RENO, Nev. - The Nevada Basketball program and Head Coach Steve Alford have officially announced the addition of Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams, a 6-foot-10, 230-pound forward who spent last season playing for Portland.
"We are very excited to have Yuto join our program," Alford said. "He has great size and can really shoot the basketball. Yuto will redshirt this upcoming season, and we look forward to a great year of development for him."
Yamanouchi-Williams joins Kobe Sanders, Xavier DuSell, Brandon Love, Chuck Bailey III, and Justin McBride as the sixth transfer player to join the Pack this offseason.
Yamanouchi-Williams transferred to Portland ahead of the 2023-24 season after spending his freshman season competing for Lamar University.
During his sophomore season at Portland, he competed in 12 games for the Pilots, posting season averages of 8.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 43.8 percent from the field and 35.6 percent from behind the arc. Yamanouchi-Williams scored in double figures in five contests for Portland throughout the season.
In his debut appearance for the Pilots, he posted a double-double, scoring 12 points and pulling down 10 rebounds, helping lead Portland to a 14-point victory over Pacific (1/6/24). Yamanouchi-Williams had his best offensive performance of the season in a loss to Santa Clara (1/20/24), as he scored 17 points on 7-8 shooting from the field, including 3-4 from behind the arc.
As a freshman at Lamar during the 2022-23 season, Yamanouchi-Williams appeared in 28 total games for the Cardinals, with 24 starts. He averaged 6.9 points and a team-high 7.1 rebounds per game, while shooting 41 percent from the field and 75.3 percent at the free throw line.
Yamanouchi-Williams posted six double-doubles throughout his freshman campaign. He had one of the best performances of his career against Texas A&M Commerce (1/14/23), as he scored a team-high 18 points, in addition to pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds.
Originally from Aizuwakamatsu, Japan, Yamanouchi-Williams played high school basketball in California, competing for Ribet Academy in Los Angeles. He helped lead Ribet Academy to back-to-back California Division IV State Championship appearances in 2019 and 2020.
Yamanouchi-Williams has also played for Japan's U19 National Team, and he spent a season with Earth Friends Tokyo Z, a professional team in the Japanese B League. He will have two years of eligibility remaining with the Pack.
Nevada is coming off a tremendous season in which the Pack earned their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and completed the year with an overall record of 26-8. Alford and his staff have worked to bring in a plethora of new talent this offseason, as Nevada aims to compete for a Mountain West Championship and secure the program's third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
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