# UW B-Ball Coach Danny Sprinkle on Tenure, Yates, Finances, Defending

An episode of [Softy & Dick Interviews](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1245866571), 28 Oct 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/98a2599f-cd9b-4f2a-9be4-b22c00e585f2/907d6469-cef5-4bda-9f13-b2f100f49399/5deeaa3a-762a-4578-823f-b4f10017e318/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=26b16ce4-8fab-44ea-88d4-b2f100f493bc

Washington Huskies basketball coach Danny Sprinkle joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about his tenure on Montlake so far going into year three, getting some guys back from an incomplete team last year, the financial situation for the program and their need for more money, scheduling challenges, and the defensive abilities of the Huskies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Joining us right now on the radio show, it's been
[0:02] Speaker 1: a minute, but he's back before the dogs open up
[0:04] Speaker 1: for real on Monday night against Colgate at Heckhead. 7
[0:08] Speaker 1: o'clock tip-off, 6.30 pregame with Nick Cope, the brand-new voice
[0:13] Speaker 1: of Husky basketball, over on 9.50 a.m.
[0:15] Speaker 2: The head coach of the dogs now going into year
[0:17] Speaker 2: three all of a sudden. Good Lord. Danny Sprinkle with
[0:20] Speaker 2: us on the radio program. Coach, how are you? What's
[0:22] Speaker 2: going on?
[0:23] Speaker 3: Doing great, man. How are you guys doing?
[0:25] Speaker 2: We're good. Good to have you back on the air. So, man,
[0:28] Speaker 2: year three. Unbelievable. Can't believe it's already year three.
[0:31] Speaker 1: Give us your thoughts, because I know all of us
[0:34] Speaker 1: have thoughts.
[0:34] Speaker 2: The fans certainly have thoughts. The media has thoughts.
[0:37] Speaker 1: Give us your take on, honestly, Danny, how things have
[0:40] Speaker 1: gone the first couple years for you on the job
[0:42] Speaker 1: at UW.
[0:44] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, not up to the standard of what
[0:47] Speaker 3: I expect, you know, of my teams. That's just being
[0:50] Speaker 3: flat honest. You know, and there's Is there reasons? Yeah,
[0:54] Speaker 3: there's always excuses for it, but at the end of
[0:56] Speaker 3: the day, we haven't got to the NCAA tournament. The
[1:00] Speaker 3: first year, yeah, we knew getting the job late, getting
[1:02] Speaker 3: Big Ten players and all that, we knew it would
[1:05] Speaker 3: be hard. We tried to gain some momentum in year two,
[1:08] Speaker 3: and I thought we had an NCAA tournament team, and
[1:12] Speaker 3: we had seven season-ending injuries. It was hard. We had
[1:16] Speaker 3: more missed games than anybody in the power four level
[1:20] Speaker 3: and it wasn't even close. And we had good players,
[1:23] Speaker 3: you know, so we just, we never had, like I said,
[1:26] Speaker 3: there is excuses, but there's, we never had our team.
[1:29] Speaker 3: We never had our team for one game where what
[1:32] Speaker 3: we thought we were going to have, you know, it
[1:34] Speaker 3: seemed like every time there was four or five guys out,
[1:37] Speaker 3: we'd get one guy back and then somebody else get hurt.
[1:40] Speaker 3: And so, you know, we just, we could never really
[1:42] Speaker 3: get into a rhythm and, you know, I'll give our
[1:44] Speaker 3: guys credit. We're still you know, when you look at
[1:47] Speaker 3: the metrics, like we're still two games away from the
[1:49] Speaker 3: NCAA tournament. And I know the fans, we, you know, yeah,
[1:52] Speaker 3: they were disappointed. So were we, but when you look
[1:55] Speaker 3: at some of the, the net rankings, which the NCAA
[1:58] Speaker 3: tournament looks at and, you know, kind of the tells
[2:01] Speaker 3: you how good your team is. It was the second
[2:03] Speaker 3: best year in the last 12 years of Washington basketball.
