Huskies Tip Off 2022-23 Season Monday

Monday, November 7

Seattle, WA

8:00 PM

University of Washington

Weber State

November 04, 2022 | Men's Basketball

Game Notes - Weber State Digital Game Program Tickets

SEATTLE – The 2022-23 season begins Monday night as the Huskies welcome Weber State at Alaska Airlines Arena. The game is set for 8 p.m. as Elise Woodward and P.J. Carlesimo have the call on Pac-12 Washington and Tony Castricone and Jason Hamilton will call the action on the Husky Sports Network, locally on Sports Radio KJR-AM 950.

Washington opens the season at home for the second consecutive year. A bevy of new faces will don the purple and white this season after Head Coach Mike Hopkins and his staff added a number of top freshmen and transfers.

Let's go!!#TougherTogether pic.twitter.com/AUFg6m9fjU
— Washington Men's Basketball (@UW_MBB) November 7, 2022

The Returners: Jamal Bey headlines the group as the leading returning scorer from a season ago and enters this season with 119 steals, just outside of the top-10 in program history. Cole Bajema and PJ Fuller II played in all 32 games in 2021-22 while Langston Wilson factored into 28. Jackson Grant played in 25 games freshman and now enters his sophomore season in the system.

Experienced Transfers: The Huskies added four transfers from Division I schools -- Keion Brooks Jr. (Kentucky), Franck Kepnang (Oregon), Braxton Meah (Fresno State) and Noah Williams (Washington State) -- that bring with them 10 combined years of high-level playing experience. The foursome enters the year having played in 278 games (112 starts).

Freshmen Additions: The Huskies added 6-7 forward Tyler Linhardt (Seattle, Wash./King's HS) and 6-2 guard Keyon Menifield Jr. (Mount Morris, Mich./Phoenix [Ariz.] Prep) to the roster for 2022-23. Lindhardt was the No. 1 rated player in the state of Washington and averaged 21.8 ppg, 12.3 rpg and 3.5 apg as a sophomore. Menifield played four years at Beecher HS in Flint, Mich. and was the Michigan Division 3 Player of the Year in 2021 after averaging 26.0 ppg, 9.3 apg, 6.6 spg and 4.7 rpg.

Head Coach Mike Hopkins (89-80 at UW/6th season): Hopkins is a two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, winning the honor in each of his first two seasons with the Huskies as he led UW to back-to-back 20 win seasons with postseason appearances each year, including the NCAA Second Round in 2019. Hopkins has coached four McDonald's All-Americans and has mentored five players that have been selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. During his 22 years as an assistant at Syracuse, Hopkins was a part of teams that reached the NCAA Tournament 16 times including the 2003 National Championship team, four Final Four teams, five Elite Eights and ten Sweet 16s.

The team played an exhibition contest on Tuesday in which they defeated Alaska Fairbanks 95-64. Brooks Jr. led all Huskies with 19 points while Williams tallied a double-double and notched six steals. Hopkins' squad aims to build off of a 2021-22 season in which the team exceeded expectations, finishing fifth in the Pac-12 after being picked towards the bottom of the preseason poll.

The Huskies play a pair of games this week as North Florida comes to town on Friday for the second of four-straight home games to begin the season. The team will then travel to Anaheim to play in the Wooden Legacy tournament before returning home for Seattle U at the end of the month.

Season tickets, passes and single-game tickets are available.