Class of 2018 forward Nate Roberts committed to Washington Tuesday night, Elevate Hoops reported.
The three-star power forward, per 247sports.com, cut his list to Syracuse, Washington and Nebraska on Sept. 20. He currently attends Brewster (New Hampshire) Academy alongside SU commits Brendan Paul and Buddy Boeheim, son of Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim.
Since before Roberts started playing for Team Melo of the Nike EYBL, he had been on Syracuse’s radar, Dwayne Wise, the recruiting coordinator at Team Melo, told The Daily Orange.
“Syracuse has been there the whole time,” Wise said.
Former Syracuse associate head coach and now-Washington head coach Mike Hopkins had been the original recruiter of Roberts. After his departure for UW, Wise said, SU head coach Jim Boeheim took over the recruitment.
Roberts first came onto Wise’s radar in his sophomore year of high school. Scouts had reached out to Wise after Roberts had “blown up” at an Under Armour circuit camp. So, he recruited him to play for Team Melo.
“When I first saw him, I watched him at a high school game,” Wise said. “He appeared to be a little raw, but what I’ve noticed is he has really good skills.”
Those skills, Wise, said, is his ability to knock down the mid-range shot and even stretch the floor out to the 3-point line. He also has good ball handling and is an “underrated passer for his size.”
Roberts is listed at 6-foot-9 and 210 pounds, per 247sports. He is the sixth-best player out of Maryland and 57th ranked power forward in 2018.
“One of the things that stood out with him,” Wise said, “was his ability to run the floor as a guard and (he) just happened to grow.”
Roberts is the second player to select Washington over Syracuse since Hopkins became the head coach. He joins Hamier Wright, a four-star small forward that reclassified to the Class of 2017.
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