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Inside The Huskies

Would Ex-Husky Koren Johnson Consider Coming Back?

The playmaker lasted just two games at Louisville before suffering season-ending shoulder injury.
Dan Raley|
Then Huskies guard Koren Johnson (0) goes for a lay-in against USC in 2024.
Then Huskies guard Koren Johnson (0) goes for a lay-in against USC in 2024. | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

The University of Washington basketball team badly needs a point guard. Koren Johnson is looking for a new place to land.

Why not?

Formerly the Pac-12 Sixth Man of the year, Johnson exited the UW 12 months ago, just as soon as the fired Mike Hopkins coached his last game, and the playmaker was snapped up by Louisville.

He lasted just two games in the Bluegrass state before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury and on Friday he announced his intentions to enter the transfer portal.

Home might look pretty good to him right now.

To refresh his back story, the 6-foot-2 Seattle product played two seasons for the Huskies and seemed to get better as he went.

A year ago, the 6-foot-2 Johnson averaged 10.9 points per game while starting 5 of 31 games for the Huskies. He got loose for a career-best 30 points against Stanford and scored 21 and 23 points in two of his final three outings against USC and Washington State.

Just as important, he showed the ability to move the ball around, picking up a career-high 7 assists against Colorado and Arizona State.

He began the season as a starting guard and ended it that way, while largely coming off the bench for Hopkins, who often tended to use his personnel in strange ways.

At Louisville, Johnson came off the bench for two games and was injured in a 77-55 blowout loss to Tennessee at home.

All he could do was sit and watch as the Cardinals went 27-8 and advance to the NCAA Tournament before losing in the opening round to Creighton 89-75 and going home.

Home might not be such a bad idea for Johnson.

To get the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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