Inside The Huskies

Wesley Yates III Was In Top Form Against Northwestern

In his second stint at the UW, he's had to battle multiple injuries.
Dan Raley|
Wesley Yates III drives against Oregon.
Wesley Yates III drives against Oregon. | Dave Sizer photo

Wesley Yates III spent the 2023-24 season in Seattle practicing with the University of Washington basketball team but never playing in a game while dealing with a couple of foot injuries.

He almost seemed destined to have something similar happen to him again this season. In December, he broke the wrist on his shooting hand, missed a lot of time and spent all of January trying to recuperate.

Finally on Saturday, the game-changing and complete version of the 6-foot-4 Yates, still just a sophomore after spending last year at USC, fully emerged at Northwestern -- and it was a sight to behold in the Huskies' 76-62 victory.

Working his way around the perimeter, he scored 15 of his 21 points in the opening half to give the UW a 12-point lead at the break.

Huskies guard Wesley Yates III (9) and Northwestern forward Nick Martinelli (2) tangle in Evanston, Ill.
Huskies guard Wesley Yates III (9) and Northwestern forward Nick Martinelli (2) tangle in Evanston, Ill. | David Banks-Imagn Images

Yates also showed up on defense, continually getting in Nick Martinelli's way and holding the nation's leading scorer at 24 points per game to just 6 at halftime.

"He's been banged up all year and he's just now coming back and getting his legs," UW coach Danny Sprinkle said of Yates. "That's just who he is."

For three games, Yates has shown himself to be a most accurate long-range shooter, collectively hitting 11 of 17 3-pointers, including 5 of 8 against Northwestern.

This is a guy who when the season began showed up on multiple NBA mock drafts. He had a stretch of games early on where he scored 26, 23 and 25 in consecutive outings.

Yet he broke his wrist on December 19 at Climate Pledge Arena against Seattle University and it was hardly a Merry Christmas for the Beaumont, Texas, product. He had surgery and Sprinkle even suggested Yates might be lost for the rest of the season.

He came back only to sprain an ankle and miss more time.

"I feel mentally it's tough more than physclally knowing you're not going to get it all back in one day," Yates said.

It was just over the past week, beginning with the Oregon game last Sunday, that the guard has looked like the player the Huskies had hoped to have all along.

Wesley Yates III fires up a shot against UCLA.
Wesley Yates III fires up a shot against UCLA. | Dave Sizer photo

Against Northwestern, he made the 6-foot-7 Martinelli uncomfortable in getting his shot off and was the main reason the other guy was held under 20 points for the first time in 13 games.

"The coaches trusted me to take that matchup and I was all in for it," Yates said.

The Huskies (12-10 overall, 4-7 conference) are down to nine regular-season games and the Big Ten Tournament, hoping to finish strong and keep going with an NCAA or NIT berth.

With Yates at full strength or near capacity, it might seem that anything goes.

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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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