Ahead of the Washington Huskies 2026-27 season, third-year coach Danny Sprinkle has hired Jayson Wells as the program's director of mindset and culture.
Wells, a graduate of Indiana State University in 1998, has spent decades involved in business and basketball, serving as the director of skill development with Nike Grassroots Basketball from 2012-17, which included being director of the Nike Elite 100—an invite-only showcase event for the top high school players in the country—from 2015-17.
The Cleveland, Ohio native retired from professional basketball in 2010 after playing internationally in Australia, Finland, Israel, Sweden, and Ukraine from 1999-2010. Wells served as an assistant coach at California State Fullerton over the past two seasons,
following other roles within the Titans' athletic department as a mental performance coach and skills development coach for both players and coaches.
Everything starts between the ears.
— Washington Men's Basketball (@UW_MBB) September 8, 2026
Welcome to Montlake, Coach Wells!
📰 https://t.co/BRhZqaQVsH pic.twitter.com/7FCiSNhb0y
Former UW forward Noah Dickerson lauded Sprinkle's hire of Wells, noting his ties to the prep basketball scene and relationships with LeBron James and other elite NBA players over the past two decades. Wells worked for Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute as a business consultant from 2017-24, which involved building business relationships with several companies, namely American Airlines and US Bank, something that could also tie into NIL connections.
Sprinkle has revamped much of his coaching staff and roster going into his third season in Seattle with multiple new assistant coaches, DeAndre Haynes and Charles Klask, as he aims to put his best effort forward to reach the NCAA Tournament.
In his first two seasons at the helm, Sprinkle has a 29-35 record with the same number of wins as he had in his first two seasons at Montana State in 2019-21. The next three seasons, Sprinkle had 20-win seasons at MSU and Utah State before accepting the UW job after Mike Hopkins was fired after seven years on Montlake.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington Basketball Hires Director of Mindset & Culture
