Had to chance to meet UW basketball coach Danny Sprinkle on Saturday at an annual gathering of mostly way-past-their-prime basketball players, coaches and media-types.
Sprinkle spoke to the 70th meeting of the “Northwest Basketball Legends” at the Washington Athletic Club, bringing renewed hope and optimism to a program that hasn’t sniffed the NCAA Tournament since 2019. But first, Sprinkle spoke candidly about the hole he and his staff were faced to try and dig out of when he was named coach on March 25, 2024 to replaced fired Mike Hopkins.
“By the time we got the job, I knew there wasn’t a lot of Big Ten talent left out there,” Sprinkle said.
It wasn’t nearly enough to compete in the rugged Big Ten. The Huskies finished dead-last in the 18-team conference with a 4-16 mark, 13-18 overall. The number of wins might have exceeded his initial expectations.
Ken Bone was in the audience. Apparently, Sprinkle invited the former UW assistant and WSU head coach to come to Montlake before the start of the season to assess the Huskies’ talent level. He may have told Sprinkle they were in trouble.
“Coach Bone saw our team in the summer and early fall, and if you would have told us that we’d win 13 games, I probably would have been pretty damn happy at that time,” Sprinkle said.
Help is on the way. In addition to a top transfer class, UW’s high-school recruiting class of ‘25 is ranked No. 18 in the nation, and No. 1 in the Big Ten, according to 247Sports.com.
Sprinkle bemoaned the Huskies’ erratic guard play during his first season. The team did not have your prototype point guard to direct the offense. Older, seasoned guards via the transfer portal will help against the physical teams in the Big Ten. But Sprinkle is most excited about incoming four-star, point guard JJ Mandaquit, whom he credits assistant Tony Bland for helping land.
“He’s going to be phenomenal,” Sprinkle said of the 6-1 guard from Hurricane, Utah, ranked 10th nationally by 247Sportscom. “If any of you guys saw our games last year, hopefully you wore a football helmet because we threw the ball all over the place. It’s a great to have a true point guard.”
Sprinkle said he also took the job knowing Washington was at a distinct disadvantage when he comes to facilities.
“We have the worst basketball facilities in the Big Ten,” the coach said. He said his team sometimes couldn’t practice on its own court the day before a Big Ten game if there was a volleyball match, for example. He also talked about larger arenas in the Big Ten that are packed to capacity and “electric.”
The practice facility piece is about to change. The school broke ground on a $60 million “high performance basketball center” last June. It will feature two 9,800 square-foot practice courts, one for the men and one for the women, and open in August.
Sprinkle told the gathering it’s been “an honor to sit in Coach (Marv) Harshman’s old seat, in Coach (Lorenzo) Romar’s seat and represent the program.”
Taking off my journalism cap – which I can do, I’m retired – and putting on my purple cap, I believe Sprinkle will restore UW to the glory years. He appears to me to be driven, a maniacal recruiter, likable, and like Romar, bleeds purple and gold. Many of you know his dad, Bill, played football at UW in the late 60s. Danny grew up rooting for the Huskies.,
I attended many games during the Romar era, either for work or as a fan. I went to two games during Sprinkle’s first season, which is one more than I did during all of Hopkins’ seven-year run at UW. Once the players he inherited from Romar graduated, I found Hopkins’ teams unwatchable.
Though talent-deficient, especially in the backcourt, Sprinkle’s first-year team largely played hard and with a purpose.
“Even though we didn’t have the most successful year, wins and losses wise,” Sprinkle told the group, “I think people can see what we are building.”
The Inside Scoop 
Basketball & their coaches are one of your great passions especially Dawg Basketball.
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