Huskies Tip Off 2022-23 Season Monday

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.

• 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…