Inside The Huskies

One-Time Husky Signee Bundalo Commits to Ole Miss

The 6-foot-10 forward and the UW went separate ways in late April.
Dan Raley|
Niko Bundalo will play for Ole Miss after drawing his UW release.
Niko Bundalo will play for Ole Miss after drawing his UW release. | Wildcat Select

The highly publicized Niko Bundalo, who drew his scholarship release from the University of Washington basketball team three weeks ago, revealed he will play for Mississippi, according to multiple sources, initially ESPN.

Husky coach Danny Sprinkle recently said the 6-foot-10 forward from Ohio and the Huskies mutually agreed to part ways. No specific reason was given publicly for the disconnect.

Thus continues the unusual college basketball career path for the McDonald's All-America selection and top 30 player who initially narrowed his college choices to Connecticut, Michigan State, North Carolina and Ohio State.

Yet Bundalo pulled away from each of them -- or possibly they moved on from him.

Out of the blue, Bundalo committed to the UW on November 27 and Sprinkle raved how his new big man's "potential was crazy."

Bundalo came cross country and played his senior season for Prolific Prep in Napa, California, a prep school known as a basketball clearing house of sorts.

He committed to the Huskies in late November and everything initially seemed to be going well between the two.

"He can shoot, he's skilled, he's tough, he's Serbian," Sprinkle said in early December. "He's got an edge to him, which sometimes he needs to tame it down a little bit. But I'd rather tame it down rather than tame it up."

Yet five months after committing, it all came apart for Bundalo and the UW. So now he will take his game to the SEC.

To get the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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