New Washington Head Coach Danny Sprinkle is a proven winner. Can he make the Huskies one again in the Big Ten?
by Jordan Beckley
To welcome in the four new Big Ten teams (Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington), I will be writing a feature for each team highlighting their challenges entering the new conference or even how they will challenge the rest of the conference.
Up first is the Washington Huskies who enter the 2024-25 with two large changes. First, a drastically different schedule as they join the Big Ten Conference and have to go on seven road games two or more time zones away and secondly with a new man steering the ship.
That new commander in chief is one that has succeeded everywhere he went. Danny Sprinkle has in quite the quick succession shown winning qualities as a Head Coach, but can he succeed in the Big Leagues?
A Storm is Brewing
Sprinkle comes to Seattle after just one season as the main man at Utah State. Despite no returning scholarship players, the Aggies won their first regular season Mountain West Conference Championship in five years in one of the toughest, most competitive seasons in recent memory for the best mid-major conference.
The Aggies even won their first tournament game in twenty three years back when Bernard Rock and Tony Brown upset the no.5 seed Ohio State in the 2001 NCAA Tournament. The 2023-24 MWC Champions Utah State were horribly misseeded as a no.8 seed and dominated TCU before being run over by the freight train that was Zach Edey and no.1 seed Purdue. If their seed had been more representative to their regular season success it’s possible Sprinkle and the Aggies could have pulled off an even more memorable run.
Before his short and sweet stint in Logan, Utah, Sprinkle was able to turn his alma mater Montana State into a winner just as rapidly.
Sprinkle was a 3x All-Big Sky selection shooting 40% from deep (on high volume before it was cool to be a high volume shooter) for Montana State in 1995-99. Sprinkle in a way has already lived out his dream as he returned to coach his Alma Mater in the 2019-20 season.
Ignoring his first season which was a wash with the Covid-19 disruptions, Sprinkle lead the Bobcats to a 65-28 (69.9%) record and made three straight Big Sky Championship games. When Montana State won the 2022 Big Sky Title it was the first in program history since 1996 when Sprinkle won it as a player. After repeating as Big Sky Champions the next year, Sprinkle left the program accounting for three of the five NCAA tournaments in program history.
Sprinkle’s rocket to the top of the sport didn’t happen overnight as he cut his teeth after graduating in 1999 with two decades of assistant coaching years for Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge and Montana State.
The one consistent thing with Danny Sprinkle wherever he goes is winning. The same can’t be said of Washington Men’s Basketball in recent years.
A Dry Spell in Seattle
Coach Sprinkle will replace Mike Hopkins who was the Huskies’ Head Coach for the past 7 seasons.
Hopkins started his tenure with two winning seasons. NBA players Jaylen Nowell and Matisse Thybulle helped lead those teams to post-season basketball. First a two game stint in the NIT in 2018 and then a no.9 seed in March Madness the following season. The 2018-19 team even won the Pac-12 by 3 games and tied a program record with 15 conference wins.
That ’18-19 team was the best Washington team in 15 or so seasons and it still lost to North Carolina in the Round of 32 by 22.
Hopkins succeeded Lorenzo Romar who in his 15 year tenure saw NBA talent like Nate Robinson, Brandon Roy, Spencer Hawes, Isaiah Thomas, Justin Holiday, Terrence Ross, Marquese Chriss, Dejounte Murray and Markelle Fultz roll thru the program. With 18 total NBA players between those 15 teams, Romar made 6 NCAA Tournaments (zero bids his last six seasons), won the PAC-10 (Romar fell apart once it was the PAC-12) Tourney, won the PAC-12 Regular Season twice, and made the Sweet 16 three times but never advanced past that round.
Despite an embarrassment of riches, Washington has not converted it to on court success.
After his first two seasons, Hopkins proceeded to go 70-83 (45.75%) overall and just 37-61 (37.76%) in PAC-12 play. In fact neither Hopkins nor Romar were able to go more than 2 games above .500 in each of their final five seasons as the Huskies’ Head Coach.
After years of getting less with more, the Huskies have hired a Coach who is building a history of doing more with less.
Will a Sprinkle become a Flash Flood?
It likely won’t be an instant rebuild for Sprinkle in Washington.
Sprinkle’s teams in Montana and Utah were littered with Covid super-seniors and players familiar with him and playing for him. With all due respect to the Big Sky and what was a great season for the Mountain West (even if it didn’t produce any great teams), the Big Ten is a whole other beast that Sprinkle might not be ready for.
