SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies men's basketball team spent all of this offseason, its third under head coach Danny Sprinkle, rebuilding the roster for the third consecutive year.

The Huskies had just six players return from the 2025-26 roster, leaving three-fifths of the team needing to be replaced.

Washington went to the transfer portal to find several of those additions, many of whom will play significant, likely starting roles, for the team this season.

Among those transfer portal additions is fifth-year wing LeJuan Watts (transferred from Texas Tech Red Raiders), fourth-year point guard Ryan Beasley (transferred from San Francisco Dons) and eighth-year wing Steele Venters (transferred from Gonzaga Bulldogs).

The transfer portal additions, including Watts and Beasley, have already drawn praise from one of UW's returners.

"LeJuan Watts brings a lot. He brings a level of physicality, competitiveness and just will to get to the rim," Third-year center Lathan Sommerville said after the team's practice Tuesday at Alaska Airlines Arena. "He's an extremely high-level splasher. Can also knock down shots, so he's going to be a big part of this team. (Ryan Beasley) is a very good point guard. Can score at three levels. High-level guy. We got a lot of pieces that we brought in and we retained, so I'm very excited."

Here's an overview of Watts, Venters and Beasley and what they had to say following Tuesday's practice:

Watts may have been the biggest get in the portal for Sprinkle and UW. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound wing has familiarity with the state of Washington, having previous stops with the Eastern Washington Eagles in the Big Sky and the Washington State Cougars in the Pac-12.

He spent last year with the Red Raiders, where he was a consistent performer. He got two games of NCAA tournament experience with Texas Tech, which was ultimately bounced from the tournament in a 90-65 loss in the Round of 32 against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Watts averaged 11.8 points on 43.8% shooting from the floor (32.1% from 3-point range) across 33 games (28 starts) with the Red Raiders last season.

"At that level, when I was at Tech, we're working every day," Watts said Tuesday. "Everyone's trying to get better. ... Trying to be the best player they can be and that's something I'm trying to bring here with these guys."

Beasley came to the Huskies after three seasons with the Dons, which saw his role steadily increase from a role play in his freshman year (29 games played, no starts), to the de facto point guard his junior season (33 games, all starts).

The 5-foot-11, 180-pound guard is currently nursing a concussion and is hoping to be back for Sunday's exhibition game against the Washington State Cougars, but that's still to be determined. When he's healthy, he's likely to be the starting point guard on the team and will be tasked with finding synergy between the vets and younger players, and the returners and the newcomers.

Beasley averaged 13.6 points on a 40.7% clip from the floor last season (32.7% from beyond the arc) in addition to four assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals per contest.

"It's been a good journey for me," Beasley said. "Sprinkle puts a lot of trust in me, just being able to go out there and be myself, play with pace, space and a read-and-react offense, which fits my game. It's been great so far for me. Seattle's a great city, the guys are great off the court, so I've been having fun competing."

Venters came in and instantly boosted the floor of the team's 3-point-shooting ability, which was near the bottom the Big Ten last season.

The eighth-year wing will be joining the team after a three-year stint with one of the most successful programs in the country in Gonzaga that was mired with injuries.

Venters missed two full seasons with a series of injuries before finally seeing the court for the Bulldogs last season. He averaged five points on 38.6% shooting (36.7% from 3-point range) across 27 games (10 starts) with the Bulldogs last season. He brought in 1.3 rebounds and dished one assist per contest.

"I've been healthy the whole summer," Venters said. "That's the biggest thing right now is just staying healthy. This is my first healthy offseason in three years. Just being able to grow during the offseason has been huge. ... (Last year) meant everything to me, especially with that team. We were so good. Obviously didn't pan out how we wanted to, but being able to start for the No. 6 team in the country was just a big relief after the two years I went through with all the injuries and stuff like that." 

Both Watts and Venters began their careers with the Eastern Washington Eagles of the Big Sky conference. Venters was Big Sky Player of the Year in 2023 and Watts was the Big Sky Freshman of the Year in 2024.

"It's surreal (being here with Venters)," Watts said. "I still can't believe I was at Eastern Washington playing with Steele, and then we all transitioned, me and him come back to (Washington), it's surreal. But we still have that chemistry, we still have that friendship and we're just going to keep going from there."