Washington basketball brings in one of the top freshmen in the country in Markelle Fultz but also lose their top three scorers from last season.
WASHINGTON HUSKIES
Last Season: T-6th, 9-9 in Pac-12, 17-15 overall
Predicted Pac-12 Finish: 11th
Projected Depth Chart
F/C: Malik Dime (Sr)/Matthew Atawe (Jr)/Sam Timmins (Fr)
PF: Noah Dickerson (So)/Devenir Duruisseau (So)
SF: Matisse Thybulle (So)/Dominic Green (So)/Bitumba Baruti (Fr)
G: David Crisp (So)/Carlos Johnson (Fr)
PG: Markelle Fultz (Fr)
Gone: SG-Andrew Andrews, F-Marquese Chriss, G-Dejounte Murray, PF-Donaven Dorsey (transfer-Montana)
Strengths:
In losing Andrew Andrews, Dejounte Murray, and Marquese Chriss, the Huskies must replace 60% of their scoring from a year ago. Freshman Markelle Fultz is one of the top freshman in the country and will be given every opportunity to become the go-to guy from the opening tip of the season. He is an extremely athletic combo guard who has dramatically improved year-by-year. Fultz and sophomore guard David Crisp will shoulder a heavy load throughout the season and that backcourt needs to perform at a high level for Washington to have any tourney hopes.
Question Marks:
Noah Dickerson, Malik Dime, and Matisse Thybulle all played significant roles last season for the Huskies but blended in between Washington’s talented trio. At least one of those guys need to take a dramatic step forward this season to provide some sort of a frontcourt scoring option. Auburn transfer, Matthew Atewe and sophomore wing Dominic Green provide depth at forward but that group hasn’t been asked to do much at the college level until this season.
Player to Watch:
Fultz wasn’t like most McDonald’s All-Americans who were highly sought after from day one of high school. In fact, the 6-4 guard played JV basketball as a sophomore. Fultz has worked hard though to become one of the top recruits in the 2016 class and someone who is projected to be a high lottery pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. He can’t do it all for the Huskies though and they will need some of their other young guys to step up.
X-Factor:
Dickerson was a top 100 recruit and behind Fultz, is the next most talented player on the roster. At 6-8, 245 pounds, he knows how to carve out space inside and score around the basket. He needs to become a consistent double digit per night scorer to help take some of the pressure off Fultz.
Looking Ahead to 2017-18:
Expect Fultz to be a one-and-done but Lorenzo Romar stays hot on the recruiting trail by landing one of the top players in the 2017 class. Michael Porter was hired in the off-season as an assistant coach and coincidentally enough, his son Michael Jr. is one of the top two players in the country and committed to UW shortly after his dad was hired. Weird… The Huskies have three other pledges in that class including top 100 shooting guard, Jaylen Nowell.
Key Non-Conference Games:
11/22 vs. Long Beach State
11/25 vs. Western Kentucky (in Las Vegas)
11/26 vs. UNLV/TCU (in Las Vegas)
11/30 at TCU
12/7 at Gonzaga
12/11 vs. Nevada
David Kay is a senior feature NBA Draft, NBA, and college basketball writer for the Sports Bank. He also heads up the NBA and college basketball material at Walter Football.com and is a former contributor at The Washington Times Communities. David has appeared on numerous national radio programs spanning from Cleveland to New Orleans to Milwaukee to Honolulu. He also had the most accurate 2011 NBA Mock Draft and the most accurate 2012 NBA Mock Draft on the internet (Yup, repeat champ… #humblebrag), and finished with the second most accurate 2013 NBA Mock Draft (nearly a three-peat.) You can follow him on Twitter at David_Kmiecik.