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Washington Basketball: 2018-19 keys to success on the road against Arizona

By Jason Burgess

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 07: Head coach Mike Hopkins of the Washington Huskies looks on during a first-round game of the Pac-12 basketball tournament against the Oregon State Beavers at T-Mobile Arena on March 7, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Beavers won 69-66 in overtime. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 07: Head coach Mike Hopkins of the Washington Huskies looks on during a first-round game of the Pac-12 basketball tournament against the Oregon State Beavers at T-Mobile Arena on March 7, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Beavers won 69-66 in overtime. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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TUCSON, AZ – JANUARY 29: Dominic Green #22 of the Washington Huskies handles the ball against Kobi Simmons #2 of the Arizona Wildcats during the second half of the college basketball game at McKale Center on January 29, 2017 in Tucson, Arizona. The Wildcats defeated the Huskies 77-66. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
TUCSON, AZ – JANUARY 29: Dominic Green #22 of the Washington Huskies handles the ball against Kobi Simmons #2 of the Arizona Wildcats during the second half of the college basketball game at McKale Center on January 29, 2017 in Tucson, Arizona. The Wildcats defeated the Huskies 77-66. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

The Pac-12 being down has been an understatement but, the Washington Huskies have separated themselves from the pack. On Saturday they travel to Arizona to battle the Wildcats, here are keys to a Washington win.

All season long the Pac-12, on the whole, has been abysmal, to the point where it quite possibly is a one-bid league when Selection Sunday rolls around. In the preseason, Oregon was thought to be a favorite, they find themselves mired near the bottom of the league. Arizona State got off to a hot start, but are now 6-3 in the Pac-12 but three full games behind the top team and a team that some saw as a preseason dark horse to win the league, the Washington Huskies.

The Huskies are 18-4 and an unblemished 9-0 in the Pac-12 and head coach Mike Hopkins has his team at the top of the conference and with a three-game lead over their closest competitors and just nine games left on their schedule, each game they can put in the win column puts them closer to the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

On Thursday night the Huskies embark on the first stop of a three-game road trip that, by the end of, could all but lock up that top seed, when they face the Arizona Wildcats at the McHale Center. The Huskies have had a quietly good season with two of their four losses were on a neutral and two of them were by a bucket, including a two-point loss at then No. 1 Gonzaga when Rui Hachimura made a jumper with one second to play.

Winning on the road in college basketball is difficult, as two of the Huskies’ losses have come in true road games, but they are 4-0 in conference road games, winning by an average of 12 points. Here are some keys to the Huskies continuing their road supremacy and keeping the rest of the conference in the rearview mirror by knocking off Arizona.

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