Huskies Lose Tucker to Injury, Down to 9 Players

And then there were nine.

The news just doesn't get any better for the University of Washington basketball team with starting forward Bryson Tucker ruled out of Saturday night's game against Minnesota at Alaska Airlines Arena, according to the Big Ten availability report.

The 6-foot-7 sophomore, an Indiana transfer, injured a thumb in Wednesday's 63-60 loss to Penn State.

An Indiana transfer, Tucker sits down for the second time this season. He severely sprained an ankle against Baylor in the third game of the season and missed the next six.

Overall, he's played in 19 games, starting 13, and averages 6.2 points and 3.5 rebounds per outing.

The Huskies have been a battered team since before the season began.

Currently, four Huskies are missing junior center Mady Traore and freshman guards JJ Mandaquit and Jasir Rencher and senior guard Desmond Claude, all lost for the season.

Add to that, the undetermined status of sophomore Christian Nitu, who was said to be redshirting, but hasn't been seen at any UW games or practices made available to media members.

Tucker had resurrected his career somewhat at the UW after not playing over the latter part of his time at Indiana.

He'd come up with six double-figure games that included several dunks off lob passes from the Husky backcourt.

In fact, he came off the bench and supplied 11 points against the Hoosiers early in the year, hitting on 4 of 6 shots, including his lone 3-point try, and grabbing 4 rebounds.

Without Tucker, the Huskies likely would start 6-foot-8 Lipscomb transfer Jacob Ognacevic, who missed the first 16 games of the season with an injured foot that required surgery. He's appeared in nine games since getting medically cleared and started one.

Freshman Nikola Dzepina, a 6-foot-10 Serbian who joined the team at midseason, is another possibility to pull minutes in Tucker's absence.