Washington’s men’s basketball team is heading toward its Oct. 25 exhibition against Washington State with plenty still up in the air, but one thing already looks settled: Wesley Yates III is in the starting five.
That’s the easiest call on a roster that features nine new players and only six returners from last season. Yates was the only consistent starter back from a year ago, and after dealing with injuries last season, the fourth-year shooting guard still finished as one of UW’s most important pieces. He averaged 12.7 points on 37.1% shooting from the floor and 31.2% from 3-point range across 27 games, while adding 3.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.3 assists.
The rest of the lineup is more of a projection than a certainty, but Washington’s likely backcourt starts with another transfer in Ryan Beasley at point guard. Beasley arrived from San Francisco after playing in 90 games there and making 35 starts.
Last season, he started all 31 games and averaged 13.6 points, four assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals while shooting 40.7% overall and 32.7% from deep. He has averaged more than a steal per game in each of his three seasons with the Dons.
On the wing, LeJuan Watts looks like the next piece. The fourth-year transfer spent time at Eastern Washington and Washington State before playing last season at Texas Tech.
The 6-foot-5, 225-pound forward put up 11.8 points, six rebounds and 2.4 assists per game while shooting 43.3% from the field and 32.1% on 3-pointers in 33 games, 28 of them starts. He also gives Washington a small-ball option at power forward.
The frontcourt gets even more interesting with Lathan Sommerville and Mady Traore. Sommerville’s first season in the Pacific Northwest was slowed by a knee injury, limiting him to 22 games and seven starts.
He averaged 4.3 points on 43.8% shooting and grabbed 2.6 rebounds per game. Traore, meanwhile, arrives as a fifth-year center who was highly regarded as a junior college recruit and was described by Danny Sprinkle last season as the team’s "most athletic player".
The 6-foot-11, 195-pound big man has barely had a clean run at the Division I level, with seven games at New Mexico State before that program was shut down, then 12 games at Maryland because of a knee injury. At Frank Phillips College in Texas last season, he averaged 13.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and shot 53.4% from the floor in 34 games.
Washington’s first player off the bench could be Steele Venters, whose path has been defined by injuries but whose role now fits neatly as a reserve wing. The former Big Sky Player of the Year at Eastern Washington got back on the court for Gonzaga last season after missing two straight years from 2023-25.
He averaged five points in 27 games, including 10 starts, while shooting 38.6% overall and 36.7% from 3. The 6-foot-7 wing profiles as a "3-and-D" option who can slide in for either Yates or Watts.
Beyond that, the Huskies have a deep bench group to sort through, including Wini Braga, Tayshawn Comer, Tristan Devers, Nikola Dzepina, Lattimore Ford, Parker Friedrichsen, Jasir Rencher, BJ Roy and Harun Zrno.
The roster turnover has been dramatic. Washington’s top two scorers from last season, Hannes Steinbach and Zoom Diallo, are both gone, and starting center Franck Kepnang also transferred to Kentucky.
Steinbach entered the 2026 NFL Draft and was selected by the Charlotte Hornets. Now the Huskies have to turn all that change into a functional starting five before the season begins.
In Other News...
Washington May Have Finally Found The Lead Back It Needed
The Huskies have spent much of the fall piecing together their backfield as injuries kept reshuffling the depth chart, but Brian Bonner Jr. has started to look like a back who can handle more of the load. The true freshman has moved into a bigger role, and against USC he showed why the staff keeps leaning on him, working as a steady option between the tackles and giving the offense a runner it could trust.
Bonner finished that game with 19 carries for 89 yards and also chipped in as a receiver on a short catch, a useful sign for a back trying to expand his workload. For the season, he has 215 rushing yards on 41 carries and is averaging 5.2 yards per attempt, numbers that matter even more with Jordan Washington, Quaid Carr, Jayden Limar and Julian McMahan all dealing with injuries in a thinned-out room. [Read more 🡒]
Washington Faces One Big Friday Chance Against Ranked Iowa
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The biggest question hanging over it now is Iowa quarterback Hank Brown, who is dealing with a mild shoulder or collarbone sprain but still has a chance to suit up. Brown has been a key part of what Iowa has done through the air this year, and his availability could shape how conservative or aggressive the Hawkeyes are in a game that figures to be low-scoring anyway. [Read more 🡒]
Minnesota Just Gave Fans A Reason To Believe Again
Washington had USC on the ropes in a game that felt like it could tilt either way, and the Huskies had one last chance to extend a promising showing. Instead, the finish slipped away in a tight 25-21 loss that left plenty to unpack, especially in a Big Ten Saturday that also saw Penn State and Michigan go down in stunners and reshaped the conference picture yet again.
For Washington, the result was another reminder that the margins in this league are razor thin, and the kind of game that can linger because it was there to be taken. USC needed a big defensive moment to grab control back, and the Trojans found it, but the Huskies are still left sorting through what it means to stay in the mix after a performance that was close enough to sting. [Read more 🡒]