Inside The Huskies

Huskies Turn To Quimari Peterson For Southern Comfort

The East Tennessee State transfer comes with confidence and an impressive resume.
Dan Raley|
Quimari Peterson transferred to the UW from East Tennessee State.
Quimari Peterson transferred to the UW from East Tennessee State. | Dan Raley

Basketball success turned up everywhere last season for Quimari Peterson, who was selected Southern Conference Player of the Year after leading that league in seven different categories, including scoring.

For highlights at East Tennessee State, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound guard averaged 19.5 points per game, shot 42.2 percent from 3-point range and became just the 10th player in school history to score 600 points or more, finishing with 625.

Peterson was named as a first-team All-Southern Conference player for the second consecutive year and was a finalist for the Lou Henson Award, which is given to the nation's top mid-major player.

Making his intentions known that he intended to transfer up and see where his talents took him, he was recruited earnestly by Ole Miss, Georgia Tech and many, many others.

Fairly quickly, Peterson settled on the University of Washington and a team coming off a last-place finish in the Big Ten Conference.

Quimari Peterson spent two seasons at East Tennessee State.
Quimari Peterson spent two seasons at East Tennessee State. | ETSU

Fair question: Did he dig deep to see what went wrong for the Huskies, who won just four of 20 games in their first time through their new league, and was it fixed?

"I've pretty much liked going into a situation like that," Peterson said. "I like to take adversity on and see if I can change things around, change the trajectory of the program. I feel we can do it this year with this group."

To know Peterson's background is to know what motivates him. He hails from gritty Gary, Indiana, which is not far from Chicago and is a place that tests you, even if Michael Jackson, the Jackson Five and their pop songs emerged from there.

He began his career at Indiana State, once made famous by Larry Bird, played sparingly and headed for the junior-college ranks at John A. Logan College in Cartersville, Illinois.

He was a 13.5-point scorer for a 33-2 Vols team that won the NJCAA national championship and was named tournament most valuable player.

Quimari Peterson (1) celebrates after scoring for Gary West Side High School in the 2021 4A Indiana State Tournament.
Quimari Peterson (1) celebrates after scoring for Gary West Side High School in the 2021 4A Indiana State Tournament. | Lee Klafczynski/For IndyStar via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Peterson joined an East Tennessee State program coming off a 12-20 season and helped turn the Buccaneers into 19-16 and 19-13 finishers.

He's an all-around player who scored in double figures in 31 of 32 games last season, reaching 20 points or more 15 times, and averaged 2 steals per game.

Now it's on to Montlake, where he took his only visit after entering the transfer portal and knew this was the place for him, as did the Huskies.

"He's our best shooter," UW coach Danny Sprinkle said of this talented guard.

In his new surroundings, the often inclement Seattle weather doesn't bother Peterson because, well, he's a tough guy.

"Our weather is not good at all," he said of his Indiana hometown.

Peterson was slowed in recent weeks by a hamstring pull, but as if that's going to stop him.

He'll team in the Husky backcourt with other veteran players such as Zoom Diallo, Desmond Claude and Wesley Yates III, all Big Ten tested and physically ready to go, and feel he belongs. He'll share floor space with talented freshman JJ Mandaquit, Courtland Muldrew and Jasir Rencher.

"I felt like it was a good opportunity for me to come in and make an impact right away," Peterson said.

After what he's done, who's to tell him any different now.

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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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