Inside The Huskies

Huskies Are Getting Big Scorer and Winner in Wesley Yates

The Texas guard finished with a 137-8 record at his Beaumont high school.

Dan Raley

In this story:

The last time the University of Washington made a basketball coaching change, it blew up potentially the best recruiting class program history, with Michael Porter Jr. and other gilded players backing away once Lorenzo Romar was fired.

Had the Huskies parted ways with Mike Hopkins, it's highly likely that Top 50 guard Wesley Yates III from Beaumont United High School in Beaumont, Texas, never would made it to Montlake. 

After all, his cousin is Hopkins' assistant coach Quincy Pondexter, who proved instrumental in getting this 4-star prospect to consider playing in this faraway Pac-12 outpost. A trust factor exists.

"I feel like all the pros that those group of coaches have worked with that they will develop me into a pro," Yates told On3 after pledging to the Huskies.

So what is the UW basketball program getting in this solidly built 6-foot-4, 210-pound backcourtman from southeast Texas.

Scorer. Shooter. Winner.

Yates just concluded his high school career with a runner-up finish in the 6A state tournament, this after Beaumont United captured a pair of 5A championships before moving up to the highest level.

His Timberwolves (36-2) made it all the way to the title game again, only to lose to Lake Highlands from Dallas 55-44 in the Alamodome in San Antonio.

For the winners, Tre Johnson, a 6-foot-5 junior considering Kentucky, Baylor and Texas, scored 29 points and was named MVP while his team finished 34-3 with a 24-game winning streak.

Yates, in trying to penetrate a huge opposing front line, tossed in 21 points.

There was no reason at all for this future Husky to hang his head.

He finished with a 137-8 record at Beaumont United while scoring more than 2,000 points in his career.

With a well-rounded game, Yates finished at 19.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.6 steals per game as a senior. In his time at Beaumont United, he averaged 19.8, 19.7, 14.5 and 5.5 over four seasons on the varsity. 

He'll come to the UW as a prolific scorer with deep range, with the Huskies badly in need of an accurate 3-pointer shooter. 

Considered the nation's No. 48 player by ESPN, Yates chose the Huskies from a final nine that included Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Gonzaga, Houston, LSU, Stanford and Texas. 

His family connection notwithstanding to Pondexter, a former UW and NBA player, the school's other pros played a big part in getting him to consider coming to the Northwest.

"When I first thought about Washington, it was definitely Isaiah Thomas," he said. 

Yates will team with players such as Keyon Menifield and Koren Johnson, trying to become an unforgettable Husky, as well. 

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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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