Inside The Huskies

Husky Newcomer Nitu Has Productive Debut in Greece

The Florida State transfer will join the UW following the EuroBasket event.
Dan Raley|
Christian Nitu will join the UW after playing in Greece this week.
Christian Nitu will join the UW after playing in Greece this week. | UW

Christian Nitu can't say how he'll respond when he visits someplace such as Michigan or Indiana for the first time, but the new University of Washington big man feels comfortable enough playing in Greece.

On Saturday, the 6-foot-11, 220-pound Nitu had a 7-point, 9-rebound, 3-assist and 3-block outing for his Romanian national team in his U20 EuroBasket opener against the Czech Republic.

However, his efforts weren't quite enough to prevent a 75-65 loss at the University of Crete Hall in Heraklion.

Nitu, who will join the Huskies once he's done with this week-long international event, came off the bench for Romania to sink 3 of 9 shots from the floor, which included missing a pair of 3-point attempts.

He's a Canadian resident with dual citizenship who spent his freshman season at Florida State and entered the transfer portal after his coach Leonard Hamilton retired.

Nitu, 19, is one of a dozen new UW players for Danny Sprinkle's second team in Montlake, and the third to take part in international competition this summer.

Last Sunday, 6-foot-9 forward Hannes Steinbach from Germany and 6-foot-1 point guard JJ Mandaquit for the United States met in the FIBA U19 World Cup championship game, with the American side winning 109-76 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

They've since joined the Huskies who are going through summer workouts.

Nitu is a left-hander with a variety of shots who will bolster the UW's collection of forwards and centers for the coming season.

His Romania team next plays on Sunday against Lithuania.

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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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