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He's Back: Yates Is Ready to Make Up For UW Lost Time

Originally posted on Washington Huskies on SI
By Dan Raley | Last updated Aug 1, 2025 11:13 AM ET

With a white towel wrapped around his uncovered shoulders, Wesley Yates III resembled a prize fighter when he met this week with Seattle media members, which seemed apropos.

He was back on his feet as a basketball player, back as a University of Washington guard, back in the Montlake ring again, after getting knocked down two years ago with a lingering season-long foot injury.

After an inactive year at the UW, Yates left following the firing of coach Mike Hopkins and played last season at USC, and now he's come back to the Huskies to answer to Danny Sprinkle.

"I'm trying to show the fans what would have happened if I was here," the 6-foot-4 sophomore guard from Beaumont, Texas, said of his first stay in Seattle. "I feel like I would have scored a lot of buckets for this program."

He needed a change of scenery after being idle for so long, after the coaching upheaval, after his cousin Quincy Pondexter, the former UW standout and Hopkins assistant, left for USC and he followed him there.

After a breakout season in Los Angeles, in which he scored 14.2 points per game and shot 47.7 percent from the field and 43.4 from 3-point range as a redshirt freshman, Yates liked what he saw in Sprinkle's aggressive UW rebuild and decided to retrace his steps.

"Everybody is held accountable," he said. "Practice is fun, super competitive. We play a lot. It's like I'm challenged here. They get me better."

While 6-foot-11 center Franck Kepnang is his only remaining teammate from two seasons ago, Yates has bonded in particular with sophomore combo guard Zoom Diallo, playing in a Seattle pro-am with him this past summer, and with freshman point guard JJ Mandaquit.

"JJ is the best point guard I've ever played with," he said. "He always makes the right reads."

Yates hasn't forgotten what it felt like to be at the UW before when times were good, that he was on the top of his game until he suffered that nagging foot injury that left him seated courtside on game night, looking forlorn as his teammates warmed up and then played without him.

He had big and bold dreams back then that included the NBA that didn't materialize.

"It was mentally tough," Yates said. "I was playing at a high level that season. I felt super confident, super confident with my game the way it was going. I even felt I had a shot to go one-and-done."

Instead, he'll play a third college season, his second at the UW in a most unusual college basketball journey, returning to the Huskies with Pondexter following him as an assistant coach, as well. There's a real positive vibe for him now that he's back in town.

"Our team is loaded, wer're talented. ... I feel offensively we have the skills to compete with anybody in the country," he said. "We just need to work on the little things it takes to win. If we do that, we can get into that high percentage of winning and be one of the last teams standing."

With what happened to Yates the first time at the UW, standing is a very good thing.

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This article first appeared on Washington Huskies on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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