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Inside The Huskies

Where Tristan Devers Fits In With UW Basketball

The Australian, freed up from his pro contract, is one of six Husky guards.
Dan Raley|
Tristan Devers drives on Parker Friedrichsen in UW practice.
Tristan Devers drives on Parker Friedrichsen in UW practice. | UW

While he might have joined the University of Washington basketball team a month ago, Tristan Devers received his contract release from the Brisbane Bullets only recently.

The Australian professional team wasn't going to stand in the way of the 6-foot-4 guard who has been part of the franchise for the past three seasons and is looking to Americanize his game.

So the obvious question with Devers is now what?

Since arriving in Montlake, he turned 21 on July 2 and he's had a brief chance to compare his veteran skills against the other backcourt players entrusted with remaking Danny Sprinkle's third UW basketball team into something better than it's been.

Much like the departed Hannes Steinbach and other players coming to the Huskies, he'll see how his skills translate from a country pro league to the Big Ten.

"This club has helped me grow on and off the court, and I'll always be thankful for the support I have received," Devers of the Brisbane franchise. "I will carry great memories and valuable lessons forward from my time at the Bullets.” 

He's gone from teenaged prospect, playing three seasons for something called the Nunawading Spectres, which led to national-team appearances in the FIBA U16 Asia Cup and FIBA U17 World Cup to someone who's still finding his way as a difference-maker as an adult.

He comes to the Huskies with modest basketball stats. This past season for Brisbane, Devers appeared in 29 games and averaged 4.9 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists while playing 16 minutes per game.

He shot 41 percent from the field. He scored a Bullets career-high 15 points in an October road game against Perth. He initially looks like a support piece.

When practice begins for real in October, Devers will join a backcourt competition headed up by Husky returnee Wesley Yates III, a 25-game starter last winter, and San Francisco transfer Ryan Beasley, a 31-game starter.

Those two would seem to be the logical favorites for first-team assignments coming in, with Devers among four players behind them seeking defined roles.

Others entering the competition are 6-foot-4 Davidson transfer Parker Friedrichsen, 6-foot-7 Rutgers transfer and Bosnian Harun Zrno, plus returning redshirt freshman Jaris Rencher.

Friedrichsen is a well-established 3-point shooter.

With his height, Zrno will be used as a mismatch.

The athletic Rencher plays defense and dunks, but he's coming back from a heart condition that limited him to eight games and he's still trying lock in a UW role.

Even though he's just a freshman, Devers will look to do a little of everything from providing a floor leader to shooting around the perimeter to offering a backcourt toughness the Huskies sometimes have been lacking.

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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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