UW Still Waiting To Unveil Desmond Claude

On Sunday night, the University of Washington basketball team plays at Baylor in a game televised nationally by ESPN and it's all hands on deck for the Huskies in this one.

Going in, however, it remains unclear whether USC transfer Desmond Claude will be cleared to play and make his UW debut after missing the first two games with a badly sprained ankle.

"I hope so," Husky coach Danny Sprinkle said before leaving Seattle. "He still hasn't practiced yet. I know he's been trying to move around a little bit on it. He still had a little bit of swelling on it."

The 6-foot-6 Claude joined Sprinkle's team after averaging 15.8 points per game for the Trojans last season, ranking 12th among all Big Ten scorers. He had games of 20 and 25 points against the Huskies. He was a season-long 48.2 percent shooter. He's clearly an impact player.

The senior is the kind of guy the UW needs in a high-profile game such as this, but he rolled his ankle nearly a month ago in practice and it hasn't readily responded to treatment.

"It's kind of crazy because it's been three and half weeks," Sprinkle said following Thursday's 84-70 victory over Denver. "We have X-rays and an MRI and there's nothing wrong, but we've still got to get that swelling out of it."

Desmond Claude meets with the media that cover UW. | Dan Raley

The Huskies so far have used a startling lineup of forwards Hannes Steinbach and Bryson Tucker, center Franck Kepnang, and guards Wesley Yates III and JJ Mandaquit in their first two games, and turned to nine players overall.

Seven of them scored in double figures against Denver, so there's plenty of firepower available, but Sprinkle would welcome having all of his big guns ready to go for a game such as this one against Baylor with the nation watching.

While Kepnang opened against Denver, the 6-foot-11 senior received just 12 minutes of game time, took 2 shots and scored only 2 points. His coach said it was just a situational decision and nothing to do with his health.

"It's the way they played," Sprinkle said of the opponent's decidedly smaller lineup. "It's hard to play a big in a game like that played with a four-guard lineup."

Which makes Claude's eventual return even more necessary for the Huskies, just to be able to properly respond to all kinds of opposing lineups, big or small.

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