Inside The Huskies

Menifield Announces Departure from UW Basketball Team

He becomes the sixth player to exit since the season ended.

Dan Raley

In this story:

Keyon Menifield last week said he was returning to the University of Washington basketball team. 

However, the exciting young guard changed his mind and on Tuesday confirmed that he is, indeed, entering the transfer portal.

Menifield's departure is a huge blow to Mike Hopkins' teetering program, one already in rampant and uncomfortable transition.

The 6-foot-1 freshman guard from Flint, Michigan, becomes the sixth scholarship player to exit since the season ended with a first-round loss in the Pac-12 Tournament. 

For sure, the Big Ten schools in his home state such as Michigan and Michigan State would probably love to have him.

With Menifield headed out the door, the UW has had an incredible 14 scholarship players transfer over the past three seasons, with Hopkins also losing six guys following the 2020-21 campaign that ended 5-21. So much for player development.

 

The UW discovered Menifield the summer before last in an AAU tournament and was the only school of significance to offer him a scholarship and brought him west.

Hopkins used the first-year guard in all 32 games and started him 21 times.

Extraordinarily quick, Menifield repaid the Huskies by averaging 10 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3 assists per game while being named to the All-Pac-12 Freshman Team.

He was a fan favorite and one of the few bright spots in a dreary 16-16 season.

The UW next announced it was bringing back Hopkins, even after four fairly unproductive years that have failed to produce a postseason appearance.

One by one, players have left or were encouraged to leave the Huskies in forwards Cole Bajama, Langston Wilson, Jackson Grant and Tyler Linhardt, plus guard PJ Fuller and now Menifield.

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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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