Inside The Huskies

Butler Reportedly Becomes First Sprinkle Player to Enter Portal

The freshman guard saw very limited time while with the Huskies.
Dan Raley|
Jase Butler launches a shot against Illinois, a team to which he was once committed.
Jase Butler launches a shot against Illinois, a team to which he was once committed. | Skylar Lin Visuals

As the University of Washington basketball season pulled to a close, saddled with an unceremonious last-place Big Ten finish, coach Danny Sprinkle admitted to making recruiting mistakes.

Whether or not he was referring to Jase Butler, the 6-foot-4 freshman guard on Friday reportedly became the first Husky player to leave for the transfer portal, according to 247Sports.

Butler went 0-for-2025 for the UW, failing to make any sort of impact once the bulk of Big Ten play began in January -- in eight games in the new year, he went scoreless, missing all nine of his shots, including five from 3-point range.

His last points came on December 29 in a 90-53 victory over NJIT at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Sprinkle spoke about developing his young players, yet someone such as Butler presents a dilemma in this day and age of rapid-fire personnel movement for college basketball and the demand for instant results in the Big Ten.

How long do you wait for a kid like him to get comfortable at the Division I level?

Butler, from California's Bay Area, certainly came to the Huskies with solid credentials. At one time, he was committed to Illinois before flipping to the Huskies.

UW freshman Jase Butler waits at the scoring table to sub in.
UW freshman Jase Butler waits at the scoring table to sub in. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Early on, Sprinkle spoke about the need to get more playing time for Butler, who had a season-high 8 points in his first Husky game against Nevada.

"I never worry about Jase being somewhere out there," the coach said of the guard's effort at midseason. "I know he's all about the team and he wants to compete. Those are the guys I'm going to coach from here on out."

Butler ended up playing in just 18 of the 31 games, averaging 1.9 points per outing. He shot 25 percent overall and 28.6 percent from 3-point range.

He didn't appear at all in last Sunday's season finale, an 80-73 overtime defeat to Oregon.

Butler likely won't be the only player to pull out of Montlake following a 13-18 UW season and the need to find more guys ready to play at the Big Ten level.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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