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

Originally posted on FanNation Husky Maven | By Dan Raley | Last updated 3/1/24

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.

View the 10 images of this gallery on the original article

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.

Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on X — @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation.

This article first appeared on FanNation Husky Maven and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: