Husky Basketball Short-Timer Nitu Finds New Team

Christian Nitu, briefly a University of Washington basketball player, is the first from this past season's Husky team to choose a new school, picking McNeese State.

Thus the 6-foot-11 sophomore forward from Toronto officially closes the book on his abbreviated stay in Montlake, which lasted barely a month before he had a falling out with Husky coach Danny Sprinkle and left the team.

Nitu joined the UW a year ago from the transfer portal after leaving Florida State when coach Leonard Hamilton retired. He played in 22 games as a freshman for the Seminoles, all in a reserve role.

He arrived at the UW last fall after playing internationally in Europe and was dealing with a toe injury when he watched a Husky exhibition game against UNLV with a protective boot on his right foot.

let’s work !! #committed pic.twitter.com/DhLlCTryeb
— Christian Nitu (@christiann1tu) April 12, 2026

Nitu met with the media a short time later for an interview session after practice and spoke favorably about Sprinkle, who had made a cross country trip to Florida to watch him work out and convince him to come to the UW.

Not long after that, the UW coach shared how the big man of Romanian descent expressed his need to redshirt for the coming season, insisting on it even as Husky injuries piled up and he could have played significant minutes.

Short of available manpower, Sprinkle naturally was frustrated by this, their relationship soured and Nitu dropped off the team.

While a step down from the Big Ten, Nitue joins a McNeese State team coming off a wildly successful season -- the Cowboys finished 28-6, won the Southland Conference Tournament and faced Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament, losing in the opening round 78-68 in Oklahoma City.

The program accomplisehd all of this amazing success under the direction of first-time head coach Bill Armstrong, who was hired after previously working as an Ole Miss, LSU and Baylor assistant coach.

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

In the wacky world of college basketball, Armstrong worked as an assistant for Wade Wilson at LSU and replaced him as the McNeese State head coach when Wilson left for North Carolina State. Fired at LSU, Wilson recently returned to coach there again.

McNeese State is located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is 35 miles east of the Texas state line and 125 miles west of Baton Rouge.

in the end, Nitu got his way and didn't play any meaningful basketball last season for whatever reason.