My extended travels this week took me, among other places, to see Hannes Steinbach’s Washington Huskies take on their, um, Big Ten rival USC on Wednesday.
With both teams likely to have a short stay at the upcoming Big Ten tournament and then miss the NCAA Tournament, it was a last chance to get a good look at Steinbach and USC’s Alijah Arenas, both of whom are freshmen.
While Arenas looks more like a “next year” guy as he continues to recover from a serious offseason car accident (he shot 5-of-16 and finished with 19 points), Steinbach showed out. The Huskies’ 6-foot-11 German import finished with 22 points and 24 rebounds in Washington’s 91-72 win against an undermanned Trojans frontcourt, flashing the key traits that have him projected as a likely first-round pick if he enters the draft.
Those 24 rebounds didn’t happen by accident — Steinbach is an elite rebounder with great instincts for both positioning as the ball is in flight and timing his jump to high-point the ball. He also has great hands in that almost every basketball he reaches for sticks to his mitts. He leads the Big Ten in both overall rebound rate (19.8 percent) and defensive rebound rate (24.9 percent), while his 14. 6 offensive rebound rate ranks second.
Oddly for a board beast, Steinbach’s other elite trait is running the floor. He changes ends quickly and hits full speed right away, enabling him to get runouts for dunks or create odd-man advantages for teammates. He seems likely to take better advantage of this at the pro level than he has in college, where he isn’t playing with elite guards.
As a half-court offensive player, his scouting report is a bit more mixed. He can take advantage of smaller defenders in mismatch post-ups and use his size to score in the paint, but you wouldn’t call him a dominant post player. As a roller off ball screens, he can make effective passes in the short roll, but you would grade him closer to “competent” than “elite” in this respect. As a half-court rim runner, he’s a moderate threat, but he’s much more effective attacking the rim in transition when he has a full head of steam.
All those factors were much more in evidence earlier this year when I saw him against Michigan’s mighty frontcourt. Steinbach was still able to work the glass for seven offensive boards, but he had a hard time finishing against the Wolverines and ended 5-of-14 from the floor.
From the perimeter, Steinbach offers more promise as an above-the-break 3-point shooter than his stats might indicate. He’s only made 16 3s all season, and some of his misses have been wild bricks, but he’s also a 76.7 percent shooter from the foul line on the year. Additionally, watching his pre-game work shows an easy, repeatable motion that isn’t going to need a ton of work. It’s not a shot that’s been a big part of his game, but he’ll need it more at the next level.
The biggest concern for Steinbach’s transition, however, likely comes on defense. He can be solid enough in switches, but his rim protection instincts leave a lot to be desired if he’s going to play the five. A 3.5 percent block rate in conference games is pretty underwhelming for a frontcourt prospect, and the eye test showed a lot of instances when you’d expect a big man to bound over as a help defender and one-two, pop off the floor to spike a shot. As often as not, he stayed put and didn’t show the instinct to go get it.
Steinbach also may have an interesting decision between now and the end of May. His draft stock is generally perceived as somewhere between the 10th and 30th pick; definitely a first-rounder but probably not a lottery pick. (Our Sam Vecenie has him 17th in his latest mock draft.) In today’s NIL era, that means a power-conference team can make an offer that’s competitive with an NBA first-round salary. It’s hard to know what to believe in this market, but I heard whispers that a sizeable bag may already await him if he wants to return to Seattle.
Steinbach also has a very strong year as an 18-year-old in the German pro league on his resume. Historically, players who are good enough to play well in an overseas league as teenagers basically never fail. That makes him almost a no-brainer once you get to about the 20th pick, owing mostly to the strength of this year’s class. In a weaker draft, he’d have a case to go much higher because of his floor, but between the surfeit of high-ceiling talent and the questions about whether Steinbach is a long-term starter or more of a “third big,” he likely falls just outside the lottery in 2026.