Inside The Huskies

UW's Fuller Reportedly Joining Grant, Wilson in Transfer Portal

The number supposedly has reached three in terms of departing Huskies.

Dan Raley

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Normally when a college basketball coach is retained, this sort of move lends to some program stability. That hasn't been the case for Mike Hopkins, who reportedly will have three players head to the transfer portal as he tries to rebuild his team.

On Wednesday, multiple news outlets reported that 6-foot-4 senior guard PJ Fuller will leave the Huskies, this news coming on the heels of 6-foot-10 sophomore forward Jackson Grant and 6-foot-9 junior forward Langston Wilson declaring they transferring, as well.

However, it's quite possible Hopkins, in needing to show progress in order to keep his job, informed these three players their playing time would be limited or non-existent moving forward and forced their hand.

Each of them saw a significant decrease in games played this past season that ended with the Huskies finishing 16-16 and getting eliminated in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament.

A Seattle product who spent two seasons at TCU, Fuller appeared in 26 Husky contests this season, starting 17, but he gradually lost his starting job and minutes to freshmen guards Keyon Menifield and Koren Johnson. He played in 32 outings the year before.

Fuller wasn't available in the UW's final four games, citing personal reasons. His scoring average dipped from 7.4 to 6.2 in a year's time. He just didn't fit in the rotation anymore.

A one-time McDonald's All-American from Olympia, Washington, Grant went from 25 games played last year to just 14 this past season. He was supposed to redshirt but made himself available when fellow big man Franck Kepnang suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Either way, Grant never seemed comfortable at the UW, especially offensively, and may have to drop down a level of college basketball to flourish.

The same goes for Wilson, who dipped from 28 games to just 18 this past season, and struggled offensively as a Pac-12 player, as well.

While Fuller was a steady contributor in his first season in Montlake before tailing off, Grant and Wilson unfortunately for the UW will go down as Hopkins recruiting mistakes.

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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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