[2:06] Speaker 3: The only team that ranked higher than us was the
[2:08] Speaker 3: team that wanted the regular season championship in 2019. That's it,
[2:11] Speaker 3: you know? And so, You know, and did we have,
[2:16] Speaker 3: we had the toughest schedule I can probably say ever
[2:19] Speaker 3: in Husky basketball. You know, we played seven or five
[2:22] Speaker 3: top 11 teams in a 21-day span, three on the road.
[2:26] Speaker 3: You know, and those, that Big Ten schedule, it is hard.
[2:29] Speaker 3: You know, it really is. And it's something that us
[2:32] Speaker 3: West Coast schools, like, we can't cry about it. Like,
[2:36] Speaker 3: we got to go play it. But, you know, you
[2:38] Speaker 3: look at the records of, you know, UCLA, USC, Oregon.
[2:42] Speaker 3: on the road against the Midwest and East Coast teams
[2:45] Speaker 3: and us, it's not very good. And USC, UCLA, in
[2:51] Speaker 3: the two years, have had some pretty damn good teams too.
[2:53] Speaker 3: And so it is hard. And I think the Big
[2:59] Speaker 3: Ten with the travel has been a lot harder than
[3:01] Speaker 3: us West Coast schools thought. Now, the coaches, we knew
[3:04] Speaker 3: it would be hard. When you're going into Illinois and
[3:08] Speaker 3: Indiana and Purdue and Michigan State and Michigan and Maryland
[3:12] Speaker 3: and Iowa and Wisconsin, like, they got 17,000 fans packed
[3:16] Speaker 3: every game. They just do. Like, you look at the
[3:19] Speaker 3: attendance figures, it's incredible when you're going on the road. And,
[3:24] Speaker 3: you know, us West Coast schools, all of us, like,
[3:26] Speaker 3: we got to pick it up. You know, we just do. Like, it's,
[3:29] Speaker 3: you know, the attendance isn't the same on the West
[3:31] Speaker 3: Coast schools right now. And, you know, obviously... you know,
[3:35] Speaker 3: I can just talk about our deal. Like, you know, yeah,
[3:37] Speaker 3: we got it. We got to win and the fans
[3:39] Speaker 3: will come. I understand that.
[3:42] Speaker 4: Coach Danny Sprinkle joining us. So you got a couple
[3:44] Speaker 4: of guys that are coming back from that, uh, that
[3:46] Speaker 4: didn't play a lot or at all last year, but
[3:48] Speaker 4: you're looking at one of your top eight scores coming
[3:51] Speaker 4: back and that's Wesley. So how hard will it be
[3:53] Speaker 4: to get this team to gel when you have so
[3:55] Speaker 4: many new pieces?
[3:58] Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, like I said, we're
[4:00] Speaker 3: not the only school dealing with that. Uh, And until
[4:03] Speaker 3: we can retain guys, it's going to continue to be
[4:06] Speaker 3: like that. And it is hard to retain guys. We
[4:09] Speaker 3: had some really good players that we had the opportunity
[4:12] Speaker 3: to retain, and they obviously made decisions, and a lot
[4:17] Speaker 3: of them are financial decisions that they did get a
[4:20] Speaker 3: lot more at other places. And so great for them,
[4:22] Speaker 3: but it still hurts our program. But going back, like Wesley, yeah,
[4:29] Speaker 3: we're expecting more than we got last year. You know,
[4:33] Speaker 3: we are. Like, we had really high expectations for him.
[4:36] Speaker 3: And I know he's not happy with the year that
[4:39] Speaker 3: he had. And like I told him the other day, like,
[4:42] Speaker 3: he has to give himself a little bit of grace.
[4:44] Speaker 3: He's really competitive. He's a tough kid. You know, he
[4:47] Speaker 3: broke his hand in the first, like, couple minutes of
[4:49] Speaker 3: that Seattle U game. And he was playing well up
[4:52] Speaker 3: until that point. And, you know, he broke and had
[4:55] Speaker 3: a plate put in his shooting hand. And, yeah, it
[4:57] Speaker 3: did affect him just like it would anybody. You know,
[4:59] Speaker 3: I mean, he was out for six or seven games.
