Five-Star Center Isaiah Stewart Commits to Washington

It’s taken 13 years, but the Washington Huskies men’s basketball program has once again landed a five-star center.

Isaiah Stewart, a 6-foot-9 and 230-pound recruit ranked No. 6 overall by Rivals for the 2019 class, announced his commitment Sunday afternoon to the Huskies and head coach Mike Hopkins.

Stewart picked UW over his other four finalists; Duke, Michigan State, Kentucky and Syracuse, becoming the first five-star low-post recruit to dawn Purple and Gold since Spencer Hawes signed with the program in 2006.

Both Hawes and Stewart share the same Rivals’ national rank, with the former being a key in-state get for then coach Lorenzo Romar. The Huskies beating out several traditional blue-blood programs and elite college coaches, including Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo and even Hopkins’ long-time mentor Jim Boeheim, landing Stewart sends a message.

Ironically enough, Hopkins began recruiting the five-star Stewart while he was still at Syracuse before being hired to replace Romar after the 2016 season. Over the last 22 months Hopkins has built UW men’s hoops in a similar image as Chris Petersen has with the Huskies football program.

Based off relationships. For Stewart, that was one key deciding factor when he spoke with Rivals National Recruiting Analyst Corey Evans earlier in January.

"Coach Hop, he was the first coach at Syracuse that really got after me hard. Coming up to see me since the ninth grade and him coming to my high school games, we have gotten real close and he is a guy that I can trust and he has given me his word," Stewart said.

" He wants to start his own legacy and I feel him on that. I enjoyed my visit out there and I really like what they are doing and I feel like it is a great set-up if I was to go there. He hasn’t had his first big recruit yet so I could be that for them and I know the city would be crazy about that."