#Woof: Washington Adds North Dakota Transfer

Washington finished out their rebuild of the Husky roster under Danny Sprinkle when North Dakota transfer Tyree Ihenacho committed to Washington. The 6’4 guard averaged 14.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.9 assists last season. He has one season of eligibility remaining.

Iheancho was an unranked recruit coming out of Prior Lake, Minnesota and committed to North Dakota where he took over the starting point guard duties as a true freshman. He averaged 8.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 4.1 assists that season on 35.4% 3-point shooting and used that success to enter the transfer portal, moving to James Madison. It was a bit of a rocky two years with JMU as he averaged no more than 4 points per game playing 20+ minutes each season as his shooting dropped down. That led to a transfer back to North Dakota and another standout season where he took an increased scoring load with a career high 14.5 points per game.

And yet, for the 3rd time, Ihenacho entered the portal yet again this offseason and was committed to Wyoming before their head coach took an assistant job at Texas Tech last week. The coaching change meant he could re-open his recruitment and quickly ended up at Washington.

For those hoping that Washington would end up with a deadeye shooter with their final scholarship spot, that isn’t the case. There have been times where Iheancho has shown the ability to make an outside shot but it hasn’t been consistent. His 3-point percentage the last 4 years has gone in order: 35.4%, 15.4%, 35.7%, and 28.8%. Hopefully his every other year of 35%+ trend continues for the Huskies. Put it all together and he’s at 30.9% for his career but oddly enough is shooting nearly 50% from deep against premium competition across 17 career games.

Where Iheancho really excelled last season was as an isolation scorer. That hadn’t been a major skill for him prior to that as he had just 23 career isolation possessions prior to this past year per Synergy Sports tracking. This year he had 50 such possessions and shot 52.3% with only 1 turnover which was good for the 96th percentile overall. If things are breaking down and you need someone to get to the basket to get a bucket late in the shot clock, Ihenacho is your guy.

Last season was also Iheanchor’s best as a true point guard. He didn’t get to play that role with James Madison but last year had a career low turnover rate for North Dakota resulting in nearly a 2:1 assist to turnover rate. He hasn’t demonstrated the ability to score the ball reliably out of the pick and roll but can be a quality facilitator.

Where Ihenacho has shown some consistency is on the defensive end. He has averaged at least 1.0 steals and 0.5 blocks per game in each of the last 3 seasons including 1.4 and 0.6 last season. Both his steal and block rates are above average for a player of his size. Synergy also likes his defense and graded him in the 75th percentile defending both the pick and roll and spot up shooters. Opponents shot just 14% on catch and shoot 3’s with Ihenacho contesting the shot.

Rebounding is another strength of Ihenacho’s as he has had between a 14-16% defensive rebounding rate all four seasons of college ball. Keion Brooks Jr. was at 16.8% last season for Washington so he has been a better rebounder than essentially everyone but Brooks and the centers from last season’s Husky team.

It’s fair to say that Iheancho is a bit of a redundant piece on this roster. He is an extremely similar player to Luis Kortright and one could also argue Mekhi Mason. Sprinkle clearly has a type and that type is a 6’3 to 6’5 guard who can pass the ball, is a good rebounder, gets to the free throw line, and shoots somewhere between 30-35% from three-point range. Washington will certainly be going with plenty of 3-guard lineups next season and should be able to put out lineups with 4 above average rebounders to play bully ball with the move to the Big Ten.

Here’s a look at Washington’s finalized roster for next season:

Guards: 6’1 DJ Davis (5th year), 6’3 Luis Kortright (5th year), 6’4 Tyree Iheancho (5th year), 6’4 Zoom Diallo (1st year), 6’4 Jace Butler (1st year)

Wings: 6’5 Mekhi Mason (3rd year), 6’8 Tyler Harris (2nd year), 6’7 Christian King (2nd year)

Bigs: 7’1 Franck Kepnang (5th year), 6’9 Chris Conway (5th year), 6’8 Great Osobor (4th year), 6’10 Wilhelm Breidenbach (4th year), 6’10 KC Ibekwe (3rd year)