Skip to main content
Inside The Huskies

UW Floodgates Are Open: Diallo Latest to Declare Portal Intentions

The sophomore is the third Husky guard to take this route.
Dan Raley|
Zoom Diallo looks for an opening against Penn State.
Zoom Diallo looks for an opening against Penn State. | Dave Sizer photo

It's like a layup line in pregame warm-ups, only in this case it was University of Washington basketball players looking for the door. On Friday, Zoom Diallo became the latest to reveal he will enter the transfer portal -- becoming the second Husky to do in a matter of hours and the third in a week.

Diallo, a 6-foot-4 sophomore guard from Tacoma and the Huskies' second-leading scorer at 15.7 points per game, posted his intentions on social media just hours after freshman guard JJ Mandaquit let it be known he was leaving, too.

Last week, 6-foot-3 freshman guard Courtland Muldrew was the first to depart.

The immediate question is this: has the Huskies' Danny Sprinkle somehow alienated his players with his tough-minded coaching style?

Earlier, he had two players leave the program while the season was in progress in senior guard Desmond Claude and sophomore forward Christian Nitu, who had transferred in from USC and Florida State, respectively.

Or has the lack of rules in college basketball monitoring player movement and the enormous sums of unrestricted money being passed around just made it a guarantee, at least in Seattle, that rosters are going to be totally dismantled every year?

Danny Sprinkle and Zoom Diallo confer during the Penn State game.
Danny Sprinkle and Zoom Diallo confer during the Penn State game. | Dave Sizer photo

In his social-media post, Diallo wrote the following, "Growing up, it was always a dream of mine to play for UW. Being able to wear 'Washington' across my chest is something I'll never take for granted."

It still wasn't enough to make him stay put, though he suggested he was testing the transfer portal with the option to return to Washington.

Diallo represents a demoralizing loss for Sprinkle. He's a local kid who was one of just two players who returned from Sprinkle's first season as coach in 2025, along with 6-foot-11 center Franck Kepnang.

An overhead view of Zoom Diallo driving up the floor against USC.
An overhead view of Zoom Diallo driving up the floor against USC. | Dave Sizer photo

He was basically given carte blanche to run the team this past winter.

He was one of just two players to appear in all 33 games, along with graduating guard Quimari Peterson, and started 29 of them.

Diallo scored 20 points or more in four of the final five Husky games, supplying a career-best 26 points in a 91-72 victory over USC at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Always an athletic player but lacking a 3-point shot, Diallo worked hard this past year to improve that part of his game,. He increased his shooting percentage from 18.2 to 31.5 from one season to the next, meaning he still has a ways to go with that part of his game.

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published | Modified
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.

Home/Basketball