Inside The Huskies

Bajema Becomes Fourth UW Player to Enter Transfer Portal

The Husky forward moves on after becoming full-time starter.

Dan Raley

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The roster overhaul for the University of Washington basketball team continued at a steady pace with Cole Bajema revealing on Friday he will enter the transfer portal, somewhat of a surprising disclosure.

The 6-foot-7 senior forward from Lynden, Washington, was a 30-game starter this past season, remaining in the lineup even while laboring through a horrendous shooting slump over the past month of a 16-16 season.

At one point, Bajema sank just 3 of 22 shot attempts down the stretch, plus he was suspended one game for kneeing a UCLA player.

Considering how it all ended — and possibly told his role might diminish going forward — the veteran was probably just in moving on.

Bajema became the fourth UW player to leave the program since the season ended with a first-round loss in the Pac-12 Tournament just over two weeks ago, joining fellow forwards Jackson Grant and Langston Wilson, and guard PJ Fuller.

After spending his freshman season at Michigan, Bajema returned home during the pandemic and appeared in 87 games, starting once last year before being put in the lineup 30 times this winter.

Regarded as an outside shooter, he averaged 8.8 points per game on 39 percent shooting, 36 percent from 3-point range. His high game this season was 16 points, which he did five times, twice against Colorado. His career best of 18 came the previous season, also against Colorado.

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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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