Scott Suggs to redshirt

NEW YORK CITY - It was hoped that senior guard Scott Suggs would play Saturday versus Duke at Madison Square Garden; now Suggs won't play at all this year. The 6-foot-6 Suggs, who was Washington's best three-point shooter last year, will redshirt this season after having surgery in October to repair a fracture in his foot.

"Scott Suggs has decided to redshirt as opposed to coming back his senior year," Washington Head Coach Lorenzo Romar said Friday. Suggs joins true freshmen Andrew Andrews and Jernard Jarreau on the bench this year, as they are also redshirting.

Romar said that Scott's decision was only partially due to his health. "He's missed seven games and he's practiced the last two days," Romar said of Suggs. "He's fully recovered, his foot has healed, he's totally fine, he has zero pain -- he's pain-free."

But at the same time, Suggs didn't want to return, play a couple more games, and then potentially miss the rest of the season if he ended up re-injuring the surgically-repaired foot.

"By the time he gets back to where his timing is on and he's knocked the rust off from sitting out, that may not be until the beginning of conference," Romar added. "He would love to help our team. He would love to come back. It's hard for him to sit out and watch his teammates. But this being his senior year, he didn't want to play a half or three-quarters of the season his last go-round here at the University of Washington; he wanted to contribute for an entire year. Therefore, he decided that's what he was going to do."

Suggs will continue to patrol the bench and act as one of the team's tri-captains with Abdul Gaddy and Darnell Gant. As a junior, Suggs shot 45 percent from three-point range, best on the team, and was part of Washington's 'Three Amigos' with Terrence Ross and C.J. Wilcox, giving the Huskies one of the best three-point shooting groups in the country.

I think in the big picture, with Scott Suggs in the long run, I think it was a great decision on his part," said Romar.