Huskies Try To Bounce Back Against WSU In Palouse

On Friday night in Pullman, the University of Washington basketball team will play an opponent that nobody knows in a game that few people outside of the Palouse will see.

Welcome to the Apple Cup, which hardly qualifies as a rivalry game this time, rather it looks like a FIBA World Cup outing.

The Huskies (2-1) meet a Washington State entry(1-2) led by Tomas Thrastarson from Iceland and 6-foot-8 Emmanuel Ugbo from The Netherlands by way of Boise State. Both average 15 points a game.

Those two will team with guys from Finland, Latvia, Ireland, Spain and Canada.

Meantime, the UW, with a roster composed of players from Germany, Cameroon, Romania and France, will look to bounce back from Sunday's 78-69 loss at Baylor while still trying to get a large number of players healthy.

Indiana transfer Byron Tucker, a 6-foot-7 shooter, who started the first three Husky games, will be sidelined multiple weeks while recovering from a severe ankle sprain.

The UW is still trying to get veteran guards Quimari Peterson and Zoom Diallo back in tiptop shape.

"He and Zoom, they're not in game shape yet," coach Danny Sprinkle said. "They were both out three and a half weeks. They couldn't run."

Peterson has been dealing with a hamstring injury while Diallo suffered a concussion that set them back.

Still, Diallo and Peterson were the Huskies' top two scorers against Baylor with 15 and 11 points, respectively. Both came off the bench in Waco.

"It's going to take another seven to 10 days before they're in great shape, the shape we need them to play both sides of the ball at an elite level with elite intensity," Sprinkle said.

With a flurry of injuries, the UW has just nine players available, unless USC transfer Desmond Claude gets cleared to play. A 15.8 scorer last season, he's been dealing with a severe ankle sprain that has caused him to miss every game so far.

In regards to watching a TV broadcast of the UW-WSU game, people will need to turn to ESPN-plus, not exactly a mainstream outlet that commands a lot of viewership.

After this trip to the Palouse, the Huskies will return home for a Tuesday night game against Southern (1-2) that tips off at 6:30 p.m. PT at Alaska Airline Arena. That one will be televised by the Peacock Network.

The UW is in a stretch of seven basketball games that will be broadcast over seven different outlets -- the Big Ten Network, Big Ten-plus, ESPN, ESPN-plus, Peacock, CBS and TRU TV.

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