Inside The Huskies

Kepnang Confirms His Husky Basketball Return

The big man comes off a pair of season-ending knee injuries at the UW.

Dan Raley

Franck Kepnang often presents a menacing defensive figure for the UW.
Franck Kepnang often presents a menacing defensive figure for the UW. / Stephen Bisig/USA TODAY Sports

One of the objectives for Danny Sprinkle as the new University of Washington basketbal coach will be to have Franck Kepnang healthy and playing past December this coming winter.

A season-ending knee injury for the 6-foot-11 big man before Christmas in each of the past two years effectively ruined all sorts of possibilities for Husky teams that finished 16-16 and 17-15 under the fired Mike Hopkins.

On Monday, Kepnang posted a 1-minute, 13-second video on social media confirming he'll be one of the few holdover players to return for Sprinkle, who, while conducting a near complete team teardown, would be crazy not to embrace this big man.

"I'm locked in," Kepnang wrote, introducing a video highlight clip of himself.

Two seasons ago, the Huskies were 6-1 when they went into Corvallis, Oregon, and Kepnang suffered a torn anterior cruciate knee ligament in the first half of a 66-65 loss to Oregon State.

This past season, the UW was 6-3 entering a game at Seattle U when the center from Cameroon went down with another knee issue in an outing the Huskies would win 100-99 in double overtime.

In his last full UW game on Dec. 9, Kepnang was sensational with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks in a 78-73 upset of then No. 7-ranked Gonzaga at Alaska Airlines Arena, demonstrating the game-changing ability he has.

In two seasons at Washington, after spending two at Oregon, Kepnang has appeared in just 18 games while starting eight times. He's averaged 9 points and 6.3 rebounds in 2023, and 8.3 points and 5.9 rebounds this past season.

As it currently stands, Kepnang is one of just four scholarship Huskies set to return with the new coaching staff, joined by 6-foot-10 part-time starter Wilhelm Breidenbach, 6-foot-8 redshirt forward Christian King and oft-injured 6-foot-8 forward Samuel Ariyibi.

For the latest UW basketball and football 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.