WASHINGTON — After Yuta Watanabe’s first workouts at George Washington University, his teammates recognized that he had the jump shot, the speed and the basketball intelligence to succeed at the Division I level.

Watanabe, a skinny Japanese forward, just needed to work on his panache.

“We told him to find a new celebration because the one he had wasn’t cutting it,” said Kevin Larsen, a junior who grew up in Copenhagen. “He was, like, jumping in the air making a weird face. So we tried to help him find a new one.”

Watanabe, from Miki, a small town in the Kagawa prefecture in Japan, is proving to be a quick learner as he navigates through his freshman year at George Washington and his second year in the United States.

During a game against Saint Louis earlier this month, Watanabe made a key 3-pointer midway through the second half to give the Colonials a 52-49 lead, capping a 13-0 run. While running back on defense, Watanabe lifted three fingers on his right hand and repeatedly pointed to his head, mimicking Carmelo Anthony’s “three to the dome” celebration.