Zamir Paschal opted to join former Huskies head coach Lorenzo Romar at Loyola Marymount rather than stay in the Pacific Northwest
The Washington Huskies men's basketball team is still looking to fill the final three spots on the roster.
The Huskies currently have 12 players signed or committed for the 2026-27 season. NCAA teams are allowed to have a maximum of 15 players.
Washington has tried to make some headway in recent weeks in filling out the roster, looking toward the transfer portal, the graduating class of 2026 and internationally to find players to suit up next season.
One of the players the Huskies attempted to add to the team was the best player in the state of Oregon for the Class of '26. Unfortunately for UW, he opted to take his talents to the West Coast Conference.
Three-star point guard Zamir Paschal committed to Loyola Marymount over the weekend. Rather than join current Washington coach Danny Sprinkle, Paschal will be joining former UW head coach and current LMU assistant Lorenzo Romar.
Romar coached the Huskies from 2002-17. During that stretch, Romar helped guide UW to six NCAA tournament appearances, including three Sweet 16 berths.
Paschal played his high school ball at Central Catholic High School in Portland, Ore.
Paschal was graded as the 180th-best overall player, 21st-best point guard and best player in Oregon in the class per the 247Sports Composite.
Before Washington offered Paschal, the 6-foot-1, 160-pound player had only been reported to have received offers from his native universities Portland and Portland State. Based on the teams listed to have offered Paschal on his 247Sports page, the Huskies were the only Power Four team to have offered Oregon's top recruit.
Paschal likely would have been the primary backup point guard to offseason transfer portal addition Ryan Beasley (San Francisco), who's currently set to be the starting point guard for the Huskies in 2026.
With Paschal off the board, there's two other facilitators the team has reportedly been interested in that could either backup Beasley or compete with him for primary ball-handling duties.
Here's the other two guards Washington is reportedly targeting:
Urban Kroflic, G, Slovenia
The Huskies have gone to other continents over the last two seasons to find players, such as 2025-26 forwards Hannes Steinbach (Germany) and Nikola Dzepina (Serbia). UW could also have potentially made another addition to the team for next season in the form of forward Wini Braga (Brazil).
Washington has reported interest in Urban Kroflic, a 6-foot-7 guard from Slovenia.
Kroflic has been used in a "point-forward" capacity playing with Slovenia internationally and professional basketball team Mega MIS. Kroflic averaged 10.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 steals in 24 games this past season with Mega.
Tijan Saine Jr., G, Weber State
Tijan Saine Jr., who's a native of Everett, Wash. (just over 27 miles away from UW's home of Alaska Airlines Arena), was one of the most prolific scorers in the Big Sky last season.
The soon-to-be senior averaged 17.5 points on 45.4% shooting across 32 games (all starts) with the Wildcats last season. He also dished 4.3 assists, pulled in 2.3 rebounds and swiped 1.1 steals per game.
The Dawgs will have some competition to land Saine, who also has reportedly drawn interest from Missouri, North Carolina State, Mississippi State and LSU, among others.
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