Inside The Huskies

Montlake Eyes Turn to U19 Basketball World Cup That Involves 2 Huskies

UW signees Hannes Steinbach and JJ Mandaquit are entered in the international competition.
Dan Raley|
Hannes Steinbach is one of two Huskies who will play in the U19 World Cup.
Hannes Steinbach is one of two Huskies who will play in the U19 World Cup. | UW

Hannes Steinbach and JJ Mandaquit will meet in the U19 FIBA World Cup in Switzerland this weekend -- quite possibly for the first time personally and possibly on the court -- before they spend up to four years together as University of Washington basketball teammates.

They're entered in the 16-team competition -- with the 6-foot-10 Steinbach playing for Germany and 6-foot-4 Mandaquit for the United States -- that begins on Saturday.

Germany opens against Slovenia in the first round, while the U.S. takes on Australia. Those teams aren't scheduled to face each other in the first three rounds, in which the games are set, but could meet in the open competition that follows once teams are eliminated.

Steinbach, of course, has it much easier in traveling to Laussane, the host city, with his German hometown of Wurzberg just 275 miles away, or a seven-hour, high-speed train ride.

Coming from the U.S., Mandaquit will traverse at least 5,000 miles to get there, needing connecting flights no matter where he originates.

Steinbach recently competed with his Wurzberg team in the Basketball Bundesliga League, a German club pro playoff, and came up 18 rebounds in one of his outings.

UW coach Danny Sprinkle calls Steinbach one of the top two or three European players for his age group, while he has described Mandaquit as the best pure point guard in the American Class of 2026 prospects.

He'll have them together on the UW campus no later than September when classes begin, with basketball practice unfolding in October.

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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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