Inside The Huskies

UW's Nitu Shows What He Can Do with Double-Double in Greece

The big man came up with 20 points and 16 rebounds in EuroBasket victory over Iceland.
Dan Raley|
Christian Nitu celebrates his breakout outing against Iceland.
Christian Nitu celebrates his breakout outing against Iceland. | UW

The word used to describe Christian Nitu is potential.

He's a 6-foot-11, 220-pound basketball player from Canada, currently playing for the U20 Romanian basketball team in Greece and soon to be headed to the University of Washington.

On Thursday, Nitu showed what he can do at the EuroBasket event when he's at his best by turning in a 20-point, 16-rebound and 4-block performance in a 72-57 victory over Iceland.

This marked the first win for the 19-year-old big man and the Romanians following four double-digit losses to begin the week-long international competition.

Playing 38 minutes, Nitu connected on 9 of 19 shots, including 2 of 6 from 3-point range, against Iceland.

A young player still figuring things out, he's now averaging 9.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game with two to play.

On Saturday, the Romanians will face the Czech Republic for a second time in the tournament after opening against that team and losing 75-65.

After the event concludes on Sunday, Nitu will travel to Seattle and join a Husky basketball team that has been near completely rebuilt by coach Danny Sprinkle, now in his second season, who recently had everyone else going through offseason practices.

Nitu is one of three UW players who has played internationally this summer, joining 6-foot-9 Hannes Steinbach and 6-foot-1 JJ Mandaquit, who played in the U19 FIBA World Cup for Germany and the United States, respectively.

Hannes and Mandaquit are incoming freshman, while Nitu, who played last season for Florida State, will be a sophomore.

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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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