#Woof: Washington Adds Fresno State Transfer

The Washington Huskies received good news today when they landed a transfer commitment from Fresno State’s Anthony Holland.

The 6’5 grad transfer averaged 6.8 points and 4.3 rebounds on 38.7% 3-pt shooting this past season for the Bulldogs. He has started 89 games for Fresno over the past 4 seasons and is a career 38.2% 3-pt shooter. Holland’s scoring slipped a little after averaging 9.6 points per game as a junior when he hit a career high 42.7% of his 3-pt shots. The Husky coaching staff got to see Holland in action this season when he scored 8 points and picked up 9 rebounds in a loss to Washington earlier this season.

Despite his relatively modest height, Holland ended up playing a lot of small ball 4 for Fresno State in a 4-guard lineup. That is not likely to be the case for Washington where 6 of the 8 other scholarship players currently on the roster stand 6’7 or taller. Instead, Holland will likely be asked to play a 2/3 wing role with Washington where hopefully he can use his rebounding instincts on defense and shooting on offense to fill 2 major deficiencies from recent Washington teams.

Holland becomes the second Fresno State transfer to join the Huskies recently after center Braxton Meah transferred to UW last offseason. Washington can only hope this move works out nearly as well given that Meah ended up being the most important player on last year’s roster, especially after the injury to Franck Kepnang. It’s likely not a coincidence this happens after adding Quincy Pondexter, a Fresno native, to the coaching staff.

The combination of adding both Holland and Moses Wood from Portland shows the coaching staff is taking seriously their lack of outside shooting in recent years. Each has 145+ career made 3-pointers on 38%+ shooting. If Cole Bajema hadn’t transferred he would’ve been UW’s best with 97 made 3’s on 36% outside shooting. After that it would’ve been Noah Williams and PJ Fuller each at about 90 on ~30% shooting.

Whereas Wood though has shown the ability to knock down 3-pt shots off the dribble, Holland is much more of a standstill shooter. Last season 60% of Holland’s shot attempts came on catch and shoot opportunities and he was much more effective when wide open. Holland made 50% of his open no dribble looks and just 28% when contested. That is a potential worry in a Husky offense that doesn’t create a ton of open looks, especially with only one point guard currently on the roster.

There will certainly be a few more additions through the portal still this offseason but as things currently stand it seems most likely that Holland will compete with incoming freshman Wesley Yates for the starting shooting guard spot and split time between the 2 with Yates and the 3 with Moses Wood.

Welcome Mr. Holland and may you write your opus on Montlake!