Washington men’s basketball program hiring Utah State’s Danny Sprinkle as next coach

Following a two-week courtship and less than 24 hours after his former team Utah State was eliminated from the NCAA tournament, Danny Sprinkle agreed to terms Monday with the Washington Huskies on a six-year, $22.1 million deal to become their next men’s basketball coach.

“I want to express my sincere gratitude to President (Ana Mari) Cauce and the athletic department leadership for entrusting me to lead the men’s basketball program at this world-class institution,” Sprinkle said in a statement. “It was going to take something special for me to leave Logan, and the University of Washington was it.

“The university means a great deal to our family and I am excited to return to my home state. With a strong commitment to excellence and incredible fan support, we will recruit exceptional young men who will take pride in wearing the purple and gold, who will win championships and who will leave UW with an impressive degree.

“I am excited to get started and to be a part of such a special place.”

The 47-year-old Sprinkle, who compiled a 109-50 record during his five-year career, replaces Mike Hopkins who was fired after guiding Washington to a 118-106 record during his seven-year tenure, including 17-15 this season.

“We’re very excited to welcome Danny Sprinkle to the University of Washington,” Cauce said in a statement. “He’s someone who brings a great track record as a head coach and from our conversations I know he’s committed to our Huskies succeeding on and off the court.

“He’s a great fit for the culture we have at the UW, plus he comes from a Husky family, and I can’t wait to see him on the sidelines in Alaska Airlines Arena.”

Sprinkle, who was named a finalist for the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award, was the early presumptive pick according to several media outlets among a list of possible candidates that included Washington State’s Kyle Smith and Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May.

Before his abrupt departure, former Washington athletic director Troy Dannen, who left last week for Nebraska, targeted Sprinkle and put in place the framework of a deal that made him the 20th coach in Husky history.

The Huskies needed to move quickly considering the rapid coaching hirings recently. In the past 48 hours, Michigan hired May, Smith left for Stanford, West Virginia chose Darian DeVevries and Vanderbilt nabbed Mark Byington.

Unlike many of the recent hires who garnered five-year contracts, Sprinkle secured a six-year deal that averages $3.7 million annually.

Per contract terms, Sprinkle would owe Washington $6 million if he left during the first year of his deal. The buyout decreases by one million during the next three years and is $1 million in Year 5.

“Simply put, Coach Sprinkle is a winner,” said UW interim athletic director Erin O’Connell in a statement. “He won as a high school player, as a collegiate student-athlete, as an assistant coach, and then at both stops as a head coach, including the recent regular season conference championship at Utah State.

“But beyond his coaching acumen is his ability to connect with student-athletes, develop them into outstanding young men and basketball players and embrace the community around him. Coach is exactly what our program needs at this moment in time and we are thrilled to have him take the reins of our men’s basketball program.”

The move to Montlake is a bit of a homecoming for Sprinkle, a Pullman native whose father Bill is a former Husky defensive back from 1965 to 1968.

Sprinkle was a basketball star at Montana’s Helena High while twice earning all-state honors. He played four years at Montana State where he is the ninth-leading scorer in school history with 1,497 points and once held the school’s career and single-season three-point records.

Sprinkle began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Cal State Northridge, which also included stops as an assistant at Montana State and Cal State Fullerton before landing the head-coaching job at Montana State in 2019.

He spent four years at Montana State where he was 81-43, including two trips to the NCAA tournament his last two years.

Last year, Utah State signed Sprinkle to a five-year, $4.75 million contract, which includes a $3.6 million buyout.

In his first season at Utah State, Sprinkle led an Aggies team picked to finish ninth in the Mountain West to its first outright regular-season championship.

Utah State finished at No. 20 in the Associated Press top-25 rankings and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament where it was an eighth seed and beat No. 9 seed TCU in the first round on Friday. It was Utah State’s first NCAA tournament win since 2001.

The Aggies lost 106-67 to No. 1 seed Purdue on Sunday to end the season at 28-7.

The first order of business for Sprinkle is hiring a staff and quickly evaluating UW’s roster, which includes eight players on scholarship (Koren Johnson, Braxton Meah, Wilhelm Breidenbach, Nate Calmese, Franck Kepnang, Wesley Yates III, Christian King and Samuel Ariyibi) with eligibility.

Johnson said he intends to transfer, but no Husky has submitted paperwork to enter the portal.

Additionally, UW signed four-star recruit Casmir Chavis and received a verbal commitment from five-star prospect Zoom Diallo.