Mason Made It to the Big Leagues, But It Was a Learning Experience

They came to play Big Ten basketball from schools such as North Dakota, Oakland, Portland, Rhode Island and Rice, and, in baseball parlance, this was like getting called up to the big leagues from Triple-A.

The experience for them was alternately different, extra demanding and difficult.

Mekhi Mason, whose first name is pronounced "Mah-Ky," joined Danny Sprinkle's first University of Washington team out of the transfer portal from Rice and Conference USA, and was thrown into the Big Ten's extra physical, take-no-prisoners style of play.

The 6-foot-5 sophomore from the Phoenix suburbs began the season as a Husky starter and finished up that way, but twice he lost his starting job for lengthy stretches.

The Rice transfer had nights in which he scored 23 points against Eastern Washington and Nebraska, and others in which he went 0-for-8 on 3-pointers against Seattle U and 1-for-7 behind the line against Oregon, with the latter dry spell coming in the final game of the season.

"Playing at a higher level, it just takes some adjusting," Mason said at midseason. "I just feel I'm getting more confident."

Mekhi Mason celebrates a win over WSU. | Skylar Lin Visuals

The shooting guard started all 67 games in which he played for Rice. With the Huskies (13-18 overall, 4-16 Big Ten), he opened 20 of 31 outings as Sprinkle opted to rotate his guards when one began to tail off.

Mason started the first four games of the season, came off the bench for five, returned to the starting lineup for five, found himself pulling reserve duty for six contests and started the final 11 outings.

He finished as the UW's fourth-leading scorer at 9.9 points per game and overall proved to be a credible shooter by hitting 42.5 percent from the field and 40.2 from 3-point range.

Yet Mason would hit prolonged cold spells, scoring in single digits in 14 games, or nearly half of the schedule. He also would tend to get lost on defense at times, too.

Coming back for his senior season, providing the transfer portal doesn't beckon him again, Mason has a chance to be a much better Big Ten player his second time around the league.

Mekhi Mason gets rejected on this dunk attempt against Illinois. | Skylar Lin Visuals

New guards are coming to the UW program so he'll need to step up and protect what is his. Sprinkle won't be nearly as patient with him after they shared in a last-place Big Ten team. For a shooter such as Mason, it will be either hit or sit.

Still, Mason is especially tall for a shooting guard, has that stroke that will keep him on the floor when he's on and he's someone to develop rather than discard. Besides, he's a Big Ten veteran now, no longer a wide-eyed rookie just called up to the bigs.

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