Inside The Huskies

Biggest Husky Basketball Inroad This Season Might Be Its Big Man

Braxton Meah has showed progress and a willingness to keep getting better.

Dan Raley

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Whether or not a basketball coaching change takes place at the University of Washington once the season concludes, the ingredients remain for the Huskies to become a much better team than their current 15-13 record shows.

While the freshmen guards have been fun to watch, the season-long development of 7-foot-1 center Braxton Meah potentially has been more impactful — he finds himself on the cusp of figuring things out around the rim and becoming somebody other than the UW's usual space-filler inside.

Meah, who arrived at the UW from Fresno State almost in lock step with football coach Kalen DeBoer and his staff, is coming off a stretch of five consecutive double-figure scoring games, including a pair of double-double outings.

After 28 games, he's shown a certain amount of explosiveness inside in accepting deep lobs and dunking, has demonstrated improving hands after fumbling everything early on, has nearly doubled his free-throw accuracy in a year's time and he's realistic about who he is.

"Everything is a work in progress," Meah said candidly after his 12-point, 11-rebound performance in Saturday's 61-47 victory over Oregon State.

Lorenzo Romar went through 15 seasons as the UW coach with only one big man of any consequence in 7-foot-1, 245-pound Spencer Hawes, who stuck around Montlake just long enough to play his freshman season in 2007 before heading to the NBA draft.

Before that, Bob Bender relied heavily on 7-foot, 280-pound Todd MacCulloch to get the Huskies into the 1998 and 1999 NCAA tournaments before the Canadian post man turned to the NBA.

Other than that, it's been a forgettable series of one-dimensional, offensive-limited UW post players such as David Dixon, Aziz N'Diaye and Nate Roberts.

Under the continued guidance of Mike Hopkins' staff, Meah still needs a skyhook or a short-range jumper to further expand his game and make himself a much more dangerous player around the basket.

"I wish I could learn to do the skyhook," he said. "That's super hard to learn."

That's where his Husky coaches, whether they're holdovers or new ones next season, come in and earn their big salaries. 

DEVIL OF A TIME :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

UW center Braxton Meah finds himself surrounded by three airborne Arizona State Sun Devils. Meah grabbed 11 rebounds while going scoreless in a 69-66 overtime win.

HOLIDAY FEAST :: Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports

Braxton Meah battles for a loose ball against St. Mary's on Thanksgiving night in the Wooden Classic. He helped the Huskies pull out a 68-64 OT win to claim the championship.

CARDINAL SIN :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Braxton Meah was too much for Stanford to handle, coming up with a career-high 21 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in an 86-69 victory over the Cardinal.

SOCAL SLAM :: Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports

At vaunted Pauley Pavilion, Braxton Meah slams one home in a 70-61 loss to UCLA. The Husky center finished with 10 points and 6 rebounds.

HOME COOKING :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

UW post player Braxton Meah dunks for two of his 12 points against Oregon State in last Saturday's 61-47 victory at Alaska Airlines Arena. 

HUDDLE UP :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Outside the Husky locker room, Braxton Meah and his UW teammates gather together before taking the floor at Alaska Airlines Arena. 

EXTRA SEASONING :: Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports

Braxton Meah has got a chance to play a lot this season for the University of Washington basketball team, starting all 28 games for the Huskies so far.

SEEING DOUBLE :: Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports

Double-teamed, Braxton Meah turned in a double-double against Colorado with 10 points and 12 rebounds in a 75-72 UW victory in Boulder. 

GOING HOME :: Rob Gray/USA TODAY Sports

Braxton Meah was born in Layton, Utah, so he was in familiar surroundings when he and the Huskies played Utah last month in Salt Lake City. 

Fifty years ago, James Edwards was sort of a gawky, unpolished player, but his Roosevelt High School and UW coaches put him on a regimen of agility drills and repeated offensive maneuvers to turn him into a 7-foot-1, 252-pound force in the key, an All-Pac-10 selection over multiple seasons and a 19-year NBA player.

This Husky season began promising enough when 6-foot-11 Frank Kepnang and Meah transferred in from Oregon and Fresno State, respectively, and then centered on the latter when Kepnang suffered a season-ending injury. 

Ths Ducks showed Meah proper respect when they purposely went after him to open the second half of last week's game with every intention of getting him into foul trouble and out of the game. Over the space of just 74 seconds, he drew his second, third and fourth fouls and sat down for the next 10 minutes of what became a 72-71 overtime victory for the UW.

Meah, who has two seasons of eligibility remaining as does Kepnang, seems enthusiastic about putting in the effort to becoming a better college player. 

He's gone from averaging 8 minutes per game at Fresno State as a reserve in 2021-22 to 29.5 minutes each time out for the Huskies while starting all 28 games, so he has much more experience and endurance. 

He averages 9 points and 7.1 rebounds an outing, up from 2.2 points and 2.2 rebounds a game a year ago for the Mountain West team.

Most impressively, Meah has improved his foul shooting from 44.8 percent at Fresno State last season to 70.7 percent for the UW by using an unusual, one-handed yet effective shot.

Freshman guards Keyon Menifield and Koren Johnson withstanding, the difference between the Huskies returning to the NCAA tournament anytime soon or continuing to shuffle along in mediocre fashion is having a full-service big man to build a team around, someone able to score consistently in a variety of ways as well as grab rebounds and swat away shots.. 

Meah, who has a dozen double-figure scoring games for the UW, could be that guy. Best of all, he wants to be that guy. 

"I want to say I'm pleased," he said. "I'm real happy that my work is really showing."

 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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