The Washington Huskies men's basketball team is still looking the fill the final spots on the roster for the 2026-27 season.

Rosters are allowed to have a max of 15 players and the Huskies found themselves down to six players returning from last year's team.

Washington has boosted its roster total to 11 players this offseason with acquisitions via the transfer portal and the 2026 recruiting class.

The Huskies earned a commitment from three-star class of '26 small forward and Snoqualmie, Wash., native Lattimore Ford.

In addition to Ford joining the program, UW also landed transfer portal additions: senior guards Ryan Beasley (San Francisco), Parker Friedrichsen (Davidson) and senior forwards LeJuan Watts (Texas Tech) and Steele Venters (Gonzaga).

The additions of Watts and Friedrichsen gives Washington 3-point shooting, something the team desperately needed last season (17th in the 18-team Big Ten in 3-point percentage; 15th in 3-point makes per game), Beasley gives the team a point guard to make up for the losses of Zoom Diallo (transferred to Kentucky) and JJ Mandaquit (Arizona) and Venters gives the team a three-level scorer on the wing.

With all those boxes checked, there's still one type of player the Huskies are in desperate need of: a rim-protector.

Washington's two starting front court players from last season, graduate center Franck Kepnang and freshman forward Hannes Steinbach, are both gone (although there's the potential the former could return).

The Huskies signed junior center Lathan Sommerville to a contract to return to the team next season but he's coming off an injury-plagued season (22 games out of a potential 33) and is yet to play a full season as a starter. At 6-foot-10, there's also a size mismatch Sommerville can give up against other centers in the Big Ten.

Sophomore forward/center Nikola Dzepina is also returning. He's still inexperienced (14 games last season and in college) and, at 6-foot-10, also runs the risk of giving up mismatches in the post. He also has a shooting skill set, which makes him more valuable as a power forward who could stretch the floor than an anchor in the paint.

Here's a couple additions Washington could make via the transfer portal to fill its need for a rim protector:

Arguably the best big man available to the Huskies in the transfer portal is one that played just played for Seattle University at Climate Pledge Arena, just 4.1 miles away from Washington's home of Alaska Airlines Arena.

The 7-foot, 230-pound Maurer played 35 games (25 starts) with the Redhawks last season. He averaged 7.2 points on 52.2% shooting in addition to 4.7 rebounds and 0.9 blocks.

Maurer has 55 games of experience (25) starts with Grand Canyon in his freshman year and Seattle U. In the game between the Redhawks and Huskies, he scored 19 points, had nine rebounds and blocked three shots.

Williams, like Sommerville and Dzepina, is listed at 6-foot-10. Unlike the latter two, Williams has garnered a legitimate reputation as one of the best shot blockers in the country.

Last year with the Owls, Williams averaged 2.6 blocks per contest across 33 games (all starts). He also averaged 7.5 points on 51% shooting and 5.2 rebounds in addition to 1.3 assists.

If Washington were to ramp up its pursuit of Williams, it would have some competition. The former Florida Atlantic big man is reportedly considering Arizona, North Carolina and Virginia Tech.

The Huskies would be giving up some size in the post with Williams and Sommerville in the front court, but those two with the addition of Dzepina would also give the Huskies one of the most athletic front courts in the conference and it would allow the team to be flexible with its lineup with Dzepina stretching the floor.

When Kepnang entered the transfer portal, he made it clear that he was keeping open the possibility of returning to Montlake.

Kepnang is a legitimate rim protector and one of the most energetic players on the court but there is a concern with health.

The 6-foot-11, 253-pound big man played in over 14 games just once with the Huskies, which happened this past season.

Kepnang averaged 6.2 points across 27 contests (25 starts) on 51.5% shooting in addition to 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. Kepnang missed the final six games of the season due to a stress reaction in his leg that he dealt with for the final several weeks of the year before it landed him on the shelf.

With Sommerville, Dzepina and Mady Traore all back (Traore missed all of 2025-26 with a foot injury), head coach Danny Sprinkle could opt to limit Kepnang's minutes to keep him healthy if he were to return.

The 6-foot-10, 230-pound Miller is another prolific shot-blocker who, unlike Maurer and Williams, has experience in a Power Four conference.

With the Tigers last season, Miller averaged 6.1 points on 61.5% shooting across 31 games (two starts) in addition to 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks.

Miller also doesn't has played in 63 games and started 10 the last two years with LSU.

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