Inside The Huskies

Huskies Rely on Northwest Connection Once More to Add P.J. Fuller to Roster

The shooting guard left TCU after two seasons to return home to Seattle.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Rely on Northwest Connection Once More to Add P.J. Fuller to Roster
Huskies Rely on Northwest Connection Once More to Add P.J. Fuller to Roster

Former TCU shooting guard Philip "P.J." Fuller became the sixth player to join the University of Washington basketball program as part of its definitive rescue plan to forget a 5-21 season — he's the fourth newcomer with a Northwest connection, and the third who formerly played at Garfield High School.

On Tuesday, the 6-foot-4 Fuller posted on social media that he was coming home to play for the Huskies after two seasons at the Big 12 school that no doubt didn't go as he envisioned.

The one-time 4-star recruit averaged just 5.8 and 5.7 points in his two seasons for the Horned Frogs, reaching double figures just a dozen times in 57 games, 26 of which he was a starter.

Fuller offered a glimpse of what he could do as a freshman in a 75-72 upset of then No. 2-ranked Baylor, providing a career-high 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting in Fort Worth, Texas. 

With the promise of returning to Seattle and playing alongside a lot of familiar faces who know his game, he is probably counting on the chance to greatly increase his scoring production.

After all, his Twitter handle is "Swagg."

Fuller will join former Garfield High players in shooting guard Terrell Brown, who was a first-team, All-WAC player for Seattle University and spent this past season at Arizona; and point guard Daejon Davis, who started parts of four seasons for Stanford.

Others newcomers are 6-foot-7 forward Emmitt Matthews, formerly of Tacoma's Wilson High and West Virginia; 6-foot-8 forward Samuel Ariyibi of the NBA African Academy; and 6-foot-9 Georgia junior-college post player Langston Wilson.

New to the program but already in the fold is 6-foot-10 Jackson Grant, a big man and top 35 recruit from Olympia, Washington.

The Huskies effectively have now replaced the six players who entered the transfer portal once the sorry season ended and appear to have room for yet another new face, presuming senior guard Quade Green doesn't return for a free pandemic season, as expected.

Fuller won Washington state championships at Seattle's Nathan Hale High while playing alongside Michael Porter Jr., the one-time Husky recruit who ultimately went to Missouri and is now in the NBA, and at Garfield, answering to coach Brandon Roy, the former UW and NBA standout, at both schools.

He left a TCU team coming off a 12-14 record and experienced its own mass exodus, with coach Jamie Dixon left with four scholarship players, same as the UW.

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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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