The Big Ten will expand to 18 teams and all of them have ravenous fan bases and NILs like Sprinkle has not encountered. You think a trip to the PIT in New Mexico is hard? Try going to play Michigan State in a sold out Breslin Center after flying for 4+ hours over 8+ states.
Utah State played against 7 NCAA Tournament teams in the regular season. Washington will face up to 10 tournament teams in Big Ten play and some of them twice. Utah State played zero power 6 programs before the NCAA Tournament last year. Washington will face 20+ next year.
The Aggies were a talented team and had a fantastic season. However, Utah State folded against Purdue being embarrassed by 39 points. Sprinkle will have to go up against high major competition two to three times a week. Is this piece-meal transfer market roster ready to compete at that level?
The Huskies success will depend upon a few players translating, but it starts and ends with their $2 million dollar man; Great Osobor. The 2023-24 Mountain West Player of the Year cost a pretty penny to get him to follow his coach to Seattle but he did and that raises Washington floor instantly to be competitive.
Osobor originally followed Danny Sprinkle from Montana State to Utah State last year and exploded onto the scene as a starter. The versatile 6’8″ big is forceful down low but also is light on his feet and can handle the ball. He averaged 17.7ppg, 9rpg, 2.8apg, 1.4 stl, and 1.3 blk with great efficiency numbers too. There is a belief that Osobor will shoot better from three this year (21.4% last year) as he is a decent free throw shooter and has been focusing on it.
Still, Osobor struggled against the best competition. In 12 games against NCAA Tournament teams, Osobor scored 20+ points just 3 times (24 vs Akron, 20 vs Colorado State, 21 vs New Mexico) and scored 15 or fewer in 7 of them. Utah State overall went 28-7 last year, but just 6-6 against Tournament teams.
Osobor will need to be a consistent force for the Huskies to succeed. Sprinkle even recently acknowledged that Osobor will have to play a good amount of 4 next year too. How will he adapt to the switch in position? A jump in long range shooting will be paramount for it to work.
All that said, Osobor is a likely All-Big Ten player next year and is the least of Sprinkle’s worries. Washington will have 10 new players and 12 of the 13 scholarship players haven’t played for Sprinkle yet.
This offseason Sprinkle will have to learn his players. What can they do? What can’t they do? Who can play defense and at what positions? Who can run the offense? Who can be a reliable shooter? He will have to figure out minutes and lineups and how to balance things like defense, scoring, size, etc.
The Huskies will have to lean heavily on experienced guards. DJ Davis from Butler will bring some scoring and has been around the block in a Big league. Tyree Ihenacho and Luis Kortright each have paid their dues in the college game and will bring support as rotational pieces. Can they make Sprinkle not miss his old veterans like Ian Martinez, Josh Uduje and Darius Brown as much?
There are potential boom swing players on the roster too. Mekhi Mason started all 67 games in his first two seasons for Rice and averaged 14ppg last year. Tyler Harris is an intriguing 6-8″ rising sophomore wing who averaged 12 ppg, 7rpg and 36% 3pt as a Freshman for Portland. If both of those guys are impact players right away you can maybe start to see Washington as a Tournament team.
However, a rebuild of this program will mean looking ahead to the future too. That’s where 4-Star guards Zoom Diallo and Jase Butler fit into the picture. Diallo is a 6-4″ Top-50 recruit who is a menace in the paint. Butler decommitted this offseason from Illinois after their roster began to look too cluttered. Although a lower rated recruit Butler’s shooting touch might earn him more opportunities among the two Freshman.
Still, we have seen top talent come through Seattle with good results while still never fully climbing the mountain.
Washington has won Six Conference Titles (regular season and Tournament) in the past 20 years, but they haven’t made a Final Four in 7 decades. Their only appearance coming in 1953 a full dozen years before Bill Sprinkle, Danny Sprinkle’s father, played for the Huskies Football team from 1965-1968.
The Huskies hired a proven winner in Danny Sprinkle who has already conquered the dream of winning at his Alma Mater. Now, Sprinkle will join the Big Leagues. So will Washington as they go from the dwindling PAC-12 to the daunting schedule of Big Ten Basketball.
The move to the Big Ten secured the four PAC-12 Athletic Departments’ future and were perfect fits for the respective Football programs, but that left so many D1 sports in difficult positions.
Washington and Coach Sprinkle will take that leap into the unknown together hoping the Purple Rain can make waves.