Brooks Was On the Outside Looking In Against UCLA and He Was Great

We break down the Husky forward's exemplary game against UCLA in words and images.

Dan Raley | Mar 1, 2024

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Washington Huskies

Keion Brooks Jr. is an explosive, confident athlete who similarly impresses you with his eloquence when speaking following University of Washington basketball games.

Yet until Thursday night, he didn't necessarily look like a sure-thing NBA player because his 3-point shot didn't go in nearly as much as the pros would prefer.

However in his 59th Husky game, in a 94-77 victory over UCLA on Thursday night at Alaska Airlines Arena, the 6-foot-7 Brooks finally resembled a complete player when shooting the basketball, dropping in 6 of 7 behind the line.

It was a welcome sight for a guy who leads the Pac-12 in scoring at 21.3 points per game and has put all of his other tools on full display for two seasons at Washington following three at Kentucky.

Photographer Skylar Lin was in attendance to capture all of the good times for this exquisite player and his teammates against UCLA. Check out his gallery.

Keion Brooks Jr. was unstoppable against UCLA, sinking 8 of 14 shots overall against the Bruins, hitting a sizzling 6 of 7 from 3-point range.

Keion Brooks Jr. was as effective inside against UCLA was he was outside, shown here beating Berke Buyuktuncel to the basket at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Keion Brooks Jr. seems to float down the court at Alaska Airlines Arena as he enjoys himself in the Huskies' 94-77 victory over UCLA.

STUDY IN CONCENTRATION / Skylar Lin Visuals

Keion Brooks Jr. played 31 minutes against UCLA and connected on 10 of 13 free throws, while grabbing 5 rebounds and committing no turnovers.

Keion Brooks Jr. gathers his teammates together in Wilhelm Breidenbach, Sahvir Wheeler and Moses Wood.

Moses Wood scored 18 points against UCLA by taking just 6 shots and hitting 5 of them, including 4 of 5 from behind the 3-point range.

Braxton Meah had one of his better games, scoring 19 points against UCLA by hitting all 8 of his shots, including 5 on dunks, and he connected on 3 of 4 foul shots.

Sahvir Wheeler had a double-double against UCLA, scoring 11 points and dishing out 11 assists, while chipping in 5 rebounds in the 94-77 victory.

Paul Mulcahy turned in a solid floor leadership game, putting all of his teammates in the right places on offense and getting them the ball against UCLA.

Anthony Holland let everyone know that the Huskies had finally beat UCLA to break a nine-game losing streak and win for the first time against the Bruins since 2019.

Brooks shot a tepid 28.6 percent (32 of 112) from 3-point range during the 2022-23 season. It got to the point in games he'd pass up the long-range attempt because he didn't feel good about it going in.

This winter, he's up to 39.5 percent (47 of 119), a vast improvement that should have NBA scouts scrambling to jot down in their reports and forward to their front offices.

Against the Bruins, Brooks scored a game-high 32 points, his third time this season with 30 or more. Again, what was different was his outside marksmanship.

A few weeks back, he dropped in a career-best 35 against Washington State, but amazingly did it while going 0-for-5 from 3-point range. Early in the season, he posted 32 points against Northern Kentucky while hitting just 1 of 3 treys.

So as the somewhat underachieving Huskies (16-13 overall, 8-10 Pac-12) finish up with the regular season against USC on Saturday and at WSU next week and then turn to the Pad-12 tournament in Las Vegas, Brooks is becoming a high achiever and put himself in a good place going forward.

His 3-point shot is dropping like never before and the pro scouts should be envisioning what he will look like as a full-service NBA player.

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Published Mar 1, 2024

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.