UW Frosh Guard Combo Was Supposed to Happen 27 Years Ago

Keyon Menifield and Koren Johnson have brought a level of Husky excitement that was expected more than a quarter of a century ago.

Keyon Menifield and Koren Johnson are a pair of talented freshman guards for the University of Washington basketball team, young playmakers with a decided flair for the game, guys who seem to enjoy sharing the court together.

They're also a make-up call, a reprieve, for something previously proposed.

This premise of two exciting backcourt players joining the Huskies simultaneously and bonding in real time was supposed to happen 27 seasons ago when the Huskies had commitments in hand from Donald Watts Jr. and Jason Terry.

The ardent UW basketball follower knows how that daydream turned out.

At the last minute, Arizona and its high-profile coach Lute Olson came into the picture after these Seattle-area guards had gone on KING-TV together and pledged themselves to the UW, and he coaxed Terry into flipping to the Wildcats. 

Rather than side by side, Watts and Terry wound up playing against each other for four seasons in 1996-99 — and they split eight games. 

The 6-foot-4 Watts, the son of former Sonics point guard Slick Watts who hailed from suburban Kirkland, Washington, would average 3, 8.9, 16.9 and 13.1 points per game, become an All-Pac-10 honorable-mention selection and play for a pair of NCAA tournament teams.

Terry, a 6-foot-2 lefty from Seattle, averaged 3.1, 10.6, 10.6 and 21.9 ppg, was named Pac-10 Player of the Year and a first-team All-America choice in 1999, was part of Arizona's 1997 national championship team and spent 19 seasons in the NBA. 

Keyon Menifield has started 17 of 28 games as a freshman guard / Skylar Lin Visuals

Now here comes Menifield and Johnson making a solid Husky connection as the team (15-13 overall, 7-10 Pac-12) enters a 6 p.m. Thursday night tipoff against the woeful California Bears (3-24, 2-14) in Berkeley, with people eager to see what these first-year guards ultimately will become as veteran players.

The 6-foot-1 Menifield, who hails from Flint, Michigan, already has started 17 of 28 games and averages 9.9 points an outing while shooting 41.9 percent. Johnson, a 6-foot-2 Seattle native, has come off the bench in 25 outings and scores 6 points per game with 40.2 percent accuracy. 

Each has been singled out as a Pac-12 Freshman of the Week recipient, with Menifield so honored on Monday.

Koren Johnson, shown against Stanford, was Pac-12 Freshman of the Week back then / Skylar Lin Visuals

The challenge for the UW will be to try and keep these young players together as long as it can.

Yet in this day and age of the transfer portal and a transient nature to college basketball, who's to say somebody such as his home-state Michigan or Michigan State doesn't come in and try to whisk Menifield away. Clearly, he's one of the quickest if not most confident players anywhere in the nation. 

A coaching change, if that were to happen with sixth-year UW leader Mike Hopkins and his staff once the season ends, also could influence the outcome of this promising pairing. 

For now, the Huskies need to enjoy this freshmen combination as long as they can and hope that these two first-year players bring program stability down the line and return the UW to the NCAA tourney, which has eluded the school for three seasons.

It also gives everyone the basketball excitement that Watts and Terry once presented so many years ago but didn't deliver together as a dynamic duo.

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