Danny Sprinkle is banking on Washington being more mature and together entering his third season as the Huskies' budget has dwindled to among the lowest in the Power 4.
Sprinkle said Thursday that his team is not as athletic or as long as last year's squad, but also dispelled rumors that the outbound team, which went 16-17 and finished No. 12 in the Big Ten in 2025-26, dealt with chemistry problems, while acknowledging that this team is built better to handle adversity due to their maturity and wealth of experience.
"This is gonna have to be more of a team that gets stuff done by committee," Sprinkle said Thursday. "They gotta find shots for each other. We gotta do an elite job of sharing the basketball. When guys are open, that thing's gotta be there
on time, on target. Defensively, same thing. We gotta play great team defense and clog gaps, clog the paint up, and make teams have to make some threes over us, and then it's gonna be a collective effort on the boards. We don't have Hannes (Steinbach) that's just going to go grab every rebound. Our point guard's gotta get down there. We need to have guys averaging 7, 6, 5, 4, 7 rebounds for us to be successful this year."
In talking to both Sprinkle and players, who were made available to the media on Tuesday, however, it seems like there is a different air around this year's squad. At Tuesday's open practice, guards Tristan Devers and Tayshawn Comer spent the majority of the conditioning period helping and encouraging Brazilian big man Wini Braga across the line, which Devers chalked up to wanting to show leadership and showing that everybody has everyone else's back. (Sprinkle said Thursday that Braga is not in peak condition because he was only able to rejoin the team on September 30 due to an admissions issue.)
The team later mobbed Comer, who was not signed until September 16 after Washington found out 24-year-old Croatian Boris Tišma would not be ruled eligible, when the Nevada transfer was informed that his fifth year of eligibility had been granted in a California court case on Tuesday.
With nine newcomers - six from the transfer portal, two from overseas, and one from Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie - and five international players from five different countries, the fact that the Huskies look as put together as they do feels nothing short of miraculous, even if it's becoming a more common situation around the country.
"This is one of the few teams I've ever been a part of where there's no groups on the team," Davidson transfer Parker Friedrichsen told Huskies Wire on Tuesday. "We all do everything together, very tight team, and so it's been fun. Hanging out off the court, that's where you get better too, building relationships, especially the world right now, everyone's moving. And so the short time we've had together, we've done a great job building relationships with each other."
"That's the game now," Gonzaga transfer and eighth-year senior Steele Venters told Huskies Wire when asked about the makeup of the roster. "Every team is in the same situation, more or less, so I think the biggest thing is us connecting off the floor. Once you connect off the floor, then you're able to connect on the floor. I think we've done a great job with that. Just hanging out, going out to get dinner, whatever it is. Going bowling, whatever it may be. We all like each other; there's no separating or anything like that. It's been great."
Even the international players say they've found a sense of community in each other as they prepare for the season.
"Just the nature of them also being away from family, things like that, we're all going through the same thing," Australian guard Tristan Devers told Huskies Wire. "Organizing classes, some of us international guys are in the same classes. Getting to know each other and getting comfortable in your environment, all of us learning at the same time has been definitely helpful, for sure."
"Last year, I didn't have nobody from my area," Rutgers transfer Harun Zrno, who is from Bosnia and Herzegovina, told Huskies Wire. "This year, I have Nikola (Dzepina), so we help each other a lot. It's much easier to go through the things during the year when you have someone who speaks your language, so I'm happy to have him."
Although Sprinkle jokingly suggested on Thursday that Zrno and Dzepina might be helping each other a bit too much.
"They need to get out of the same bubble sometimes and separate from each other, because they drive me crazy," Sprinkle said with a smile on Thursday. "They're so fun off the court. They're a little too goofy, and sometimes it carries onto the court, like early on. That's where they need to mature. But they're just great kids having fun, man. They really are. I'll joke about it, but I love being around them. Anytime I walk into the locker room, some of the first two voices you hear is them. And half the time they're bickering at each other, or they're joking with each other, and that's what's fun about the locker room. And we needed some of that. You know, just keeping it light at times."
The ending of that comment from the third-year head coach implies that last year's team was missing a way to ease the tension, not necessarily that they were full up on people causing it. But Washington was an expensive roster that featured former USC star Desmond Claude, sidelined for all but 12 games with an ankle injury; 2024-25 ASUN Player of the Year Jacob Ognacevic, also limited to 12 games; former five-star recruit Bryson Tucker, who missed 12 games with his own ankle injury; and Wesley Yates III, who missed six games and then played 16 with a plate in his shooting hand. Add in Christian Nitu leaving the team before the season, a foot injury that knocked Mady Traore out for the year, and a heart issue for Jasir Rencher, and the adversity piled up fast last season for a Huskies team that rostered plenty of players used to being first options for winning squads. Without the same sort of lighthearted fun in the locker room that this team appears to be cultivating, it's not hard to see why last season may have ended the way it did.
Sprinkle seems to have taken that lesson and pivoted to a more egalitarian model this offseason. Of the six transfers, none had a usage rate at their previous school higher than either Claude or East Tennessee State transfer Quimari Peterson did at their previous schools before signing with Washington last season. Only Comer and Texas Tech transfer LeJuan Watts had a usage rate above 25 percent, and Comer was No. 94 in the country among all players in assist percentage, landing in a comparable zone as former Husky Zoom Diallo.
As Sprinkle puts it, the Huskies have also gotten lucky that the team is coming together so quickly this offseason.
"You can try and do as many team activities as you want; everybody around the country's doing the same stuff. It takes some luck, too," Sprinkle said Thursday. "Everybody can recruit some good people, but you never know what situations you're going to encounter when you have them. I'm really pleased with this group and how well they get along together. It doesn't matter if you're walking around (University) Village; if you see one, you see four or five of them. I'm hearing about team dinners that they're putting together on their own, like, we don't have to do it. That's when you know that you have a group that genuinely likes each other. They like hanging out with each other outside of the locker room, outside of practice. Because they see each other enough, you know, plane rides and all that, but when they're going to U-Village on their own time or coordinating that stuff, I think that's the start of giving yourself a chance to have a special year."
A special year would be just what the doctor ordered for the Huskies, who have not made the NCAA Tournament since 2019 and have not had a winning record in conference play since 2021, when they went 11-9 against Pac-12 foes. It could also do wonders for Sprinkle, whose .453 winning percentage on Montlake is higher than only three other Huskies head coaches in the last 100 years - Mac Duckworth (.417 from 1963-68), Lynn Nance (.446 from 1989-93), and Bob Bender (.450 from 1993-02).
Washington will play its second exhibition against Washington State on Sunday, then host Colgate on November 2 to start the regular season.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington hoping maturity, chemistry lead to "special year" in hoops