[5:02] Speaker 3: and then came right back in the middle of the
[5:03] Speaker 3: Big Ten slate. I think his first game back might
[5:05] Speaker 3: have been Michigan. And he never got into rhythm after that,
[5:10] Speaker 3: shooting the basketball. And so I know he had that out,
[5:13] Speaker 3: but he's hungry to– you know, to prove himself and
[5:17] Speaker 3: get back to that shape that he was in as
[5:20] Speaker 3: a freshman at USC. Yeah.
[5:21] Speaker 2: Well, Danny Sprinkles with us.
[5:23] Speaker 1: And, you know, Danny, obviously you've laid out the challenges,
[5:25] Speaker 1: and there's no doubt that there's challenges, man. I mean,
[5:27] Speaker 1: do you, you know, to be completely honest with this,
[5:31] Speaker 1: the NIL thing has been a concern. I mean, I
[5:33] Speaker 1: know you've talked about that, and I'll give you credit
[5:35] Speaker 1: because you rarely, rarely ever bring that up. I mean,
[5:38] Speaker 1: coaches that whine about it, complain about it. You know,
[5:41] Speaker 1: the travel, we rarely hear you talk about that. I mean,
[5:44] Speaker 1: there's guys, namely the guy down in Westwood, that bitches
[5:47] Speaker 1: about it all the time, right?
[5:48] Speaker 2: So, I mean, you're not one of those guys, but
[5:50] Speaker 2: it's a real deal.
[5:51] Speaker 1: I mean, do you feel like you need to start
[5:55] Speaker 1: getting this thing going before you can really motivate folks
[5:58] Speaker 1: to jump off the financial couch? Or do you feel
[6:02] Speaker 1: like you need the chicken before the egg? Because I'm
[6:05] Speaker 1: trying to figure out kind of what comes first here, man,
[6:08] Speaker 1: you know?
[6:10] Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, we, we need the help. Like, you know,
[6:12] Speaker 3: we need people to see the dream before it happens
[6:15] Speaker 3: because otherwise it's not going to happen in now in
[6:18] Speaker 3: today's landscape. Right. You know, it's just not like, if
[6:21] Speaker 3: you don't, if you don't have money, like it's funny
[6:24] Speaker 3: because I was talking with, you know, Chris Peterson, it
[6:26] Speaker 3: was a couple of months ago. And like, you know,
[6:28] Speaker 3: he always says, Hey, like your talent is your floor,
[6:31] Speaker 3: you know, your, then your character is your ceiling. But like,
[6:34] Speaker 3: you have to have talent at big 10 level and
[6:37] Speaker 3: it costs money in the big 10. When you want
[6:39] Speaker 3: to play with the big boys, you've got to have
[6:41] Speaker 3: the money to play with the big boys. And right now,
[6:45] Speaker 3: we're fighting to get to that. Yeah, we're on a
[6:48] Speaker 3: half share. Like I said, nobody ever complains about it.
[6:51] Speaker 3: We don't. Pat Chun is unbelievable. He's a tremendous athletic director.
[6:56] Speaker 3: Everybody in our department, they're fighting their asses off every
[6:59] Speaker 3: day for our student-athletes and to get Washington going. you know,
[7:03] Speaker 3: to where we got to get it. But there's some challenges, man,
[7:06] Speaker 3: with the half share, you know, and when Pat took
[7:08] Speaker 3: this job, you know, we didn't have to come up
[7:11] Speaker 3: with 21 million to pay athletes at that time. We
[7:14] Speaker 3: were already had a half share. So we're at a disadvantage.
[7:18] Speaker 3: And now we have to come up. He like, as
[7:20] Speaker 3: the athletic director has to come up with an extra
[7:22] Speaker 3: 21 million, you know? And so like there, that's, there's
[7:26] Speaker 3: been a lot of challenges that, you know, that weren't
[7:29] Speaker 3: in our control. And there's a lot of challenges basketball-wise
[7:32] Speaker 3: that weren't in our control. But, yeah, I mean, you do.
[7:35] Speaker 3: You have to have that to even give yourself a chance.
[7:40] Speaker 3: Having money doesn't guarantee you winning. It just gives you, like,
[7:44] Speaker 3: now you at least have a chance to play with
[7:45] Speaker 3: the league. Right, right.
