Here's a Way Too Early Husky Basketball Starting Lineup

With Kelvin Sampson and the Houston Cougars still trying to figure out why they couldn't get off a final shot for the win in the NCAA national championship game, we turn to another pressing college basketball matter in Seattle.

After a thorough and necessary house-cleaning at the University of Washington that left just two holdover players on the roster with eight new faces lined up, who would be the starters right now?

Will they be enough of an upgrade to pull the Huskies out of last place in the Big Ten?

And is there any hope of making the NCAA Tournament, something that has gone out of style in Montlake, in the near future?

Well, let's get right to it and dim the lights, turn on the annoying big-screen animation overhead and introduce an opening five, knowing there could be as many as five more players later added to the roster. before Danny Sprinkle's staff is done.

Granted, the Huskies reportedly have a pair of conference players of the year in Quimari Peterson from the Southern and Jacob Ognacevic from the Atlantic Sun, but, honestly, had any of you heard of either of these guys before they committed to to the UW?

Didn't think so.

What is needed to improve things in Montlake are overly physical and battled-tested Big Ten players, in other words guys who can take an elbow to the face or to the ribs and keep playing, as if nothing happened.

Did you not watch the NCAA championship game?

There was no finesse whatsoever at the Alamodome, just blood and guts from start to finish. Take a bow, Florida.

Last year's Husky team was mentally fragile, easy to push out of its comfort zone.

Here are five players we think could start right away at the UW next season after examining their basketball resumes, especially because most of these chosen ones have Big Ten experience.

Again, we're not looking at style points, rather hard-nosed players that won't wilt at the first sign of a big crowd at Michigan State or Wisconsin.

LATHAN SOMMERVILLE -- This 6-foot-10, 260-pound Rutgers transfer might be the most impactful transfer the Huskies bring in. As a freshman, he appeared in 32 games and started 15 -- with all of his game-opening assignments coming in Big Ten league encounters.

He collected 17 points at Michigan, 9 rebounds at Maryland and 3 blocks at Oregon, so the road doesn't bother him. He plays close to the basket and shot 50.6 percent from the floor. His only drawback is he doesn't shoot the 3, going 1 for 9 this past winter. In many ways, he was Rutgers' Zoom Diallo.

MADY TRAORE -- While he spent this past season at a Texas junior college, the 6-foot-11, 195-pound Traore played for Maryland in 2023-24. Dealing with a knee injury, he appeared in 12 games, including six Big Ten conference outings, and he started four of them. So he's had a taste.

While his Terps numbers were negligible -- he had a high game against Ohio State of 8 points and 5 rebounds -- this native Frenchman appears to have expanded his game at the JC level by averaging 13.2 points and 8.4 rebounds in 32 appearances. His downside is he was a 22.2 percent 3-point shooter.

FRANCK KEPNANG -- In case you didn't notice, after multiple knee surgeries, the 6-foot-11, 250-pound Kepnang finally got over the hump with the Huskies and finished out a season for the first time in three years. He appeared in 14 games, 12 of them coming in Big Ten play, and started the final six.

Kepnang's performance coming off the bench at Penn State was typical of what he can do when healthy and properly motivated: 14 points, 5 rebounds, 5 blocks and 4 steals. If there's a negative trend to this front line, he didn't take a 3-point shot last season.

ZOOM DIALLO -- As we write this, the 6-foot-4 Diallo should be in the gym putting up 500 3-point shots today and every day until his sophomore season begins. Everything else about his game works. He just needs to develop a consistent outside shot to take over this team and alleviate the pressure on his teammates.

He started 22 games, 16 in Big Ten play, and held up well, averaging 11.1 points per game on 47.3 percent shooting. Yet he connected on just 6 of 33 3-pointers. His offensive range could have a direct bearing on how much of a jump the UW might be able to take in the league standings.

QUIMARI PETERSON -- Finally, an outside shooter. Peterson is a 19.5-point scorer who connected on 42 percent of his 3-point attempts this past season for East Tennessee State. Here's the warning on the label: The 6-foot-1 guard did it against Southern Conference opponents, not Big Ten teams.

Every transfer guard that Sprinkle brought in last season had a significant fall-off in performance against the much tougher Big Ten competition. We're still waiting for DJ Davis to get hot. Peterson's adjustment to getting pushed, shoved and hacked will be critical.

HUSKY BENCH -- This is where it could really get fun, depending on who's ready to make a big jump right off the bat. Look for either 6-foot-10 freshman forward Niko Bundalo or 6-foot-4 freshman point guard JJ Mandaquit, or both, to come off the bench fairly quickly next season if not push their way into the starting lineup eventually once they find their college basketball comfort levels.

One is a shooter, the other a noted playmaker. They ultimately should be as fearless as Diallo was as a freshman in the Big Ten. There is great hope for those two.

Shooting guard Courtland Muldrew rounds out the Huskies' 2026 high school recruiting class and he's no slouch. Once headed to Virginia's vaunted Oak Hill Academy, he's a 6-foot-3 shooter who ultimately remained in his native Arkansas, had a 50-point game and supposedly broke a state scoring record.

The Huskies also have the 6-foot-8, 220-pound Ognacevic arriving from Lipscomb, where he averaged 20 points and 8 rebounds per game while shooting 57.5 percent, 40.7 from 3-point range. Again, he did it against teams such as Wofford, West Georgia and Central Arkansas.

While he's played in 122 college games and started 70 Lipscomb and Valparaiso, Ognacevic faced a Big Ten opponent just once in all that time. In an 83-75 loss to Michigan in 2022, he scored 4 points and had a lone rebound. We'll see how well he translates to the Big Ten.

The Huskies also welcome 6-foot-9, 200-pound Hannes Steinbach from Wurzberg, Germany, hoping he's far more ready to go than Dominique Diomande, who came in from France, sat for half a season and transferred to BYU.

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