Huskies Add Forward Emmitt Matthews from West Virginia — and Tacoma
The wheeling and dealing of University of Washington basketball players has a decided Southern theme to it.
In a week's time, the Huskies have supplied players to Virginia Commonwealth and South Carolina while getting one in return from West Virginia, though the new acquisition has a Northwest connection.
On Sunday, 6-foot-7, 215-pound senior forward Emmitt Matthews — who played as a standout schoolboy for Tacoma's Wilson High School — announced on social media that he would leave the Mountaineers for the Huskies,
Matthews was a three-year starter for Bob Huggins, pulling opening assignments in 67 of 92 games. This past season, he averaged 7.7 points and 4 rebounds per game for a 19-10 team that made it to the NCAA tournament.
In his final West Virginia outing, he had 14 points and 7 rebounds in a 75-72 loss to Syracuse in the tourney.
As the Huskies restock the roster, Matthews joins Arizona guard Terrell Brown, who is originally from Seattle, and forward Samuel Ariyibi from Africa as the first of several replacement parts that will be brought in to fill the void left by six UW players who entered transfer portal.
A left-hander, Matthews originally committed in 2017 to play for Connecticut, but he asked for and received his release once coach Kevin Ollie, a former Seattle Sonic guard, was fired.
Matthews has been a modest scorer for the Big 12 team, averaging 5.3, 6.3 and 7.7 points per game in his three seasons.
He had his biggest games as a freshman, coming up 28 points and 8 rebounds against Texas Tech and 21 points and 8 rebounds against Coastal Carolina.
As a sophomore, he scored 13 points in a game against Wichita State and guard Erik Stevenson, with the latter, of course, playing one year for the UW before recently moving to South Carolina.
On Friday, former Husky guard Marcus Tsohonis disclosed he will play for Virginia Commonwealth.
While a smooth player, Matthews suffered through a season-long shooting slump from long range. He hit 40.6 percent of all of his shots, but just 30 percent from behind the arc.
He'll have two seasons to play and improve that jumper for the UW if he chooses.
