New-look Huskies Basketball Roster Adds Desmond Claude, a Highly-Rated USC Transfer

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The Washington Huskies added USC transfer Desmond Claude, arguably the top remaining player in the transfer portal. [/caption]

Washington Huskies head basketball coach Danny Sprinkle has done some serious shopping for ingredients this offseason.

He’ll have a limited amount of time to turn it all into a new recipe that will put the Huskies back on the NCAA Tournament menu for the first time since 2019.

Desmond Claude, formerly of USC and Xavier, who was arguably the top remaining player in the transfer portal, committed to join the Huskies on Sunday, per the 6-foot-6 senior guard’s post on Instagram. Claude, who hails from New Haven, Conn., was an honorable mention All-Big Ten last season, and reportedly chose UW over Alabama and Gonzaga.

"After a long and thorough process of evaluating each school recruiting me, I have decided to sign at the University of Washington,” Claude announced. “I am a firm believer with the recruiting class coming in and the returning players, we can compete with the very best, which was very important to me.”

Claude, rated a four-star transfer, averaged 15.8 points, 4.2 assists and 3.5 rebounds for the Trojans last season after posting a 16.6 / 3.2 / 3.5 season his sophomore season at Xavier.

“He’s been a tremendous player in the Big East and the Big Ten,” Sprinkle said on the Dave “Softy” Mahler and Dick Fain show on Sports Radio 93.3 KJR after the signing became official Tuesday evening. “He’s got great size. He’s elite at getting to the paint, creating and finishing. You saw the two games he played against us last year — he completely dominated the game.”

He joins Wesley Yates III, who scored 14.1 points per game at USC after redshirting at UW in 2023-24. Yates, also a four-star-rated transfer, is the cousin of former UW hoops star Quincy Pondexter, who also returns to UW after a season as an assistant coach at USC.

“That was obviously huge in getting Claude, was Wesley,” Sprinkle said “… His comfort level with Wesley and obviously with Quincey Pondexter — it was huge in the recruiting process.”

The two USC transfers are part of what has led to some national pundits, such as Jon Rothstein of CBS, believing the Huskies should go dancing in 2026.

“The Huskies have the requisites to be one of the most improved power conference teams in the country in Year 2 under Danny Sprinkle,” Rothstein said in a post on X.

The transfer class is ranked 13th nationally by 247Sports, which also ranked Washington’s freshman class 20th.

“We knew as a staff we had to really upgrade our talent level,” Sprinkle said. “After going through the Big Ten, and you’ve seen the depth, and just the size and the athleticism and winning on the road, you’ve got to have some real dudes.”

The Trojans transfers put the Washington roster at 14 players, which leaves room for one more player should Sprinkle choose to do so. The team that looked vastly different in Sprinkle’s first season last year will look that much different once again in 2025-26. Guard Vazoumana Diallo (11.1 ppg as a freshman last season) and sixth-year senior center Franck Kepnang (6.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg in 14 games last season) are slated to return from the 2024-25 squad.

“It was a hard first year to get through,” Sprinkle told KJR. “We’ve got to keep progressing. We’ve got to get better in all areas, but I’m really excited with the competitiveness and just the overall talent of this group. It’s going to make guys compete to get minutes on the floor, and that’s when you start improving as a program.”

It’s the second straight roster turnover in two seasons for the Huskies. Wilhelm Breidenbach and Kepnang were the only two scholarship holdovers to play for Sprinkle last year and Mike Hopkins’ final squad in 2023-24.

The transfer group includes four players who have scored at least 14 points per game during a season. Sprinkle will need to mix them together along with Diallo, Kepnang and JJ Mandequit, a true point guard who could end up starting for the Huskies as a true freshman.

“The guys that we have, they’re all gym rats, you know, which you have to have in order to win, like it’s important to them,” Sprinkle said. “Yeah, there’s going to be some hurt feelings, because like I said, you can’t play 14 guys. … You got to go compete. You got to bring it every day.”

Sprinkle hopes the new collection of talent will lead to a faster pace that more closely resembles the styles his Montana State and Utah State teams used to get to NCAA Tournaments.

“With the talent that we have, and guys that can really score the basketball … we can just play,” he said. “We’ll be taking quicker shots. We’ll be able to play faster, we’ll be able to play freer, and I’ll be able to let guys be creative, where last year, we didn’t have that luxury. We had to slow the game down. We had to limit possessions or we’d have just been blown out, to be honest.”

Here’s a look at the rest of the roster of players who have either signed with or committed to play for the Huskies in 2025-26.

Transfers

Jacob Ognacevic: The fifth-year senior averaged 20 points and 8 rebounds last season at Lipscomb. The 6-foot-8 forward should take some of the post scoring pressure off of Kepnang.

Quimari Peterson: The 6-1, 190-pound senior guard posted averages of 19.5 points, 3.7 assists and 4.5 rebounds for East Tennessee State last season. Peterson, who was not a rated recruit coming out of West Side High School in Gary, Ind., is a four-star transfer.

Lathan Sommerville: At 6-10, 275, the four-star sophomore transfer from Rutgers gives Sprinkle some bulk in the middle. Sommerville averaged 8.2 points and 4.1 rebounds in 20.9 minutes per game last season.

Bryson Tucker: The 6-7, 207-pound sophomore small forward is a four-star transfer who averaged 5.4 points and 2.9 rebounds for Indiana last year.

Christian Nitu: A three-star sophomore transfer from Florida State, the 6-11, 220-pound forward played just 7 minutes per game last year, averaging 1.9 points and 1.3 rebounds.

Mady Traore: At 6-11, 195 pounds, the junior center project who hails from France has played minimal roles at New Mexico State and Maryland.

Freshman

JJ Mandequit: The 6-1, 190-pound four-star point guard from Utah Prep in Hurricane, UT, is the 10th-rated point guard in the 2025 class, and is considered a true distributor of the basketball.

Jasir Rencher: A four-star small forward from Archbishop Riordan in San Francisco, Rencher is a four-star recruit who shot 41 percent from behind the 3-point line during his senior season and is considered a high-effort defensive player.

Courtney, Muldrew: The 6-3, 170-pound four-star shooting guard out of Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., is ranked the No. 18 overall shooting guard in the country.