Inside The Huskies

Huskies Reportedly Have Been Talking to Mountain West's Top Freshman

Magoon Gwath had a fairly productive first season at San Diego State and is looking for a new school or at the NBA.
Dan Raley|
San Diego State Aztecs forward Magoon Gwath hangs from the rim in an NCAA Tournament game against North Carolina.
San Diego State Aztecs forward Magoon Gwath hangs from the rim in an NCAA Tournament game against North Carolina. | Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

Danny Sprinkle has said you practically need two of everything to compete at a high level in Big Ten Conference basketball.

So while his University of Washington staff awaits the arrival of one very tall and lanky player in Texas junior-college transfer Mady Traore, it has been talking to another in former San Diego State beanpole Magoon Gwarth, who was born in Texas and just entered the transfer portal.

The 7-foot, 205-pound Gwath, according to a website called College Basketball Content, has been in contact with Kentucky, Michigan and Washington since submitting his name..

What everyone sees is a guy with enough explosiveness to lead the Mountain West in blocks with 68 -- nearly per game -- and become that league's freshman of the year selection.

He's an inch taller and 10 pounds heavier than Traore, who is signed to the Huskies while playing for two-year Frank Phillips College in Borger, Texas, which is near Amarillo, after previous stops at Maryland and New Mexico State. He's averaging 18.5 points and 8.4 rebounds an outing while in tournament play now.

Gwath hails from Euless, Texas, which is 350 miles from Borger, in the Dallas Metroplex. He began his high school career in the Lone Star State and ended it in Garden Grove, California, where San Diego State found him.

He started 26 games for the Aztecs this past season as a redshirt freshman, missing five outings after hyperextending a knee. He averaged 8.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per outing for a 21-10 team that lost in the NCAA Tournament to North Carolina. He redshirted last year in order to have ankle surgery.

Gwath's best outing was 25 points on 10-for-13 shooting plus 10 rebounds and 4 blocks against Fresno State an 84-62 victory in Fresno.

He had 5 blocks in a 73-70 overtime win over Houston, now a Sweet 16 qualfier, and 5 more against Gonzaga in an 80-67 loss.

There's a possibility Gwath could go directly to the NBA rather than play another college season. Early projections have him as a second-round pick. A motivating factor is his father is an Uber driver and his mother a custodian.

Asked if he was ready for a jump to the NBA, Gwath told reporters late in the season, “I guess we’ll have to find out.”

To get the latest Husky basketball and football news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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