Inside The Huskies

Noah Williams Makes Its Official: He's Transferring from WSU to UW

The shooting guard's role diminished some this past season in the Palouse.

Dan Raley

A month ago, the Pac-12 basketball regular season wasn't over for more than an hour when someone suggested that Noah Williams would transfer from Washington State to Washington.

On Monday, this cross-state move became reality when the 6-foot-5 shooting guard from the Seattle area announced on social media that he, indeed, was going over to the other side.

Williams, who played three seasons for WSU, will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

The son of former Cougars standout Guy Williams, the younger Williams had his moments of greatness in the Palouse but it became clear to him that the situation no longer worked for him and it was time to go.

He initially committed in 2019 to the University of Buffalo, but later rescinded that pledge and chose WSU over the Huskies and coach Mike Hopkins. He was the first recruit for new Cougars coach Kyle Smith.

Williams was named the Washington 3A state MVP after he and Duke-bound Paolo Banchero led O'Dea High to a state championship.

For the Cougars, Williams started 65 of 91 career games and averaged 6.2, 14.1 and 9.5 in his three seasons.

As a sophomore, he had a torrid home series against the Bay Area schools, scoring 32 against California and 40 against Stanford. His 40-pointer is the only one for WSU in the past 11 seasons.

Against the Huskies, Williams scored 10 and 15 points in a pair of victories as a freshman, 21 and 12 as the teams split when he was a sophomore, and 5 and 7 this past season as the rivals split again.

Williams saw his role fall off this past season as his minutes and scoring decreased significantly over his final eight games, with him dropping in double-figure points just once over that time.

He'll join a UW team that had starting guards Terrell Brown Jr. and Daejon Davis use up their college eligibility, while junior big man Nate Roberts chose to pass up his final year and pursue pro basketball. 

The Huskies just received a signed letter of intent over the weekend from previously committed guard Koren Johnson from Garfield High School. He joins fellow signed recruits in 6-foot-7 forward Tyler Linhardt from Seattle's King's High School and Michigan guard Keyon Menifield Jr.

The UW still could use one or two big men to go with all of the backcourt talent. 

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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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