How Huskies Hope To Solve Outside Shooting Woes

Parker Friedrichsen was brought to Montlake to shoot 3-pointers, something the University of Washington basketball team has not considered one of its strong suits for several seasons now.

Clank, clank, clank.

So how much of a shooting specialist is this Friedrichsen?

Consider that in his first college season for Wake Forest, he took 149 shots and made 59 of them -- with all but 12 attempts coming from behind the 3-point line and all but nine buckets worth three points.

"What you can see from me this year is a guy who plays really hard, someone who wants to win and someone who just knocks down a lot of shots," Friedrichsen said in a recent UW video moment. "I just play with a high level of confidence."

There's no mystery in the fact his favorite NBA player is long-range shooter deluxe Steph Curry, which was reinforced by his transfer to Davidson, Curry's school, last year from Wake Forest and the ACC.

"I have a little bit of a relationship with him going to his camp," Friedrichsenn said. "Of course, i spent my last year at Davidson. I've been following him a long time. I think he's one of the greats."

Learned from one of the best to ever shoot the basketball 🪣

Get to know @5parker5! pic.twitter.com/g1MgW6aAKz
— Washington Men's Basketball (@UW_MBB) July 23, 2026

The 6-foot-4 Friedrichsen has more recent numbers since his freshman year that seem to suggest he hasn't cooled off any when firing from long range.

At Davidson this past season, he connected on .420 percent of his shots (118 of 281) from the floor and .405 (68 of 168) from 3-point range.

Here's hoping he doesn't fall into the same marksmanship quandry that new teammate Wesley Yates III did for Danny Sprinkle's team.

Wesley Yates III fires up a shot against UCLA. | Dave Sizer photo

The 6-foot-4 Yates went from shooting .478 overall (164 of 343) and .439 behind the line (54 of123) for USC as a redshirt freshman in 2025 to transferring back to the Huskies, hurting his hand and tailing off to .371 overall (115 of 310) and .312 from 3-point range (53 of 170).

It was a nightmarish slide for Yates, who was injured in December, came back a month later to play again and struggled mightily at the end of the season.

Yates and Friedrichsen will be the primary 3-point shooters, joined by Ryan Beasley from San Francisco, Harun Zrko from Rutger and former Australian pro player Tristan Devers, plus holdover redshirt freshman Jasir Rencher in the guard competition.

Ryan Beasley (0) shoots the basketball against the Washington State Cougars last season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Beasley shot .407 percent overall (129 of 317) and .327 behind the line (49 of 150) last season for his WCC team.

The 6-foot-7 Zrno was a bit lukewarm at times in shooting .356 percent overall (69 of 194) and .338 from behind the line (52 of 154) in 2026 for his Big Ten team in New Jersey.

In his Australian pro league last season, the 6-foot-4 Devers wasn't an overly aggressive shooter, hitting on .410 percent of his overall attempts (48 of 117) and .340 behind the line (18 of 53), with a high game of 15.

The 6-foot-5 Rencher had his freshman season last winter limited to eight games after experiencing an accelerated heartbeat and he took just 12 shots and made 6 while sinking 1 of 5 from 3-point range.

Of these six backcourt shooters, Yates is the most likely to score in big bunches.

At USC and UW, he's turned in a dozen games of 20 points or more, with a career best of 30 coming against Purdue in 2025. Firing away at the Boilermakers, he made 11 of 22 shots from the floor, 2 of 6 behind the line.

He has a high game of 26 points for the UW coming last winter against Washington State, when he hit 9 of 16 shots overall, 4 for 10 behind the line.

Beasley came up with nine games of 20 points or more over his three seasons with USF, with the 5-foot-11 senior going for 32 and 30 points last season, both against Loyola Marymount.

He shot 4 for 10 behind the line in reaching his career high. In the 30-point game, he went just 1 of 3 from 3-point range, picking up most of his points at the foul line -- making 21 of 24 free throws.

Parker Friedrichsen (5) looks to make a move against Saint Louis. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Friedrichsen has just two games of 20 points or more, coming up with 27 against Loyola Chicago and 21 against Dayton, both last season. He hit 8 of 11 shots, and 6 of 8 threes, against the Illinois team. Against Dayton, he was good on 7 of 12 shots from the field, 5 for 6 behind the line.

For Beasley and Friedrichsen's purposes, it looks like the Huskies should try to schedule as many different Loyola teams as they can find because big point totals result.

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