Who Is Danny Sprinkle and What's His UW Connection?
Mike Hopkins remains the University of Washington basketball coach — at least for two more games and 11 more days — but the vultures are circling.
The Huskies' 82-75 loss to USC on Saturday wasn't more than a few minutes old when basketball writer Jeff Goodman, formerly of ESPN, CBS and FOX Sports, and based in Massachusetts, surmised on social media that Utah State's Danny Sprinkle will be the frontrunner for the presumed UW vacancy.
While nearly everyone surrounding the Husky program is in agreement a coaching change is about to happen, opinions vary on who should be entrusted with pulling the Huskies out of a five-year program malaise, including 16-14 this season, and their repeated absence from the NCAA Tournament — 11 out of the past 12 years.
Washington State's Kyle Smith, after rebuilding the Cougars overnight into a breakthrough 23-7 team that just swept the Los Angeles teams, already is the top candidate in the minds of many people.
With the Pac-12 splitting up, Smith, 54, might be open to leaving Pullman after five seasons rather than head to a makeshift West Coast Conference basketball arrangement. He could end up at Stanford or Washington, with both schools expected to make moves on their coaches.
Smith came to the Cougars from the Bay Area, following three seasons at San Francisco and six at Columbia. He has not coached a team into the NCAA Tournament, though that could change with his current WSU squad.
Another name sure to come up is Leon Rice, 60, who has coached at Boise State for 14 seasons and won 20 games or more on 11 occasions at the Mountain West school. His current team is 20-8. He previously served as a Gonzaga assistant coach for 11 years.
Will Conroy, 41, should rate plenty of consideration simply for being a loyal foot soldier. A former Husky point guard, he's been a UW assistant coach for nine years under Lorenzo Romar and Hopkins. Making him the head coach or retaining him as an assistant would be crucial to keeping highly regarded guards Koren Johnson, Wesley Yates III and the incoming Zoom Diallo in the program.
Not in Conroy's favor is the fact that ex-UW offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb couldn't land the Husky football job when Kalen DeBoer left for Alabama because new athletic director Troy Dannen has been reluctant to make head coaches out of assistants.
So who is Danny Sprinkle?
A Pullman native, he's been a head coach for just five seasons, four at Montana State, parlaying his Big Sky success — 27-8 and 25-10 showings and a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances — into a move to Utah State and the Mountain West this season, where his Aggies have a 24-5 record so far. He swept a pair of games against Boise State and Leon Rice, winning 90-84 in overtime on the road and 80-61 in Logan, Utah.
If he took the job in Montlake, Sprinkle would come with a built-in Husky connection. He's the son of former UW football player Bill Sprinkle, who emerged from Great Falls, Montana, and built a reputation as a fearless defensive back in 1966-68.
Donnie Moore was a legendary Husky running back during that time — he rushed for 221 yards and 2 touchdowns in an astounding 38-22 victory over Ohio State in Columbus in 1966 — who tells the story of how he once ran the football in practice and the older Sprinkle came up and hit him so hard both players were knocked unconscious.
Danny Sprinkle coached former Husky guard RaeQuan Battle at Montana State for two seasons.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
This next-generation Sprinkle is all basketball, all the time. Growing up in Helena, Montana, he played for Montana State, was named the 1996 Big Sky Freshman of the Year, a 1997 first-team All-Big Sky selection and 1998 and 1999 All-Big Sky honorable mention picks, and he currently ranks as the school's No. 9 all-time scorer (1,497 points).
A 6-foot-2 shooting guard, he averaged, 9.8, 13.7, 13.5 and 16.6 points per game in his Bobcats career and twice scored 37 points in a game. He hit a school-record 9 of 15 3-pointers in a 1999 game against Sacramento State. He's in the Montana State Athletic Hall of Fame.
Sprinkle became a 19-year assistant coach with two stints at Cal State Northridge sandwiched around one at Montana State before his alma mater gave him his first head-coaching job during the COVID-impacted 2019-20 season. One of his accomplishments in Bozeman was turning discarded Husky guard RaeQuan Battle into an impactful player, the Bobcats' leading scorer and an All-Big Sky selection.
As for that UW connection, Bill and Danny Sprinkle got together in January, in between Utah State basketball games, and watched the Huskies play Michigan in the College Football Playoff national championship game on TV.
"Go Aggies and Go Dawgs!" Danny Sprinkle posted on social media during the game.
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