Two days before Mike Hopkins and the UW Huskies men’s basketball team took down No. 16 Baylor in Anchorage, Alaska, the third-year head coach received a very important phone call.

Just after the team landed, 2021 four-star power forward Jackson Grant called Hopkins to inform him that the Olympia High School star was staying home to play his college ball at Washington.

Grant, a 6-foot-9 and 200-pound junior is ranked as the No. 55 overall prospect by Rivals in the 2021 class and the No. 15 PF.

Before he made his commitment on Saturday to UW the four-star prospect made two official visits, the first to Wisconsin on September 23 and the second to Stanford on October 28.

In between both trips Grant made two visits to UW for a pair of home football games against USC and Utah. He also visited Colorado on Oct. 10, however the Buffaloes did not offer Grant a scholarship.

Several other schools including West Virginia and the aforementioned Baylor Bears both showed interest in Grant but no to the degree UW did. Before the Huskies 67-64 upset on Friday night nobody besides Grant and Hopkins knew about his decision.

“So they just landed in Alaska when I called so I called him and told him,” Grant told TheDawgReport.com after he announced his commitment to UW on social media Saturday.

“He was super excited. He… I don’t even know. He was over the moon. Just excited. He was trying to contain his excitement because he didn’t want the coaching staff to know.”