Eliminated Huskies ‘Must Get Tougher at Every Spot’ to Compete in Big Ten
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Washington Huskies guard Vazoumana Diallo drives to the basket against Washington State in a regular season contest. Credit: Vazoumana Diallo/Instagram [/caption]
Danny Sprinkle knew there would be some “Welcome to the Big Ten” moments when he accepted the men’s basketball head coaching job at the University of Washington.
The Huskies took on a double-dose of that on Saturday when they were thumped 78-62 by Indiana and eliminated from the tournament.
Not the NCAA tournament. That ship sailed long ago.
Instead, they won’t be playing in the conference tournament. The top 15 teams in the 18-team league make it to the Big Ten tourney. Washington sits in last place and can finish no better than 16th as it heads into its final week.
With two games remaining, the Huskies (13-16) are guaranteed their first losing season since 2020-21. They’ve won just four times in 18 conference contests on the way to not even getting to participate in the conference tournament in their inaugural Big Ten season.
"Yeah, I've never lost like this,” said Sprinkle after the loss to Indiana. “And it's hard. It's hard. ... I'm looking at what we need to do as a program moving forward. And I always have to kind of see what's ahead of us as the head coach. And I know what we need to do. It's gonna be hard as hell to do it, especially in this league. But we have to get better. We have to get tougher. ... In every aspect, we got to get better.”
After three straight NCAA Tournament appearances — two at Montana State and last year in his lone year at Utah State — Sprinkle’s 16 losses this season are the most in his six-year head coaching career. The Big Ten is a little different than the Big Sky and the Mountain West, where Sprinkle went 45-11 combined in the past three seasons.
So, what’s left for the 2024-25 squad?
"I told our team, we have 80 minutes and we got to compete,” Sprinkle said. “You always got to compete for the name on the front of the jersey. But in moments like this, too, these are some character moments, some pride. You got to play a little bit for the name on the back of the jersey, too. You got to come out and represent, you got to fight, you got to play hard.”
Though Washington’s record doesn’t show it, the Huskies at times looked like a decent basketball team. On Jan. 2 at Hec Ed, they beat Maryland, a team that is currently projected by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi as a No. 5 seed that would open the NCAA Tournament in — of all places — Seattle. Three days after the big win, UW narrowly lost to Illinois at home, 81-77. The travel east got the better of Washington after that, though as it fell at Michican State, Michigan, and Purdue by an average margin of 20 points.
Still, outside of being wrecked on the road a few times, the Huskies were in most games. They appeared to have an offensive plan but were missing a couple of pieces necessary to execute it. Washington put together a strong showing most nights, but not in the conference standings.
“The great teams guard you and play with energy when they're not making shots,” Sprinkle said. “And we're not there yet with this group. And to be honest, we haven't shot the ball well enough consistently all year to be a team that can't afford some of the breakdowns that we have defensively in order to win games in the Big Ten."
UW plays USC (14-15) in Los Angeles on Wednesday before Sunday’s senior night against 21-7 Oregon that the Husky football team plans to attend per a post on X.
There are six seniors and one graduate student listed on the roster for those last two games. It’s unknown how many other players will return and how many might transfer in or out during the offseason. True freshman Vazoumana Diallo and sophomore Tyler Harris showed promise, averaging over 11 points per game apiece. UW’s 2025 recruiting class currently ranks 14th according to 247Sports — a marked improvement over any recent classes should it come to fruition. Without piles of cash to throw around to potential transfers, the Huskies must use the portal wisely and continue to recruit, develop, and keep good players.
“The main thing, going through the Big Ten schedule now, I know what we have to recruit,” Sprinkle said. “And we got to get tougher at every spot. We have to have a different mindset at every spot. And then we got to continue to develop some of these young guys that I think have a chance to be really good players here.”
Sprinkle has some proving to do as a major conference coach. His Utah State team went 28-7 in 2023-24 during his one-year stay. The Aggies went 26-9 the year before he arrived and are currently 24-6 this season under Jerrod Calhoun.
“Our competitiveness and our competitive spirit — to play against the Michigan States and the Indianas and Michigan, you could go down the whole list — everybody's got really good players,” Sprinkle said. “I mean everybody. And it comes down to that, and then it comes down to how tough is that group going to be. And I, for whatever reason — and it's my fault at the end of the day — we haven't been connected [to] where it's important to everybody. And that's just the truth.
“We have some guys, it's not the most important thing. And that's a problem. And I recruited them here, and that's on me. ... Moving forward, it's got to be the most important thing if you want to compete at this level. And I'm not calling anybody out. I'm just saying what it is."
