Inside The Huskies

Husky Basketball Loses Top-30 Recruit Niko Bundalo

Danny Sprinkle had landed the 6-foot-10 forward last winter by beating out several blue-blood schools.

Dan Raley

Niko Bundalo has received his scholarship release from the UW.
Niko Bundalo has received his scholarship release from the UW. / UNC

Top-30 recruit Niko Bundalo somewhat surprisingly signed with the University of Washington basketball program this past winter, turning down blue-blood schools such as Connecticut, Michigan State, North Carolina and Ohio State in the process.

Explaining himself, the 6-foot-10 forward originally from Ohio, a McDonald's All-American and a Serbian national team member told how wasn't able to make a coaching connection until encountering Danny Sprinkle and his staff.

Well, that direct line to Montlake lasted just five months.

On Tuesday, Bundalo revealed he has received his scholarship release from Washington and reopened his recruitment, according to multiple sites.

It's unclear what changed his mind, whether he got a better offer elsewhere or simply didn't want to come to the Northwest after all.

Either way, it's setback for Sprinkle, who had build considerable momentum this offseason in landing highly regarded transfer portal and high school players as he rebuilds the UW program.

In December, the first-year Husky coach clearly was upbeat over landing this player, a lefty who played his final high school season for Prolific Prep in Napa, California.

"He can shoot, he's skilled, he's tough, he's Serbian," Sprinkle said. "He's got an edge to him, which sometimes he needs to tame it down a little bit. But I'd rather tame it down rather than tame it up."

The UW coach recently had signed a pair of high school swingmen in 6-foot-10 Hannes Steinbach of Germany and 6-foot-6 Jasir Rencher, who received his release from Texas A&M following a coaching change. Yet it still was unclear if their roster additions had anything to do with Bundalo looking elsewhere.

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

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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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