Inside The Huskies

Dzepina Another Reminder of How Huskies Are Focused Internationally

The 6-foot-10 Serbian brings offensive skills to a team that will be built on overseas talent.
Dan Raley|
Nikola Dzepina made his UW basketball debut against Southern Utah.
Nikola Dzepina made his UW basketball debut against Southern Utah. | UW

Here's how college basketball works these days: Danny Sprinkle hadn't seen University of Washington basketball newcomer Nikola Dzepina in uniform live until the shoot-around before Saturday's game against Southern Utah.

Hours later, Sprinkle sent the 6-foot-10 Serbian player onto the floor for the last five minutes of a blowout victory for the Huskies and got his first look.

Dzepina almost nonchalantly sent a 3-pointer through the net for his first UW points, finishing with 5 on 2-for-3 shooting to cap off a 105-69 outcome at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Coach and player know each other now.

Sprinkle makes no bones about the fact that the UW is one of those college basketball programs that intends to go heavy on international players, which is what Marv Harshman once did and what Gonzaga did to build its success across the state in Spokane.

"It helped me get to where I'm at," he said. "Half of our team at Montana State was international. When you talk about the UK and London, that's why I'm sitting here."

That last reference was to Great Osobor, the 6-foot-8 forward and native Brit who played for Sprinkle at Montana State, Utah and Washington, becoming the Mountain West Player of the Year at the middle stop.

The 6-foot-10 Dzepina joins a UW cast of overseas players who include 6-foot-11 Hannes Steinbach from Germany, 6-foot-11 Mady Traore from France and 6-foot-11 Franck Kepnang from Cameroon, plus 6-foot-11 Christian Nitu, who is Canadian and Romanian.

"The one thing I love about them is they're being taught and they come over here and there's no entitlement," Sprinkle said. "They want to work. They're excited to be here. For the most part, they very low maintenance."

As for Dzepina, it appears he will help the Huskies offensively.

"That's what he does -- he can really shoot the basketball," Sprinkle said. "He's very skilled offensively."

As for finding these worldly players, Sprinkle entrusts assistant coach Andy Hill with that responsibility. Hill spends a lot of time at the FIBA championship events, has endless contacts and is a good judge of talent.

Steinbach, the freshman from Wurzburg, Germany, who has made a big splash over 10 games at the UW, is a Hill find.

"He's the sole reason Hannes is here," Sprinkle said of his assistant. "He's the one who evaluated him and he's the one who recruited him and got him. Obviously, [Steinbach] a pretty darn good player, too."

Dzepina's UW progress and game minutes will depend on how quickly he learns the playbook and the defensive schemes, and shows physicality in his play.

Yet Seattle is the right place for a promising player who comes halfway around the world looking to advance his game.

"It's a market we need to continue to hit because it's an international city," Sprinkle said.

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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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