In his 11th minute of the 11th game last season, Wesley Yates III had the worst thing imaginable happen to him at Climate Pledge Arena as a shooting guard for the University of Washington basketball team.
Against Seattle University across town, he broke his right wrist, the one that launches the ball for him with sort of a hitch move that's been effective.
Yates missed six games. Amazingly, he returned to action a month later, but he then missed a lot of shots, more than usual.
With a new season fast approaching, the 6-foot-4 backcourtman from Beaumont, Texas, still hasn't found the rhythm and accuracy he once possessed, but he plays on.
"At the end of the day, I've got to figure it out," Yates said this week as he sat and cradled a basketball with both hands. " I've got to get through it like another injury. If I'm out there, I have to produce. It's making plays and scoring. I feel that's what makes players elite -- is being able to play through injuries."
Yates is the lone returning starter from a 16-17 Husky team, but he isn't necessarily a first-teamer again just now.
When the UW played an exhibition game at Boise State, he came off the bench in the 109-91 loss on Saturday night and scored 11 points on 3-for-9 shooting.
The cold, hard facts are this: when he suffered the fracture, Yates was leading the Huskies in scoring with an 18.2 average.
He finished at 12.7, fourth best on the team.
The year before, Yates shot 47.8 percent overall and 43.9 from 3-point range for USC.
For the Huskies last season, his numbers tumbled to 37.1 and 31.2 percent.
"I'm still trying every day, every single day," he said. "I get up a lot of shots. I still feel pain. But it is what it is."
It's hard to say whether he's dealing with more mental or physical obstacles.
While he scored 21 points against Northwestern and UCLA after returning, he went through the shooting horror of a 1-for-17 outing, 1 for 8 behind the line, against Wisconsin.
In his final nine UW games, Yates connected on just 34 of 116 attempts, or 29.2 percent, and 14 of 66 3-pointers, or 21.2 percent. He had no touch.
"It was really hard to shoot," he admitted. "I actually did have a lot of pain. You just have to deal with it."
Yates has the unique experience of initially coming to the UW to play for coach Mike Hopkins, but missing the entire 2023-24 season with a foot injury, next transferring to USC after Hopkins was fired and returning to Montlake to play for Danny Sprinkle.
For the Trojans, he was a 14.1-point scorer who had a career-high 30 points against Purdue and scored more than any other freshman in Big Ten games only.
He could have left again, but he's determined to return to form for the Huskies and reclaim what he once had.
"I just wanted to stay here and prove myself more than anything, prove that I am who I say I am," Yates said.
Which is a shooter who, pain or no pain, can put the ball in the basket.
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