Hopefully, former Syracuse basketball point guard Howard Washington gets a waiver to immediately compete for South Alabama.
It proved a bummer when Howard Washington elected to transfer from Syracuse basketball, but the 6-foot-3 point guard is heading to a South Alabama squad that is trending in an extremely positive direction under head coach Richie Riley.
Word broke on Friday, per a bevy of media reports, that Washington has decided to join South Alabama, a university based in Mobile, Ala., that is a member of the Sun Belt Conference.
The South Alabama athletics department as of Saturday morning hadn’t posted anything official about Washington coming on board with the Jaguars.
However, the Twitter account of South Alabama Jaguar Athletics did retweet a story by Creg Stephenson of AL.com about Washington. And Riley, from his own Twitter page, also retweeted several mentions of Washington opting to come to his crew.
If that isn’t positive enough for South Alabama, also on Friday the Jaguars reportedly secured a commitment from junior-college big man Marshall Kearing. The 6-foot-9 forward is out of the State College of Florida and represents the third pledge in South Alabama’s 2021 recruiting class, according to an article by Doug Konkel, the publisher of JagsJungle.com.
The new home of former Syracuse basketball point guard Howard Washington, South Alabama, is faring well under talented head coach Richie Riley.
In May, both Riley and Orange assistant coach Gerry McNamara got included in an ESPN.com feature about the top-40 coaches and assistant coaches in collegiate hoops who were under 40 years old as of April 30, 2020.
In 2019-20, a campaign cut short by the novel coronavirus pandemic, Riley wrapped up his second stanza with the Jaguars. South Alabama went 20-11, its first time collecting 20 conquests since 2008-09, and the Jaguars earned the second seed in the Sun Belt Conference post-season tournament. South Alabama didn’t play a game in the event before it got cancelled due to the pandemic.
Washington, who this past March received the Bob Bradley Spirit and Courage Award from the Atlantic Coast Conference, has persevered through knee injuries and a stroke that he suffered on Sept. 28, 2018.
He should have two terms of eligibility left with South Alabama, and hopefully the NCAA does the right thing and grants him a waiver for immediate eligibility.
In June, the Jaguars and in-state foe Alabama revealed a three-contest series that will commence in 2020-21. The Crimson Tide is led by former Buffalo head coach Nate Oats.
Now that Washington knows his next destination, all three former Syracuse basketball guards who entered into the NCAA transfer portal in the spring are with new teams.
Sophomore Brycen Goodine moved to former Big East Conference rival Providence and is seeking an NCAA waiver for immediate eligibility. Redshirt sophomore Jalen Carey recently got such a waiver and can suit up for Rhode Island in 2020-21.