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Inside The Huskies

Huskies Turn to South America for First Time for Basketball Help

The UW reportedly has a commitment from a 6-foot-9 Brazilian forward.
Dan Raley|
Wini Silva-Braga of Brazil has committed to the UW basketball team.
Wini Silva-Braga of Brazil has committed to the UW basketball team. | NBB

Some people call him Wini Silva, others Wini Braga, yet others Wini Silva-Braga, with Braga possibly his most utilized identifier. The first name is pronounced Vinnie.

Who he is exactly is a 6-foot-9 Brazilian basketball player who committed this week, according to DraftExpress, to the University of Washington program that is undergoing yet another major roster reshuffle. He averaged 10.1 points, 6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in his country's NBB league.

The Huskies, with a history of taking players out of Germany, Iceland, Africa, France, England and lately Serbia, have never turned their attention to South America before for talent.

Yet these are creative times for UW coach Danny Sprinkle, who enters his third year running a program that has been challenged to retain its top players, especially after guards Zoom Diallo and JJ Mandaquit recently left for Kentucky and Arizona, respectively.

Brazil just recently lost its greatest basketball player in Oscar Schmidt, a 6-foot-9 forward and Olympic standout who died on April 17. He was 68.

While Schmidt never pursued the NBA, several countrymen have gone this route, including Nene, Tiago Splitter, Leandro Barbos, Anderson Varejo and Gui Santos.

Known as Nene Hilario, the 6-foot-11 big man legally changed his name to Nene only while playing nearly two decades in the NBA.

Braga becomes the sixth player to join Sprinkle's latest roster with 6-foot-8 forward LeJuan Watts, a Texas Tech transfer; 6-foot-7 forward Steele Venters, formerly of Gonzaga; 6-foot-4 shooting guard Parker Friedrichsen, a Davidson transfer; 5-foot-11 point guard Ryan Beasley, formerly of San Francisco, and 6-foot-7 forward Lattimore Ford from Mount Si High School.

They'll blend in with UW returnees in 6-foot-4 guard Wesley Yates III, 6-foot-11 center Mady Traore, 6-foot-10 forward Lathan Sommerville, 6-foot-10 forward Nikola Dzepina and 6-foot-5 forward Jasir Reacher

Which means Sprinkle has room for up to four more players to try and unearth at this late date in the recruiting cycle.

At first glance, it's hard to tell how competitive this somewhat ragtag group might be in the Big Ten.

Silva certainly will have to make adjustments to his game in coming to American basketball, though he can't be expected to be another Hannes Steinbach, the gifted German who has entered the NBA Draft after just one season in Montlake.

Watts is joining his fourth college team. Venters has been an oft-injured player now entering his eighth NCAA season. Ford is still coming back from a serious knee injury.

Sprinkle will be challenged to bring everybody together, keep them healthy and try to be a conference factor.

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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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