7-foot-4 Riley Sorn gives UW Huskies more than just height
Earl Streufert imagines it made for a bizarre sight — a coach and his 7-foot-4 center standing on the side of a road in a snowstorm.
The Richland High School basketball team was on its way to Curtis for a game when Streufert pulled the van over to put chains on. It was snowing so hard that they probably shouldn’t have been driving at all. But out jumped Riley Sorn — wearing flip flops, no less — to help his coach. Streufert immediately handed him the instructions.
“I said, ‘Read the directions. You’re the man in charge. Put them on there,’’’ Streufert said, laughing on Tuesday as he recounted his favorite memory of Sorn’s high school career. “Give it the aerospace engineer. He can figure it out.”
Streufert wasn’t joking about that last part. The aerospace engineering program at the University of Washington was one of the major reasons Sorn chose to join the Huskies as a preferred walk-on despite offers from other schools. Now on scholarship as a redshirt sophomore, Sorn is playing substantial minutes for the first time.
Along the way, he also changed his major from aerospace engineering — the demands of night classes and labs were difficult to juggle alongside basketball — to architecture. But Streufert would surely still trust him with the chains — and for good reason.
“I’ve always been a hands-on kind of guy, building things and stuff like that in my free time,” Sorn said. “I would say that the architecture design is one part of it that I’m taking classes in right now. But the aspect that I’m really going into is more of a structural engineering side of architecture just in buildings and things like that. That will kind of be in the next couple of years what I’m gearing towards more, which is right up my alley. It’s what I love to do.”
Given Sorn’s academic focus, it’s little wonder that basketball coaches say his intelligence and understanding of the game are his biggest strengths.
“He’s one of those guys where you talk the game with him and he understands it,” Streufert said. “He knows what you’re talking about. Sometimes physically, he’s not able to do all the things you’d like him to do. But he knows what you’re talking about. He has a good feel of concepts. ... He was a joy to coach that way.”
While Sorn’s’ height is the first thing people see — UW point guard Quade Green still walks up to him about once a month just to say, “Did you grow?” — he believes his most valuable skills are more difficult to notice.
“I think what I don’t have in speed and athletic ability and footwork — of course, I’m working on those things — I think my vision of the court and my ability to get used to the plays and predict what people are going to do, that kind of makes me a threat,” Sorn said.
“If you try and stop me, try and double team, I’m going to be just as happy getting an assist as getting a dunk. I think that’s the biggest thing for me is just keeping finding new ways for other people to score if I’m not available.”
Journey to UW
While Sorn has always been tall — 6-foot-8 by his freshman year in high school — it took some time for him to find his way athletically. He played varsity basketball for three years but struggled through his sophomore season and the first half of his junior year. Sorn wasn’t particularly strong at that point, Streufert said, and he was also fighting back pain as he continued to grow.
But halfway through his junior season, something started to click. Sorn became more athletic, and Streufert said that allowed him to feel more comfortable. That spark grew as Sorn became more involved in the offense. He was a strong passer, so Richland started running everything through him.
“Obviously he’s got a good vantage point, but he sees the court and he knows where guys are going to be open,” Streufert said. “He’s not selfish, by any means. He was really good at finding guys for us. He gave us opportunities to really do something on the perimeter and have some really easy shots on the perimeter because he commanded two guys to help guard him.’’
By the time he was a senior, Sorn was averaging 16.6 points, 8.4 rebounds and 4.0 blocks. Richland finished fifth in the Washington state tournament and he was named the WIBCA Class 4A Player of the Year.
“He just got so much better over that two-month period and that carried over into his senior year,” Streufert said. “And now, at UW, he’s kind of making those same strides again. I think he’s ready to get better and better right now. He’s just kind of on that cusp where he was in his junior year, where he was getting better but then all of a sudden made striking improvements.’’
Sorn redshirted his freshman year at UW and played just 1 minute in a single game last season. He’s played in four of the Huskies’ five games this year, only missing the loss to UC Riverside. Sorn’s numbers aren’t eye-popping — he’s averaging 2.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and has five blocks — but he’s given UW much-needed energy and a strong post presence off the bench.
“Ultimate team guy,” UW head coach Mike Hopkins said of Sorn. “Obviously, he’s got to improve in some areas but the energy that he brings, the leadership that brings, his work ethic that he brings — he’s positive every day. He’s invaluable to our team.”
Without Sorn, Hopkins said his lineups just felt too small. The Huskies start 6-foot-9 Hameir Wright and 6-foot-11 Nate Roberts but have no other inside options other than USC transfer J’Raan Brooks, who has played sparingly this season.
“(Sorn’s) always had confidence,” Hopkins said. “He’s always had a great IQ. It’s been his conditioning. It’s been his movement. It’s been his work ethic. Our coaches have done a great job getting him prepared.
“The thing that stands out to me is he’s just a confident kid that brings it. He doesn’t complain. He just works and is a great positive influence. When you have guys like that that finally have success and they’ve been sitting on a bench a long time, you’re just so proud of them.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 4:59 PM with the headline "7-foot-4 Riley Sorn gives UW Huskies more than just height."
