UW WBB Huskies Score Big, 2023 Elite PG Sayvia Sellers Commits

Sayvia Sellers, a 5’8″ rising senior guard from Anchorage, Alaska (Anchorage Christian HS), has committed to the UW Huskies Women’s Basketball program and UW Head Coach Tina Langley.

The Huskies have been in hot pursuit of the dynamic guard for quite some time — offering Sellers a scholarship almost exactly a year ago, in August 2021.

Sayvia Sellers is currently the 2022 Alaska Girls’ Gatorade Player of the Year, based on her junior season of play.

Sellers is ranked as a 4-star by ESPN HoopGurlz but even that seems to be underestimating her talent and skill level.

Sellers is, however, ranked in the ESPN Top 25 for the Class of 2023, which seems a more accurate assessment of her abilities.

More importantly, Sellers appears to be merely scratching the surface of her potential.

Although based in her hometown of Anchorage, Alaska, Sayvia Sellers has built a national reputation for herself with standout play on the summer club circuit with the elite Jason Kidd Select program.

Sellers turned up the heat on her recruitment even more with her recent play at the 2022 Nike Tournament of Champions (TOC) in Chicago.

Sellers repped Alaska by playing with the Alaska TruGame team and led her team to the championship, after several stellar games stamped her as an elite point guard.

According to reports, Sellers averaged 27 points per game, 3.7 assists plus 3.7 rebounds over the Nike TOC six-game schedule.

Whether point guards are born or made is an age-old basketball debate.

Sellers’ development, even over the past year, is the hallmark of an excellent work ethic.

Yet Sayvia Sellers looks like a natural point guard in every way possible.

Sellers demonstrates the ability to lead her team with sharp decision-making under pressure that makes her an on-court extension of her coach(es).

Sellers exudes confidence and calm, while controlling the ball and her team during an offensive possession.

Sayvia demonstrates the ability to push the ball upcourt with her head up to read the defense, and then smoothly transition into orchestrating the team offense when there is no fastbreak opportunity.

Sayvia Sellers clearly possesses a high basketball IQ, which she uses to control the offensive tempo and find her team’s best scoring opportunity — while probing the defense with her dribble.

Her passing ability suggests elite understanding of passing lanes and creating space with the dribble to manipulate passing lanes — an indication of high-level information processing that is hard to teach, i.e., you either have it or you don’t.

Sellers also confidently knocks down three-point shots off-the-dribble, when defenders play off her.

Sellers has demonstrated a player development trajectory that will give her a strong shot at achieving great things at the University of Washington.

Sayvia Sellers’ skills and style of play will allow her to play with any combination of Washington’s recent 2022 recruits (Hannah Stines, Elle Ladine, Teagan Brown and Shayla Gillmer), as well as 2023 commitment cohort – Chloe Briggs.

As we mentioned in previous commentary, recent Husky recruiting trends suggest there will be some “small ball” in the Huskies’ future that will play to Sellers’ strengths — i.e., an emphasis on three-point shooting, motion offense and opportunistic up-tempo play.

The recent recruiting success of UW Head Coach Tina Langley and her staff is generating some positive momentum for a program that took a step backwards last season.

Hopefully an influx of young talent on the horizon will energize the program to achieve more success on the court.

GO DAWGS!