Inside The Huskies

Seattle's Jacob Cofie Enters Portal, Previously Considered UW

The 6-foot-10 big man led Eastside Catholic High School to a state championship last year.

Dan Raley

Virginia forward Jacob Cofie (5) and guard Andrew Rohde (4) get position on Georgia Tech's Duncan Powell in the ACC tourney.
Virginia forward Jacob Cofie (5) and guard Andrew Rohde (4) get position on Georgia Tech's Duncan Powell in the ACC tourney. / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Jacob Cofie, a 6-foot-10, 232-pound forward from Seattle, signed on with the University of Virginia basketball program to play for Tony Bennett.

Eighteen days before the season opener, the veteran coach stunned everyone by suddenly retiring and walking away from the college game.

Now five months later, following a 15-17 season with a new leader in promoted assistant coach Ron Sanchez, Cofie on Tuesday entered the transfer portal, according to On3.

While he could go just about anywhere with his basketball credentials, Cofie no doubt will give the other schools he had as finalists another look -- Ohio State, USC and hometown Washington.

Formerly of Eastside Catholic High School, Cofie comes off a freshman season at Virginia in which he started 16 of 32 games and averaged 7.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals per outing. He shot 49.5 from the field and, not his forte, struggled from 3-point range at 24.4 percent.

With the Huskies losing 9 of their 13 scholarship players to eligibility and the portal, they have plenty of room for Cofie should he choose to come home.

A year ago, Cofie was a big reason Eastside Catholic captured its first 3A state championship when he came up with 17 points and 13 rebounds in a 65-57 victory over Rainier Beach at the Tacoma Dome.

Named as the Gatorade Washington Player of the Year, he averaged 21.9 points and 12.2 rebounds during the season.

At Virginia, he had his moments with a season-high 17 points against Notre Dame and a stat line of 11 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 blocks against Coppin State.

Cofie should have no shortage of schools seeking him out and offering him a landing spot.

To get the latest Husky 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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