NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Washington of last decade

9. Jaden McDaniels – Washington

A consensus five-star prospect, McDaniels is a 6’9 forward from Seattle who was among the top recruits in the class of 2019. He chose to stay in his home state, playing for the Huskies under Mike Hopkins. He only stayed in college for his freshman season, a year that was cut short by the pandemic, but he still made significant strides in that lone campaign.

McDaniels averaged 13.0 points and 5.8 rebounds a game for the Huskies. He had a career-high 22 points in a nonconference game against Ball State and had an impressive 18-point, 15-rebound effort against Stanford a few weeks later. Unfortunately, Washington finished last place in the Pac-12 race, losing in the Pac-12 Tournament just before the pandemic paused the sporting world.

Despite his team’s lousy performance, McDaniels still did what he could, even if he may have underachieved. This fantastic prospect still put up decent offensive numbers and finished 4th in the conference in blocks. The year certainly didn’t turn out the way McDaniels envisioned, but he still found himself a 1st round draft pick later that summer; he’s spent the last two years with the Minnesota Timberwolves.