Following a two-week courtship and fewer than 24 hours after his former staff, Utah State, was eradicated from the NCAA match, Danny Sprinkle agreed to phrases Monday morning with the Washington Huskies on a six-year, $22.1 million deal to turn into their subsequent males’s basketball coach.
“I wish to categorical my honest gratitude to President [Ana Mari] Cauce and the athletic division management for entrusting me to steer the boys’s basketball program at this world-class establishment,” Sprinkle stated in a press release. “It was going to take one thing particular for me to depart Logan, and the College of Washington was it.
“The college means an awesome deal to our household and I’m excited to return to my dwelling state. With a powerful dedication to excellence and unimaginable fan help, we’ll recruit distinctive younger males who will take delight in sporting the purple and gold, who will win championships and who will depart UW with a powerful diploma. I’m excited to get began and to be part of such a particular place.”
The 47-year-old Sprinkle, who compiled a 109-50 document throughout his five-year profession, replaces Mike Hopkins, who was fired after guiding Washington to a 118-106 document throughout his seven-year tenure, together with 17-15 this season.
“We’re very excited to welcome Danny Sprinkle to the College of Washington,” Cauce stated in a press release. “He’s somebody who brings an awesome observe document as a head coach and from our conversations I do know he’s dedicated to our Huskies succeeding on and off the courtroom.
“He’s an awesome match for the tradition now we have on the UW, plus he comes from a Husky household, and I can’t wait to see him on the sidelines in Alaska Airways Area.”
Sprinkle, who was named a finalist for the Jim Phelan Nationwide Coach of the 12 months award, was the early presumptive choose in line with a number of media retailers amongst an inventory of potential candidates that included Washington State’s Kyle Smith and Florida Atlantic’s Dusty Might.
Earlier than his abrupt departure, former Washington athletic director Troy Dannen, who left final week for Nebraska, focused Sprinkle and put in place the framework of a deal that made him the 20th coach in Husky historical past.
The Huskies wanted to maneuver rapidly contemplating the fast teaching hirings just lately. Previously 48 hours, Michigan employed Might, Smith left for Stanford, West Virginia selected Darian DeVries and Vanderbilt nabbed Mark Byington.
Not like most of the latest hires who garnered five-year contracts, Sprinkle secured a six-year deal that averages $3.7 million yearly.
Per contract phrases, Sprinkle owes Washington $6 million if he left in the course of the first yr of his deal. The buyout decreases by $1 million in the course of the subsequent three years and is $1 million in 12 months 5.
“Merely put, Coach Sprinkle is a winner,” stated UW interim athletic director Erin O’Connell in a press release. “He gained as a highschool participant, as a collegiate student-athlete, as an assistant coach, after which at each stops as a head coach, together with the latest common season convention championship at Utah State. However past his teaching acumen is his means to attach with student-athletes, develop them into excellent younger males and basketball gamers and embrace the group round him. Coach is precisely what our program wants at this second in time and we’re thrilled to have him take the reins of our males’s basketball program.”
The transfer to Montlake is a little bit of a homecoming for Sprinkle, a Pullman native whose father Invoice is a former Husky defensive again from 1965-68.
Sprinkle was a basketball star at Montana’s Helena Excessive whereas twice incomes all-state honors. He performed 4 years at Montana State, the place he’s the ninth-leading scorer at school historical past with 1,497 factors and as soon as held the varsity’s profession and single-season three-point data upon commencement.
Sprinkle started his teaching profession as a graduate assistant at Cal State Northridge, which included stops as an assistant at Montana State and Cal State Fullerton earlier than touchdown the head-coaching job at Montana State in 2019.
In his 4 years at Montana State, he was 81-43, together with two journeys to the NCAA match his final two years.
Final yr, Utah State signed Sprinkle to a five-year, $4.75 million contract, which features a $2.9 million buyout.
In his first season at Utah State, Sprinkle led an Aggies staff picked to complete ninth within the Mountain West to its first outright regular-season championship.
Utah State completed at No. 20 in The Related Press top-25 rankings and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA match, the place it was an eighth seed and beat No. 9 seed TCU within the first spherical on Friday. It was Utah State’s first NCAA match win since 2001.
The Aggies misplaced 106-67 to No. 1 seed Purdue on Sunday to finish the season at 28-7.
The primary order of enterprise for Sprinkle is hiring a employees and rapidly evaluating UW’s roster, which incorporates eight gamers on scholarship (Koren Johnson, Braxton Meah, Wilhelm Breidenbach, Nate Calmese, Franck Kepnang, Wesley Yates III, Christian King and Samuel Ariyibi) with eligibility.
Johnson stated he intends to switch, however no Husky has submitted paperwork to enter the portal.
Moreover, UW signed four-star recruit Casmir Chavis and obtained a verbal dedication from five-star prospect Zoom Diallo.
It stays to be seen what UW gamers take into consideration Sprinkle, however former Husky RaeQuan Battle, who performed two years at Montana State for him, gave a glowing endorsement.
“This man modified my life once I left Washington to Montana State!!!” he stated in a put up on X. “I might go to struggle for (Sprinkle). Everybody again dwelling in PNW, welcome and present an incredible quantity of affection for Coach Sprink. No person deserves it extra.”
In the meantime, former Husky star Isaiah Thomas posted: “Congrats Coach! Let’s get this system again to the place we belong!”