Inside The Huskies

Bryson Tucker Ruled Out Of Friday's Game at WSU

The Husky forward injured an ankle in Sunday's loss at Baylor.
Dan Raley|
Bryson Tucker (8) scores a mid-range basket against the Baylor Bears before leaving with an ankle injury.
Bryson Tucker (8) scores a mid-range basket against the Baylor Bears before leaving with an ankle injury. | Chris Jones-Imagn Images

Fighting a flurry of injuries for well over a month now, the University of Washington basketball team won't have forward Bryson Tucker for Friday night's game at Washington State, with the Indiana transfer ruled out with an ankle sprain.

The 6-foot-7 Tucker, the Huskies' best outside shooter over their first three games, went down in the second half of a 78-69 loss at Baylor this past Sunday.

"Bryson rolled his ankle pretty good and he won't be available for Friday's game," UW coach Danny Sprinkle confirmed.

Meantime, 6-foot-6 USC transfer guard Desmond Claude, who was one of the Big Ten's top scorers last season and hasn't played yet for the Huskies (2-1), remains questionable to play against the Cougars (1-2).

"Des is progressing [but] still no contact stuff," Sprinkle said. "So that will probably be a game-time deal. Even if he [plays], he's not going to be in game shape."

The Huskies could have used Claude against Baylor. He was a15.8-point scorer that ranked him 12th in the Big Ten last season while at USC. He had games of 25 and 20 points against the Huskies.

"We definitely need Des moving forward," Sprinkle said.

Trojans guard Desmond Claude, now with the UW, scores over Rutgers forward Dylan Grant (9) during last season's game.
Trojans guard Desmond Claude, now with the UW, scores over Rutgers forward Dylan Grant (9) during last season's game. | Robert Goddin-Imagn Images

Tucker went down with 11:52 left to play in the game in Waco, Texas, with his team trailing Baylor 55-48. Freshman Hannes Steinbach and JJ Mandaquit had to help him to the bench. He was done after scoring 6 points on 3-for-5 shooting.

For the season, the sophomore swingman from Bowie, Maryland, is averaging 9.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. He's shooting 46.2 percent from the field, 41.7 on 3-point shots.

A McDonald's All-American, he came to the Huskies after a disappointing season at Indiana, where he sat out the final third of the season for a team that fired its coach, Mike Woodson.

Huskies forward Bryson Tucker (8) battles a host of Baylor players for a rebound.
Huskies forward Bryson Tucker (8) battles a host of Baylor players for a rebound. | Chris Jones-Imagn Images

At the UW, Tucker had flourished and become a starter after Sprinkle made him a personal reclamation project to bolster his confidence.

He now becomes one of five players on the 14-man Husky roster who for the time being are all unavailable.

Besides Tucker and Claude, the Huskies are missing 6-foot-11 JC transfer Mady Traore (foot), a junior center who's out for the season; 6-foot-8 senior forward Jacob Ognacevic (foot), who's from Lipscomb and out until January; and 6-foot-11 Christian Nitu, a Florida State transfer who is healthy but has asked to redshirt this season.

"The rest of the guys are pretty good," Sprinkle said.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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