Devenir Duruisseau Leaves UW Men’s Basketball Team

Coach Mike Hopkins announced on Wednesday that Junior PF Devenir Duruisseau will be leaving the program. The move isn’t a complete shock given that he has yet to appear in a game so far. He played about 45 seconds at the end of the 1st half of the exhibition game against Saint Martin’s when Dickerson and Timmins were both in foul trouble but that’s it. That means he should be eligible wherever he decides to transfer. This will count as his redshirt season.

This move can be looked at through the lens of this year and next year. We’ll start with this year.

I wrote in my player preview before the year that Duruisseau essentially played one good game, his first career game against Texas in China, and otherwise hasn’t done much in his first two years. He was probably the least heralded member of the 2016 class including current juniors David Crisp, Matisse Thybulle, and Noah Dickerson. It’s no surprise he didn’t develop a role on this team.

But he was at the very least a big body who could potentially soak up minutes without being completely dominated on the boards should Dickerson/Timmins/Wright all end up in foul trouble. That option is no longer available to coach Hop. A thin frontcourt just got even thinner. In games against Arizona or UCLA who have multiple 7-footers there’s a chance that UW will have to finish the game with Carlos Johnson or Nahziah Carter at center because all the bigs have fouled out.

As most readers will know, in order to make way for the players already signed for the 2018 class it was necessary for 2 players to transfer at the end of the year. The two most obvious candidates were Duruisseau and Bitumba Baruti who also has yet to appear in a game. The fact that Baruti didn’t see the court in the midst of a blow out last week against Virginia Tech (where you normally might see the bench empty) means it’s possible we see a similar move from him in the future. The longer he doesn’t appear in a game, the higher the chances he redshirts in order to be immediately eligible following a transfer next year. Now that Duruisseau is moving on there still needs to be one more defection from the program via transfer or going pro. If Bryan Penn-Johnson, J’Raan Brooks, or Ed Chang end up signing in the Spring it would require an additional move.

You have to respect Duruisseau for deciding to put all his focus on academics for the next 6 months rather than sitting on the bench knowing he wasn’t going to play. We wish Devenir all the best in his future endeavors and he’ll have a degree from a wonderful university to aid him.

UW MBB Scholarship Chart (updated)