[7:47] Speaker 4: Well, we're losing a lot of traditions in this new
[7:50] Speaker 4: college athletics. One of them is the Apple Cup of basketball.
[7:53] Speaker 4: I mean, you played an exhibition game this last week.
[7:56] Speaker 4: I mean, is that the way it's going to be
[7:58] Speaker 4: going forward, or are we going to get this thing
[7:59] Speaker 4: back on a regular non-conference schedule?
[8:02] Speaker 3: Yeah, no. Like, obviously, I can't answer that, but, like, no. Like,
[8:06] Speaker 3: that's not the plan. Like, this year, the way it
[8:09] Speaker 3: worked out, like you said, there's a lot of those things. Like,
[8:12] Speaker 3: Villanova's not playing in the Big Five. USC and Notre
[8:15] Speaker 3: Dame aren't playing in football. There's this stuff going on
[8:18] Speaker 3: all over the country. Scheduling is the hardest thing right now,
[8:22] Speaker 3: other than retaining your own players and recruiting. Scheduling is brutal. And,
[8:27] Speaker 3: you know, you've obviously seen, you know, our Big Ten schedule.
[8:30] Speaker 3: You know, you're going to play 16, 17 quad one
[8:34] Speaker 3: games every year, just in the Big Ten schedule. You know,
[8:38] Speaker 3: we have Baylor coming back to Seattle this year. We
[8:41] Speaker 3: have to go at Utah. So we've got two Big
[8:44] Speaker 3: 12 teams already. We're going to the Maui Invitational, which
[8:47] Speaker 3: we open up with BYU. And you look at that field,
[8:50] Speaker 3: it's loaded. So right there, you're looking at 25 high
[8:55] Speaker 3: major games. It could be possibly 22 or 23 quad
[9:00] Speaker 3: one games already. And that takes a toll on your players.
[9:06] Speaker 3: And then you have to find dates. With us playing
[9:09] Speaker 3: two games today, big 10 games, you know, in early December,
[9:12] Speaker 3: you have to find games with MTEs. And so now
[9:15] Speaker 3: we got to fit our schedule with Washington state or
[9:18] Speaker 3: whoever we're trying to schedule, right. You know, and making
[9:20] Speaker 3: sure we have proper off days and, you know, and
[9:23] Speaker 3: this year it just, it just didn't work out this year. Yeah.
[9:26] Speaker 1: Well, Danny sprinkles with us and Danny, that Maui classic, man, that,
[9:29] Speaker 1: that looks awesome.
[9:30] Speaker 2: Uh, have you ever coached in that tournament by the
[9:32] Speaker 2: way before?
[9:34] Speaker 3: I haven't. No, I'm looking forward to it.
[9:35] Speaker 2: You're going to love it.
[9:37] Speaker 1: I was there the last time we were there, which
[9:40] Speaker 1: I think was 2011. It's the best sporting event I've
[9:43] Speaker 1: ever been to in my life. And I've been to
[9:46] Speaker 1: Super Bowls, Final Fours. It is freaking awesome. I would
[9:49] Speaker 1: love to be there this year, but unfortunately we got
[9:51] Speaker 1: a football game in Eugene on that Saturday after Thanksgiving,
[9:54] Speaker 1: so not going to make it. Danny, I'm just curious
[9:57] Speaker 1: because what I'm really hoping this team does, and I
[10:01] Speaker 1: realize that sometimes the offensive talent is sometimes hard to get.
[10:05] Speaker 1: I want you guys to play your balls off on
[10:08] Speaker 1: defense this year. And I want everything to start there
[10:11] Speaker 1: because that to me is always just about effort, you know,
[10:14] Speaker 1: maybe not as opposed to scheme, but is this team
[10:18] Speaker 1: going to be a kick-ass defensive team? Because to me,
[10:21] Speaker 1: that's almost not about money as it is about desire.
[10:25] Speaker 1: Am I crazy in that regard? And you see a
[10:28] Speaker 1: decent defensive team on our hands here.
