Third-year Washington Huskies coach Danny Sprinkle is living through a new world of is college basketball.
As such, he had to learn quickly at the highest level after the school's move to the Big Ten in his first year at the helm how to evolve and adapt. During Big Ten Media Day, Sprinkle revealed what advice former football coach Chris Petersen told him that helped steer him in the right direction.
"He told me control is for amateurs, and it was probably the best advice I've heard. You think you control a lot as a coach, but you really don't."
Petersen, a longtime coach at Boise State who made a similar jump up to UW and the old Pac-12 after eight seasons at Boise State in 2014, had to adapt and evolve his way of operating as a head coach, and that
led to the program achieving 10 wins in three consecutive seasons and New Years Six bowl appearances.
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Sprinkle cited last season's injuries, which included seven season-ending injuries to starters or contributors, as one key element of the coaching life being an "it is what it is" gig. There's only so much you can do without your best players, but when facing top-ranked teams on the road in the conference like Indiana and Purdue, two examples he noted were 10- and 8-point losses, respectively, for the Huskies in 2025-26.
"There was stuff that we had to continue to coach, because when we go play at Purdue and Indiana, they don't care that you have players out," Sprinkle said. "When you're playing Michigan, it doesn't matter. So you just have to control what you can control and just coach your team every day. That's probably the one thing I've learned the most."
Not only has Sprinkle, who enters his third season on Montlake with a 29-35 overall record, applied that to himself from a holistic and coaching perspective. This offseason, he overhauled his coaching staff with the hires of DeAndre Haynes from Marquette, Mike Mennenga from Oregon, and Charles Klask from the NBA.
The Huskies will feature a veteran-laden roster in 2026-27 with seven players entering their fourth year or more in college basketball. However, Sprinkle also leaned into his international interest with a pair of first-year imports: Wini Braga from Brazil and Tristan Devers from Australia.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Danny Sprinkle Credits Chris Petersen With Professional Growth
