Inside The Huskies

Shane Nowell Leaves Arizona for Portal; Could UW Be Next Stop?

The brother of the Husky standout sat most of his freshman season.

Dan Raley

In this story:

Shane Nowell, brother of one-time University of Washington basketball standout Jaylen Nowell, has entered the transfer portal. 

Which prompts this obvious question: Could the Huskies land a second straight Arizona Wildcats guard?

The younger Nowell is a 6-foot-6 playmaker from Seattle and suburban Eastside Catholic High School who appeared in just 19 games for the newly installed  Tommy Lloyd coaching staff — the only one of three recruits who stayed with the program once Sean Miller was fired.

A year ago, following that aforementioned Tucson coaching change, the Huskies picked up Terrrell Brown Jr., who played the 2020-21 season for Arizona. Brown chose to come home to the UW and led the Pac-12 in scoring at 21.7 points per game.

This Nowell is four years younger but two inches taller than his brother, who now plays in the NBA for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Jaylen Nowell spent two seasons with the Huskies and was named Pac-12 Player of the Year for 2018-19.

A 4-star recruit, Shane Nowell didn't play anywhere near what he intended for a guard-heavy Arizona team that finished 33-4 and advanced to the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16 round.

He scored 15 points for the season on 6-for-18 shooting. His season high of 5 points came against California. His longest stint in a game was seven minutes.

Shane Nowell drives on Utah.
Shane Nowell drives against Utah :: Rob Gray/USA TODAY Sports

A year ago, the Huskies brought in the locally produced PJ Fuller (TCU), Daejon Davis (Stanford), Emmitt Matthews Jr. (West Virginia) and Brown as transfers. Brown and Davis have used up their eligibility, Matthews is back in the transfer portal and Fuller remains with the Huskies.

Continuing this trend, the UW earlier this month signed Seattle product Noah Williams from Washington State.

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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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