Inside The Huskies

Roberts Bids Farewell to Huskies, Chooses to Turn Pro

The UW big man had hinted he might not come back as the season neared an end.

Dan Raley

In this story:

Nate Roberts won't be coming back to the University of Washington basketball team, but not for reasons people might think.

The 6-foot-11 junior center from Washington, D.C., won't be entering the transfer portal nor will he simply be graduating and moving on to some sort of outside profession.

On Monday, Roberts announced he was signing with an agent and will make himself available for the NBA draft.

That's a rather bold move on the big man's part — Roberts finished his time at the UW as a 4.3-points-per-game career scorer.

This past season for a 17-15 team, the Husky big man averaged 5.5 points and 7.5 rebounds an outing, picking up a career-high 18 points against Oregon in his next-to-last game at Alaska Airlines Arena.

From a physical standout, the 250-pound Roberts resembles Dwight Howard with his well-developed physique, which might bring him a second look. He's a capable rebounder and at best an adequate defensive player. 

However, he proved to be sorely limited throughout his Husky career as an offensive player, a situation bound to make his NBA chances slim for getting drafted let alone making a roster.

He might best be suited seeking an overseas pro basketball job and attempting to work his way back toward an NBA opportunity.

After his 18-point, 16-rebound outing in a 78-67 victory over the Ducks, Roberts surprised everyone at the postgame news conference by suggesting the following home game against Oregon State might be his last in Seattle.

Yet he was speaking the truth.

Roberts, the only player to start all 58 UW games over the past two seasons, redshirted as a true freshman, came off the bench in 20 games during as a redshirt freshman and spent the past two winters as a starter. He could have played two more seasons if he wanted.

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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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