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Inside The Huskies

In Basketball, UW, BYU Will Meet For First Time In 14 Seasons

The schools are first-round opponents in the Southwest Maui Invitational.
Dan Raley|
Danny Sprinkle, bottom with clipboard, draws up a play for last season's Husky basketball team.
Danny Sprinkle, bottom with clipboard, draws up a play for last season's Husky basketball team. | Dave Sizer photo

While it recently was revealed the University of Washington basketball team won't be playing Washington State or Seattle University this coming season, finally a Husky non-conference opponent has been identified.

The Southwest Maui Invitational informed all parties involved that the UW and BYU will meet on November 23 in the first round of the eight-team, three-day holiday event at the Lahaina Civic Center in Hawaii on the island of Maui.

The Huskies haven't played these Cougars since 2013 in the NIT, losing 90-79 in Provo, when Abdul Gaddy, currently one of Danny Sprinkle's assistant coaches, was a UW starting guard.

In fact, that's the only meeting between them in nearly three decades.

In 1998, the Bob Bender-coached Huskies went to BYU and won 83-68.

Beginning in 1955, these teams have met 16 times, with they've split the games.

Under coach Kevin Young, the Cougars are coming off a 23-12 season in which they finished second in the Big 12 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament while relying on 6-foot-9 forward AJ Dybantsa, who became the NBA's No. 1 overall draft pick for the Washington Wizards in June.

Another BYU player who won't be back is 6-foot-7 forward Dominique Diomande, who began his career at the UW in 2025, though he didn't appear in any games.

Once this past season ended, Diomande entered the transfer portal and transferred to Pittsburgh. A native of Paris, the Frenchman played sporadically in 24 games for BYU, averaging just 1.9 points and 1.3 rebounds per outing.

In Hawaii, the UW and BYU will join a tournament field that also includes Arizona, Clemson, Colorado State, Ole Miss, Providence and Virginia Commonwealth.

Should Sprinkle's team meet Arizona along the way in the islands, it will encounter former Husky point guard JJ Mandaquit, who transferred out this winter after spending just his freshman season in Montlake.

The 6-foot-1 Mandaquit, who appeared in 22 games for the UW and started six, originally hails from Hilo, Hawaii, on the Big Island.

While the Huskies haven't released their upcoming schedule, which over each of the past two seasons have included 11 non-conference games, word has gotten out that they'll pass on some of the Northwest rivalry games that have been staples.

Those include annual match-ups against Washington State and Seattle University, this after the UW cut ties with Gonzaga beginning in 2025.

There's no word whether those games will be rekindled at a later date or are gone for good while Sprinkle is in charge.

He's trying to build a stable program and those games obviously weren't beneficial to his efforts in his mind.

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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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