Austin Seferian-Jenkins Won’t Play Basketball This Year

Bad news for Huskies basketball fans, and good news for Huskies football fans, who if you’re not the same people then you’re a jerk, but either way Austin Seferian-Jenkins isn’t going to play basketball this year.

For the football fan this is good news. Despite a statistically productive season, Seferian-Jenkins disappeared for stretches of the 2012 season. There are many reasons why Keith Price was much worse this year than last. Of course, one of the main reasons was his own decision making, but that ASJ was nursing an ankle injury through much of the season couldn’t have helped.

Heading into what may be his last season at Washington, Seferian-Jenkins has a chance to be a first round pick in the NFL at tight end. Playing basketball has been on the resume of such tight ends as Jimmy Graham, Antonio Gates, and Tony Gonzalez, and while it is on his resume technically, it may have done more harm than good.

For the basketball team this isn’t a huge loss. Seferian-Jenkins isn’t substantially better than Shawn Kemp, Jr., and the team is truly in need of an additional perimeter scorer at this point.

At 6’6”, Seferian-Jenkins doesn’t have the height to play power forward in the NBA, and though he’s an athletic mismatch in football, he’s probably doesn’t possess the kind of athleticism necessary to play the three or four at the NBA level. None of this is to say that Seferian-Jenkins had eyes on playing in the NBA, but rather to illuminate the magnitude of his better professional option compared to the risk of playing basketball.

You’re welcome for not using the term “hoop dreams” during this post. I think that term is really annoying.