Freshmen Stand Out in Husky Exhibition Win

Ninety seconds before halftime in Sunday's exhibition game against UNLV, freshman point guard JJ Mandaquit had the ball at the top of the key for the University of Washington basketball team, surveying everything.

He saw things he wasn't necessarily looking at. And this is how it's going to be this coming season, which begins in two weeks and a day.

Mandaquit spied Indiana transfer Bryson Tucker in the corner and passed on giving him the ball. He saw Tucker move to the other corner and passed him up again. Yet something was brewing. You could sense it.

Suddenly, the 6-foot-1 playmaker lobbed one to the basket and the 6-foot-7 Tucker, a one-time McDonald's All-America player, snatched it and slammed it through in what would become a 77-62 victory. They were just teasing the Runnin' Rebels all along.

"JJ's a really smart point guard," said Tucker, who scored 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

Danny Sprinkle unveiled his UW basketball team to the fan base for the first time, and maybe 2,500 to 3,000 curious people showed up.

Those in the seats saw Mandaquit, dressed in Michael Jackson's No. 23 and solid black sneakers, giving off a confident yet workmanlike vibe. He effortlessly dished out a game-high 12 assists.

Hannes Steinbach, the UW freshman from Germany, fires up a jumper before tipoff. | Dan Raley

The UW also has a post player who seriously wants to rebound, which has been a rarity in Montlake over the past decade, with the possible exception of Isaiah Stewart, now in the NBA.

While he potentially is the best German player in Montlake since Detlef Schrempf and Christian Welp, he looks more Americanized, similar to the hard-nosed, nose-breaking Husky Jon Brockman, the way he goes after the ball.

At the half, the 6-foot-11 Steinbach had 14 points and 7 rebounds, with 6 of his points coming on putbacks. He finished with a game-best 24 points and 16 caroms, sinking 11 of 16 shots, in 35 minutes of action.

He dunked, banked and drove when he wasn't clearing the boards.

"Playing my first American game was pretty fun," Steinbach said.

The only time there was any kind of basketball language barrier came when Steinbach had the ball and gave the guy guarding him a little shove and he had a look of horror on his face after getting whistled for an offensive foul. They play a lot rougher than that in Europe.

"It's what I expect from both of them," Sprinkle said of the two first-year players. "They're high-level kids. I don't care if they're freshmen. Their skill level and IQ is so high."

Christian Nitu and Jacob Ognacevic sat out the UW exhibition game with injuries. | Dan Raley

Sprinkle's team, missing five players to assorted injuries, never trailed and looked surprisingly smooth for this early in the season as it moved the ball around.

In one sequence, Mandaquit tossed the ball inside to Steinbach, who batted it to 6-foot-11 holdover center Franck Kepnang, who went up and was fouled.

The UW started Mandaquit, Steinbach, Tucker, Kepnang and USC transfer and onetime Husky Wesley Yates III.

Early in the game, Sprinkle even had four freshmen on the floor together in 6-foot-5 guard Jasir Rencher, 6-foot-3 guard Courtland Muldrew, Mandaquit and Steinbach, who represent a top 10 recruiting class.

Alaska Airlines Arena before Sunday's exhibition game. | Dan Raley

UW players with assorted injuries who were left to watch were holdover guard Zoom Diallo, East Tennessee State transfer guard Quimari Peterson, USC tranfer guard Desmond Claude, Lipscomb transfer forward Jacob Ognacevic, Florida State transfer forward Christian Nitu and JC center transfer Mady Traore.

Only the 6-foot-11 Traore, who has a foot injury, is out for the season, the 6-foot-8 Ognacevic has a three-month recovery time.

The Huskies have 15 days to get most of them healthy before opening the season against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Monday, Nov. 3.

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