Inside The Huskies

Once Headed for Montana State, Ex-Husky Grant Back in Portal

Coaching change has forward looking for yet another school.

Dan Raley

In this story:

Jackson Grant probably thought college basketball was going to be much easier to deal with over the last two years, if not just the last week.

On Tuesday, the former University of Washington forward disclosed that he has re-opened his recruitment after pledging to Montana State last week.

What happened is this: on Monday, coach Danny Sprinkle, suddenly a wanted commodity, after leading his Big Sky team into the past two NCAA Tournaments, was introduced as the new Utah State coach.

The 6-foot-10 Grant, with a pair of seasons of eligibility remaining, was left to continue shopping for a new school after making himself one of seven players to cut ties with Mike Hopkins and the Huskies.

Maybe he goes to Utah State now. Maybe Montana State, when it settles on a new coach, coaxes him to come back and team with another former UW player, guard RaeQuan Battle.

A McDonald's All-American, Grant from Olympia, Washington, is looking to resurrect a basketball career that never got off the ground in Montlake. He came down with a bad case of COVID as a freshman and tried to redshirt this past winter until big man Franck Kepnang suffered a season-ending injury.

Most of all, he didn't seem comfortable at all with the Huskies, showing very limited offensive skills at the Pac-12 level in his two seasons. He likely needs a coach who will work with him and find a support role for him, likely at a lower-level school.

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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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