Inside The Huskies

Huskies Still Have Chance at Landing Second Big Man

Fardaws Aimaq will announce his transfer decision on Friday.

Dan Raley

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Fardaws Aimaq, a big man in the transfer portal who could significantly elevate University of Washington basketball fortunes, will choose his final destination on Friday.

Depending on who's plugged in on the decision process, the 6-foot-11, 245-pound Canadian from Vancouver, B.C., will pick from among Texas, Texas Tech and the UW — or from only Tech and the Huskies. He promised a public decision by 11 a.m.

Either way, Gonzaga and Iowa are either no longer in consideration or not pursuing him.

Aimaq, who previously played for Utah State and Mercer, would give the Huskies a set of twin towers, or a couple of very physical frontline players.

On Wednesday, Mike Hopkins' coaching staff signed former Oregon post player Franck Kepnang, a 6-foot-11, 250-pound inside presence from Cameroon who spent a season and a half with the Ducks. 

The UW hasn't had a pair of proven big men since Bob Bender paired his own set of international seven-footers in Todd MacCulloch, another Canadian, and Patrick Femerling, from Germany, on a 1998 NCAA tournament team.

The Huskies, in landing Kepnang and pursuing Aimaq, were able to play against both big guys this past season, leaving little room for error in adding players who don't pan out.

Aimaq is the real prize here. Four days before this past Christmas, Aimaq supplied 15 points and 15 rebounds while leading the Utah Valley Wolverines, a Western Athletic Conference entry, to a lopsided 68-52 victory over the Huskies at Alaska Airlines Arena.

A third-year sophomore, Aimaq averaged 19 points and 14 rebounds an outing for a 20-12 team, repeated as a first-team All-WAC selection, earned WAC Defensive Player of the Year honors for a second time and was the 2021 WAC Player of the Year.

The year before for Utah Valley, he led the nation in rebounding at 15 per game, becoming the first collegian in 40 years to average that many.

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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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