Mason is a Man of Many Talents for the Husky Backcourt

The Rice transfer is the tallest among a large group of long UW guards.

Mekhi Mason (2) drives to the basket as Houston Cougars forward Joseph Tugler (25) tries to get in his way. / Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Danny Sprinkle seems to have a preference for the big guard. Of the half-dozen backcourt players he's lined up for the University of Washington basketball team since taking over as coach, four stand 6-foot-4 or taller.

Mekhi Mason, at 6-foot-5 and 195 pounds, is the longest and leanest yet, coming from Rice to the totally renovated Husky guard corps.

A 14-point scorer for his Texas team to go with a multitude of skills, Mason brings all sorts of possibilities to Sprinkle's urgent push to improve UW basketball as quickly as possible.

"He is a tremendously athletic guard who can impact the game in multiple ways," Sprinkle said after getting this guy's signature on a letter of intent, the first of 13 new additions to commit to him.

Originally from Gilbert, Arizona, Mason started all 77 games he played for the 11-21 Owls. He topped out with a career-high 30 points against UTSA, connecting on 11 of 19 shots in that outing, also career highs.

He scored in double figures in 23 of those 32 outings. He could be a lttle scziophrenic as a long-range shooter, missing all seven of his 3-point attempts against UT Martin while draining all four of his shots from behind the line against UAB.

As a freshman, he had three games of 4 steals each. Last season, he had 3 blocks in a game against Prairie View. He grabbed 7 rebounds in outings against South Florida and Tulsa. He dished out 7 assists against Harvard and Tulsa. All were career highs.

A multi-service guard of this sort has, indeed, been a rarity in Montlake, which Sprinkle apparently recognizes.

"His potential is limitless," the new coach said, "as he is still very young for his age and I can see him making a huge jump."

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