Huskies Get Ultimate Reverse Layup -- Yates Will Return to UW

Wesley Yates III knows what it's like to play against the University of Washington basketball team.

The 6-foot-4 guard from Beaumont, Texas, also is well aware of what it's like to practice with the Huskies.

Finally, after two long years, Yates should get a long-awaited chance to pull on a purple, gold or white jersey, have his name announced over the public-address system at Alaska Airlines Arena and play for the UW on game night.

On Thursday, the talented player revealed he will transfer from USC and rejoin the program he started with on the college level, albeit with a different coach in Danny Sprinkle, and have three seasons to show local basketball fans what he can really do.

He was an "almost Husky" during the 2023-24 season, forced to miss the entire campaign after injuring a foot and then re-injuring it, and practicing only in Montlake.

Once Mike Hopkins was fired, Yates met with Sprinkle but ended up in the transfer portal and followed his cousin Quincy Pondexter and Will Conroy, both former UW assistant coaches and superlative players in their time, to Los Angeles and the Trojans.

"We had actually had quite a few meetings and he was phenomenal," Sprinkle said of Yates at midseason. "He was dead set on staying. We met multiple times. I don't know what happened."