What Danny Sprinkle Had to Say About New Players

The Husky coach was fairly straightforward about his new signees.

RJ Barhoum is a shooter from Oregon who has signed with the Huskies. | UW

Willing to be patient with them, the University of Washington basketball team signed a pair of recruits this week in RJ Barhoum and Jimmie Haywood, Northwest guys who might best be described as players wearing training wheels.

Each guard has a ways to go before he'll be Big Ten ready, according to Husky coach Danny Sprinkle.

“RJ is a developmental guy,” Sprinkle said. “He’s got great size at 6-5 and can shoot it from half court, he really can. We know he’s a long-term development player, but we’re excited about the person he is and his work ethic is second to none. He can just really shoot the basketball and has size.”

Barhoum comes to the Huskies from the Portland suburbs. Averaging three 3-pointers per game, he helped lead Clackamas High School to the Oregon state tournament quarterfinals as a junior while averaging 19.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game.

He is widely considered one of the top 3-point shooters in Oregon while becoming a two-time all-league selection and last season earning second-team all-state recognition.

Jimmie Haywood has signed with UW basketball and Danny Sprinkle. | UW

The 6-foot-4 Haywood similarly brings a game in progress while playing for Arizona Compass Prep School in Chandler, Arizona, this after growing up in Seattle and previously pulling on a uniform for Garfield High School.

The son of former Oregon State standout Jimmie Haywood Jr., the player known as "Tripp" ranks as the nation’s No. 15 shooting guard and No. 131 player overall by 247 Sports. and is just putting his talents together.

“Tripp is just coming into his own," Sprinkle said. "He has no idea how good he can be. He’s tough, he’s competitive, he can really be dynamic defensively."

Haywood notably has become a much better marksmen as his game as evolved from Seattle to Phoenix.

"He’s really, really improved his shooting since I’ve been watching him the last two years when he was at Garfield," Sprinkle said. "He’s a ball-handling guard that can make shots and at this level you better have three or four of those guys on your roster."

Each of the Huskies' past three freshman signees -- who are not international players -- have come from the Northwest, with Sprinkle's staff last year signing 6-foot-7 Lattimore Ford from Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, Washington.

Ford has come back from a serous knee injury that interrupted the last two seasons of his schoolboy career and is being brought along slowly by the UW.