Inside The Huskies

No. 1 National Hoop Recruit Bound For Rainier Beach High

Could the Huskies make a play for Tyran Stokes, who will finish up in South Seattle?
Dan Raley|
Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 high school player in the country will transfer from Notre Dame in the L.A. area to Seattle's Rainier Beach.
Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 high school player in the country will transfer from Notre Dame in the L.A. area to Seattle's Rainier Beach. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Tyran Stokes, the nation's No. 1-ranked basketball player for 2026, will transfer from his Los Angeles-area high school to Seattle's Rainier Beach, multiple news outlets reported on Thursday.

While he apparently has narrowed his college choices to Kansas, Kentucky and Oregon at this late date in his recruitment, the 6-foot-7, 230-pound player still will find himself just 13.4 miles from the University of Washington.

Who's to say Danny Sprinkle's aggressive staff of recruiters doesn't take advantage of this 5-star player's newfound close proximity to Montlake and try to keep him from leaving town.

Yet Stokes, according to his 247Sports recruiting profile, doesn't have a standing scholarship offer from Washington among the 25 that he currently holds.

Still, the Huskies if interested could have freshman point guard JJ Mandaquit stop by Rainier Beach, visit with Stokes and extol the positives of playing for the Huskies and Sprinkle. Those two have been teammates before.

Stokes and Mandaquit played last summer for the United States team in Switzerland in the U19 FIBA World Cup, sharing in a gold medal run.

With Mandaquit feeding him, Stokes averaged 9.7 points and 4.4 rebounds in just 14.7 minutes per game for the American said and shot 70.6 percent from the field.

Similarly, Stokes played against Hannes Steinbach, the 6-foot-10 German import and Husky freshman forward, in the final U19 game of the tournament.

Even better, the UW could have their most famous Rainier Beach player, Nate Robinson, pop in and share his insights.

Just a thought.

It's unclear why Stokes chose to come to Rainier Beach to finish up his schoolboy basketball after withdrawing from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks last week.

For now, he'll join a Mike Bethea-coached team that that comes off a 28-3 season and a 3A state championship win.

The Vikings do have a rich history of sending players to the NBA in Jamal Crawford, current Sacramento Kings coach Doug Christie, Kevin Porter Jr., Robinson and multiple others.


ESPN has reported that Stokes, 18, had considered early enrollment at a college or even declaring for the 2026 NBA Draft, though the latter isn't really an option because he reportedly doesn't fit the age criteria.

The Seattle high school basketball season begins shortly after Thanksgiving. If everything plays out as indicated, it's safe to say Rainier Beach will be heavily favored to repeat as the 3A champ.

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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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