Inside The Huskies

Iowa Point Guard Has Huskies Among 3 Transfer Portal Choices

Brock Harding played a pivotal role in beating the UW a month ago.
Dan Raley|
Iowa Hawkeyes guard Brock Harding toes the end line against the Michigan State Spartans.
Iowa Hawkeyes guard Brock Harding toes the end line against the Michigan State Spartans. | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Brock Harding, who played a pivotal role in Iowa beating the University of Washington basketball team 85-79 almost exactly month ago, has narrowed his transfer portal choices to three schools, according to On3 -- Louisville, TCU and the Huskies.

Danny Sprinkle's staff appears to be making a concentrated effort to land the 6-foot, 160-pound point guard from Moline, Illinois, largely for the following reasons:

1) the coaches saw Harding up close to verify his talents;

2) he's that desperately needed point guard, after averaging 5 per game, dishing out 5 against the Huskies;

3) and he comes Big Ten tested, after appearing in 67 games for Iowa and starting 24 times. whereas the conference was all new to the most recent UW guards.

Harding, who has two seasons of eligibility remaining, entered the portal after Iowa underwent a coaching change, firing Fran McCaffery and replacing him with Drake's Ben McCollum.

The Huskies similarly could be interested in Harding because he's a tough-minded player, not unlike Sprinkle in his career at Montana State, with early all of his left arm heavily tattoed to prove it.

Harding also is a winner. In 2023, he led his Moline High School team to a 35-3 season and a 4A state championship, the first for the school, while being named Illinois Mr. Basketball.

His choices have come down to Louisville, which finished 27-8 with an NCAA Tournament appearance; TCU, which went 16-16; and the Huskies, trying to pull out of a last-place Big Ten finish that left them 13-18 overall, 4-16 in conference play.

Should he choose Louisville, Harding will compete for playing time with former Husky guard Koren Johnson, who played just two games for the Cardinals before he injured a shoulder, had surgery and was lost for the season.

For the latest UW football and basketball 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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