Utah State’s Sprinkle accepts Washington job
-
Pete Thamel Jeff
Borzello
Close
- Jeff Borzello ESPN Staff Author Basketball recruiting expert.
- Joined ESPN in 2014.
- Graduate of University of Delaware.Mar 25, 2024, 12:14 PM ET Utah State’s Danny Sprinkle has accepted the head-coaching task at Washington, the school announced Monday.Sprinkle has actually accepted a six-year offer, per ESPN sources.Sprinkle had become one of the hottest candidates on the carousel this spring after leading Utah State to its first-ever outright Mountain West regular-season title in his first season with the program. He likewise led the Aggies to their first NCAA competition win considering that 2001, beating TCU on Friday 88-72. Utah State’s season ended Sunday with a 106-67 loss to top-seeded Purdue.”It was going to take something special for me to leave Logan, and the University of Washington was it,”Sprinkle said in a statement. “The university suggests a lot to our family and I am delighted to return to my home state. “When Sprinkle took control of at Utah State last spring, he returned zero players who scored a point for
the Aggies last season. He brought starters Fantastic Osobor and Darius Brown II with him from Montana State and after that struck the transfer portal to complete the rest of his roster. After being selected ninth in the preseason Mountain West poll, Utah State began the season 16-1 and won the Mountain West at 14-4 in league play.He was called Mountain West Coach of the Year this month.”Coach is precisely what our program requires at this minute in time and we are thrilled to have him take the reigns of our men’s basketball program,”interim Washington athletic director Erin O’Connell said.Before taking over in Logan, Sprinkle was the coach at Montana State for four seasons, leading the Bobcats to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. They won the Big Sky regular-season and conference tournament titles in 2022, then ended up second in 2023 before winning their second straight conference tournament. The 2022 regular-season championship was the program’s first title given that 2002. Sprinkle likewise hung around as an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge and Montana State.Sprinkle, whose father played football at Washington in the 1960s, is changing Mike Hopkins. Hopkins was fired this month after seven seasons in Seattle, leading the Huskies to an NCAA tournament look in 2019.