[10:31] Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, like, yeah, I mean, we're decent. We're
[10:34] Speaker 3: average right now, to be honest with you. Okay. We
[10:37] Speaker 3: need to get better. Got it. There is times where
[10:39] Speaker 3: our effort is good enough, but not like we're going
[10:42] Speaker 3: to get put into rotation a lot, and we have
[10:45] Speaker 3: to have a lot of multiple efforts. You know, we
[10:47] Speaker 3: have to have guys knowing, you know, how and when
[10:50] Speaker 3: to cover for each other. You know, our rim protection
[10:54] Speaker 3: probably isn't the same as it was last year with,
[10:57] Speaker 3: you know, Hannes when, you know, the couple games Frank played.
[11:01] Speaker 3: You know, and we were bigger when we were healthy.
[11:03] Speaker 3: You know, and so now we have to be a
[11:07] Speaker 3: lot more sound positionally with this year's team. Got it.
[11:11] Speaker 3: We do have to scrap. We got to find ways
[11:13] Speaker 3: to get stops. Like, even in the exhibition game the
[11:16] Speaker 3: other night, like, we did a really good job on
[11:19] Speaker 3: our first shot defense. You know, the problem was there
[11:22] Speaker 3: was a lot of long rebounds that we didn't come
[11:24] Speaker 3: up with. You know, and we can't afford to not
[11:27] Speaker 3: come up with those. You know, and Wazoo, you know,
[11:29] Speaker 3: they came up to avoid that. And as you mentioned, yeah,
[11:34] Speaker 3: it is effort. And a lot of times it's a
[11:37] Speaker 3: second or third effort in that play.
[11:40] Speaker 4: Well, you mentioned you were just two wins away from
[11:42] Speaker 4: a 68-team tourney. You're probably only one win away from
[11:45] Speaker 4: a 76-team tourney. And that's what we got now.
[11:48] Speaker 2: So do you.
[11:49] Speaker 4: Like the expansion of the tournament?
[11:53] Speaker 3: I do. And the more you play in the Big Ten,
[11:59] Speaker 3: there's teams that could finish 14th in our league. that
[12:02] Speaker 3: are better than a lot of these than some at-large teams.
[12:06] Speaker 3: And it's just fact, like when you go through the schedule, like, and,
[12:13] Speaker 3: and just the January's and February's like, it's brutal. It
[12:17] Speaker 3: really is. And there's no off game. Like there's no
[12:22] Speaker 3: game where you can look at the schedule and be like, okay, Hey,
[12:25] Speaker 3: we can at least get healthy here. Like a pencil,
[12:28] Speaker 3: that one in as a win. There's not one. Right.
[12:31] Speaker 3: And even last year, you know, I mean, we finished 12th.
[12:35] Speaker 3: We went from 18th to 12th. You know, there was
[12:38] Speaker 3: a couple games we just didn't win the margins. You know,
[12:41] Speaker 3: like there was three or four games that came down,
[12:44] Speaker 3: you know, actually probably four to five that came down
[12:47] Speaker 3: to the last possession. And, you know, we just didn't
[12:52] Speaker 3: get over the hump. You know, we just didn't make
[12:55] Speaker 3: the right plays. We didn't make a championship play or
[12:57] Speaker 3: get a rebound or make a shot. And that's the separator.
[13:01] Speaker 3: Because like I said, a couple of those go a
[13:03] Speaker 3: different way. We're in the NCAA tournament. But like I said, woulda, shoulda, coulda.
[13:09] Speaker 3: We have to make that happen.
[13:11] Speaker 1: All right, go get them starting next Monday. Enjoy Maui.
[13:16] Speaker 1: Jealous that we can't be down there with you, man,
[13:18] Speaker 1: but just wear a flowered shirt. Wear a Hawaii shirt.
[13:21] Speaker 1: You'll fit right in, man. All right, enjoy it down there.
[13:23] Speaker 3: We'll FaceTime you guys when we're out there. No doubt.
[13:26] Speaker 2: From the beach. Thank you, guys.
[13:29] Speaker 4: All right, buddy.
[13:29] Speaker 2: Danny Sprinkle with us on the radio show.

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