Inside The Huskies

As Season Winds Down, Brooks Hasn't Decided Whether to Return to UW

The Kentucky transfer has another college year to play if he wants it.

Dan Raley

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Twenty-nine games into it, Keion Brooks Jr. is having an All-Pac-12 season for the University of Washington, averaging 17.7 points per game, which trails only Arizona's Azuolas Tubelis' 19.4.

He didn't say this out loud, but likely the main reason Brooks left blue-blood Kentucky for the perennial second-division Huskies was the opportunity to be the main guy instead of just one of the guys.

Clearly the 6-foot-7 forward from Fort Wayne, Indiana, has accomplished that as he comes off his sixth double-double performance, supplying 24 points and 11 rebounds in Thursday night's 65-56 victory over woeful California.

Down to a pair of regular-season games at Stanford (11-17 overall, 5-12 Pac-12) on Sunday afternoon and WSU in Seattle next Thursday night and whatever the postseason might bring, this UW team (16-13, 8-10) might be facing a coaching change with yet another near break-even season playing out.

The second-biggest question surrounding these Huskies is this: Will Brooks return for another season?

Of course, his decision likely depends heavily on what the school does with Mike Hopkins, now coaching in his sixth year and without an NCAA tournament berth since the 2018-19 season.

Asked about his own pending basketball decision two weeks ago, Brooks said he would make up his mind following the season.

While Brooks possesses a lot of skills, a few things would seem to suggest he needs another college campaign. As a mid-sized player, he still has to develop a credible 3-point shot — he's hitting just 28.6 percent behind the line for the Huskies — or he can expect a basketball lifetime in the NBA G League.

Brooks also needs to show he can be more focused over longer stretches. He tends to zone out. In a short sequence against California, he had the ball taken from him off the dribble no less than three times simply because he wasn't paying much attention to his opponent.

If he returns to the UW, Brooks will have two big men to play alongside in the improving 7-foot-1 Braxton Meah and the rehabilitating 6-foot-11 Franck Kepnang, now out for the season with a surgically repaired knee. He'll also have the high-energy freshman guards Keyon Menifield and Koren Johnson to help liven things up, another strong reason for coming back.

Yet if he says enough is enough to Montlake, Brooks likely will disappear into the G League much like former Husky guards Terrell Brown and Quade Green, the latter yet another Kentucky transfer.

A lot can happen in the weeks ahead, but a Brooks' return might give the UW a sense it's finally making some progress.

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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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