NCAAB Game Preview - Washington at Tennessee

Sat Nov 16, 2019 5:00 PM EST

The No. 20 Washington Huskies hope to make a trend out of having success in unfamiliar locations when they travel to Toronto on Saturday to face Tennessee in the Naismith Hall of Fame Classic.

The Huskies (2-0) have already earned a neutral-site victory when they knocked off then-No. 16 Baylor 67-64 on Nov. 8 in the Armed Forces Classic at Anchorage, Alaska.

So far, the learning curve has been short for Washington's revamped roster, which lost 80.2 percent of its scoring from a year ago. In the season-opening victory over Baylor, Nahziah Carter stepped up with a game-high 23 points. He is the leading returning scorer at 8.1 points per game last season.

Meanwhile, freshmen Jaden McDaniels and Isaiah Stewart delivered as their pedigree suggested with 18 and 15 points, respectively. The duo combined for 15 rebounds against the Bears.

"We're going to have a lot of ups and downs with this team," Washington head coach Mike Hopkins said after a closer-than-expected 56-46 nonconference victory over Mount St. Mary's on Tuesday. "There's going to be a lot of learning experiences."

Expect one to come Saturday with Washington playing in Canada against a Southeastern Conference opponent that improved to 2-0 by defeating Murray State at home Tuesday. Tennessee also defeated UNC Asheville last week.

Knoxville native Jordan Bowden scored a career-best 26 points Tuesday, while making six 3-pointers in the victory over an experienced Murray State team. Junior Yves Pons scored a career-best 19 points Tuesday, topping his previous career best of 15 days earlier against UNC Asheville. Pons entered the season averaging 1.6 points per game as an underclassman.

The Volunteers have shown a balanced attack with senior point guard Lamonte Turner recording 14 assists against Murray State, the most for a Tennessee guard since LaMarcus Golden also had 14 in a 1994 game.

Now things get tougher for Tennessee, which also has nonconference games scheduled against Florida State, Memphis and Wisconsin before heading into SEC play at the start of the new year.

"We felt going into this year, knowing we had these younger guys, that we had to challenge them as much as we could with this schedule," head coach Rick Barnes said.

"Even if you get burnt somewhere along the way, you have to know that it will help us in the long run. You can stay home and get seven, eight, nine or 10 wins, but it's not going to get you where you need to go in the long run. So this schedule that we have is challenging, and I expect our guys to grow up from it," Barnes said.

Washington's schedule has its challenges as well. Baylor made the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season, while Tennessee advanced to the Sweet 16. Later in the nonconference schedule, the Huskies face Montana (first round) and Gonzaga (Elite Eight).

By then, Hopkins hopes his team's defense will be even more fine-tuned heading into what appears to be a tougher Pac-12 Conference than last season.

"For the most part, I'm happy, but I think we can be really, really good (defensively)," Hopkins said.

--Field Level Media