the Washington big men this week during their media day, one thing became quite clear, quite quickly: they are excited to show off their hard work. Whether it's the lone senior Sammy Timmins or the true freshmen phenoms Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels, this is a collection of forwards and centers Washington has never had before, at least not since the days of Christian Welp and Phil Zevenbergen over 30 years ago.

The Huskies have eight players listed at 6-foot-9 or taller: Sam Timmins, Hameir Wright, Bryan Penn-Johnson, Nate Roberts, Isaiah Stewart, Jaden McDaniels, Riley Sorn, and J'Raan Brooks. Brooks, the USC transfer, has to sit out this season.

That's an insane amount of size, considering UW only had five players last year 6-foot-9 or taller, and all of them are back for this season.

The guys from Dawgman.com were all over media day this week for Washington Men's Basketball, talking with basically all of the scholarship players, save for Quade Green, who was not able to talk until his eligibility waiver has been cleared by the NCAA.

The first group up? The guards, led by junior Nahziah Carter and sophomore Jamal Bey. They are the two most experienced players, but that's not saying much. Carter, the 6-foot-6 guard from Rochester, NY played in 36 games, and Bey, the 6-foot-6 guard from Las Vegas, played in 30 games - but neither one of them ever started last year. Not an emergency start, nothing. Between the two of them, they combined for 9.1 points and 3 rebounds per game.

Behind them is sophomore point guard Elijah Hardy, who played in 11 games last year.

After that, it's the two true freshmen - Marcus Tsohonis and RaeQuan Battle.

Add Green to the mix, and it's a lineup that has the potential to be very good. Without Green, it may take a minute for them to find their legs.

The Huskies open their season up on Halloween night with an exhibition game versus Western Washington. 

Jaden McDaniels' reticence toward answering his phone has become the stuff of mythology with the media over the years, mostly because he likes to keep everything close within his circle. But there was nowhere for the quiet 6-foot-9 true freshman forward to go Tuesday at UW's Media Day, so he sat down and answered questions during the first group interview he's had since his days in the EYBL.

"I hear from everybody how it's hard to get a hold of me, but it's like to be honest if you catch me, you catch me," he said.

As it turned out, McDaniels had plenty to say about getting lost on campus, the influence Will Conroy played on his recruitment, being compared to Kevin Durant, how his commitment to UW happened, Mike Hopkins' energy, having his older brother blaze the path before him, the one player that's impressed him since he got to Montlake, what he does during his downtime, and a lot more.

The press spoke to UW true freshman center Isaiah Stewart on media day Tuesday, the first time he's talked with the Seattle reporters.

From the transition from high school to college ball to getting acclimated to the zone, the 6-foot-9 forward from Rochester, New York thought it would be easier. He's more used to playing man, but by his own admission, sometimes he still gets lost in the zone. But he's leaned on one upperclassman to help him get through it.

He also talked about 7-foot-4 center Riley Sorn, or 'Mount Riley' as they call him, and the other bigs he has to go up with every day, especially battling for rebounds.

Stewart spoke about the adjustment moving to the west coast and living in Seattle. "They definitely weren't joking when they said it rains a lot," he said with a laugh.

Of course, he had his Coach Hop story, and even said he might surprise the UW Head Coach with something special the next time they practice. But you're going to have to listen to find out what it is.

And of all the players Stewart has ever played against before coming to Washington, you might be surprised to learn that it's a current UW teammate.

To listen to the full 10-minute interview, click on the audio link above.