Washington releases first view of new basketball court

The Washington Huskies have made some pretty big changes to their basketball court this offseason, the school revealed in a Twitter post on Thursday evening. The Huskies took the outline of the Seattle skyline off the floor and really just simplified the look of the court. It’s a much cleaner version.

Check it out below.

New look to the 🏀 court in Alaska Airlines Arena 👀#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/qnNI3OYT6F

— Washington Athletics (@UWAthletics) May 18, 2023

The old version of the floor had a stained outline of the skyline of Seattle on the bottom of it. The hardwood inside the three-point lines were also shaded a bit darker. If you need to see a picture of the old floor, here’s a decent picture here. They really just made the floor a lighter shade. It makes the floor look a bit cleaner.

This season, Washington finished with an overall record of 16-16 and 8-12 in the Pac-12 Conference. One of their biggest wins of the season came against the St. Mary’s Gaels. Washington defeated them 68-64 in overtime on Thursday, Nov. 24. They also hung tough with No. 5 Arizona on the road, dropping that one by 3, 70-67.

Keion Brooks, Jr. was the leading scorer this season for the Huskies. He averaged 17.7 points per game and he ranked second on the team in rebounding (6.7 points per game). Brooks earned All-Pac-12 honors his senior year. In April, he announced he would return to Washington for a super senior season.

Before joining Washington for the 2022-2023 season, Brooks spent three seasons in Lexington with the Kentucky Wildcats. There he racked up 660 total points and 352 total rebounds for the Wildcats. As a junior, he started in all 33 games for Kentucky. In the season-finale of his freshman season at UK, Brooks erupted for 27-points against No. 5 Kansas.

Luckily for Brooks, he’ll have another former Kentucky Wildcat join him next season at Washington. Former UK guard Sahvir Wheeler hit the transfer portal this offseason and will play for the Huskies next year. When healthy, Wheeler has proven to be one of the best passers in all of college basketball.

He averaged six assists per game during his time with the Georgia Bulldogs and he even had one year with the Wildcats where he averaged 6.9 assists per game. At one point with Georgia (2020-2021 season), he even led the SEC in assists per game (7.4).

The duo should make for an interesting reunion at Washington. They’ll be joined by four-star shooting guard Wesley Yates, the most highly rated member of the Huskies’ 2023 recruiting class. He’s ranked as the No. 48 overall player in the nation, according to the On3 Industry Rankings.