Husky Newcomer Christian Nitu Chooses To Redshirt

This past Friday morning, Christian Nitu was running the floor for the University of Washington basketball team in practice, fully engaged, launching left-handed jumpers.

Afterward, the 6-foot-11 Canadian and Romania player met with local media members for the first time and easily addressed a number of topics, among them a toe injury that had kept him sidelined for a couple of weeks.

Yet on Monday night, Nitu was back in Montlake basketball orbit after sitting out the Huskies' season opener in street clothes while his teammates dished out a punishing 94-50 defeat to Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

It apparently is Nitu's choice to pull back on his sophomore season, though details were not forthcoming.

"I don't know about Christian yet," UW coach Danny Sprinkle said initially before making a stronger statement. "It looks like he wants to redshirt."

That would be a new one -- because no college basketball player ever wants to redshirt. They usually get forced into doing so because of injury or a coach's decision to develop them.

Pressed on whether Nitu's troublesome toe was behind this move, Sprinkle said no.

"He's not injured," the coach said. "He just decided to redshirt. He's not injured at all. He's healthy."

Next asked about Nitu's motivation for sitting out, Sprinkle didn't have an answer.

"You'd have to ask him," the coach said.

If body language was any indicator, Sprinkle didn't seem thrilled by Nitu's actions here.

Yet it also should be noted that when Sprinkle signed Nitu out of the transfer portal, the coach mentioned more than once about the possibility of this player coming in and redshirting in his first season with the Huskies.

Christian Nitu shoots for Florida State against Virginia Tech in January. | Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

What makes this situation a little perplexing is the UW currently could use another body up front. They're already down two big men in 6-foot-8 Lipscomb transfer Jacob Ognacevic and 6-foot-11 JC transfer Mady Traore, both dealing with foot injuries.

Ognacevic won't return until January at the earliest while Traore is out for the season.

Meantime, the Huskies will add 6-foot-9 Serbian player Nikola Dzepina to the roster next month to replace Traore, which could push Nitu farther down the rotation for the future.

Others who sat the UW opener, making it five players in all, were senior guard and USC transfer Desmond Claude and freshman guard Courtland Muldrew, sidelined by an ankle sprain and an illness, respectively.

Christian Nitu joined the UW after playing in Greece this summer. | UW

The 6-foot-6 Claude is an important component for the Huskies. Last season, he averaged 15.8 points per game for the Trojans, which ranked him 12th in the Big Ten, and he was an All-Big Ten honorable mention selection. He had games of 25 and 20 points against the Huskies.

The UW plays again on Thursday night against Denver (0-1) and on Sunday at Baylor (1-0).

"Hopefully, we'll get him back sometime this week," Sprinkle said of Claude. "I don't know if that will be in time for Denver."

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