Utah basketball won’t have the services of Wilguens Jr. Exacte this season.
Head coach Craig Smith confirmed Tuesday that the sophomore guard — who has yet to play because of injury — will redshirt the 2023-24 season.
“Wil is actually going to have a procedure this week,” Smith said. “He met with the doctors and (team head athletics trainer) Trevor (Jameson) last week. At this point in the season, even if he would get cleared — now he’s going to go through the procedure. He’s going to redshirt this year. He’ll be out for the season.”
Exacte was expected to be a key part of Utah’s rotation heading into his second year at the school.
He missed the Runnin’ Utes opener with an injury, then suffered another undisclosed injury soon thereafter, which has prevented Exacte from playing any minutes. Now he’ll get a jumpstart on the recovery process to get ready for next year.
Exacte was coming off a promising freshman season in 2022-23 where he played in all 32 games, starting two, and was on the court for just under 12 minutes per game while averaging 3.6 points and 1.3 rebounds for the Runnin’ Utes.
He, along with sophomore center Keba Keita, were seen as key rotational pieces that brought youth and athleticism to the Utes’ lineup.
Keita has flourished when healthy in his second season, though he was hurt early in last Saturday’s loss at Arizona. He missed the remainder of the game and it’s unclear whether Keita will play Thursday against UCLA.
Exacte’s absence has been softened a bit by two-time transfer Deivon Smith recently becoming eligible. Smith has played in each of Utah’s past six games, averaging 20.2 minutes, 6.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.