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Inside The Huskies

Huskies Reportedly In Pursuit Of Slovenian Shooting Guard

Urban Kroflic currently is competing in Eurobasket in his home country.
Dan Raley|
The UW reportedly is pursuing Slovenian guard Urban Kroflic.
The UW reportedly is pursuing Slovenian guard Urban Kroflic. | FIBA

In remaking the University of Washington basketball team, Danny Sprinkle's staff continues to take a United Nations approach with five international players currently on the roster and possibly one more on the way.

On Wednesday, scouting service LayUp Hoops reported that Sprinkle is in Slovenia for the FIBA U20 Eurobasket tournament, which involves watching one of his returning players in 6-foot-10 Serbian forward Nikola Dzepina.

More to the point, the Huskies appear to be making a concentrated bid for a local player in 6-foot-6 Slovenian shooting guard Urban Kroflic, who has scored 11, 17 and 12 points in his first three Eurobasket outings in his country.

With the UW seeking 3-point scorers, the left-handed Kroflic, 20, fits that bill, too. He's shot 7 for 18 behind the line so far in the week-long event in Ljubljana.

Urban Kroflic fires up a left-handed jumper in Eurobasket.
Urban Kroflic fires up a left-handed jumper in Eurobasket. | FIBA

In his second outing, he had a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double performance in a 90-77 victory over Israel.

"I can run, I can pass and I can score," he said in a dated YouTube video. "I play for the team."

Layup Hoops suggests that Washington, Iowa and Rutgers are the most heavily involved in recruiting Kroflic, with the Huskies possibly the front-runner because of Sprinkle's presence in Central Europe.

DePaul, Louisville and Mississippi State could be after him, as well.

Kroflic said he has tried to pattern his game after guard Goran Dragic, a Slovenian who enjoyed a 20-year NBA career that ended with his retirement in 2023.

Why Dragic?

"We're both left-handed," Kroflic said.

In a series of game-day photos and videos taken this week and before, the big guard is shown both firing up shots from around the perimeter and driving to the hoop in a fairly confident manner.

Similarly, Kroflic shows up in an image getting a post-game kiss.

Urban Kroflic gets a postgame kiss.
Urban Kroflic gets a postgame kiss. | FIBA

The Huskies currently have offseason commitments from 6-foot-9 Brazilian forward Wini Braga-Silva, 6-foot-9 Croatian forward Boris Tisman and 6-foot-4 Australian guard Tristan Devers, to go with returnees in 6-foot-11 center Mady Traore from France and Dzepina with their overseas connections.

Last season, Sprinkle brought in five freshman to buiild his program around and only two remain in guard Jasir Rencher and Dzepina.

So the coach changed up his recruiting approach to seek older and more veteran players even if it meant going all over the world to find them.

With the way things are going now, Alaska Airlines Arena will be filled with plenty of different accents and foreign languages on game night.

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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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