Will Wednesday's Game Be Steinbach's Last in Montlake?

There might not be much at stake in Wednesday night's USC-Washington basketball game, one matching teams coming off bad losses and the loss of key individuals, with each quite possibly having lost their way.

Yet there's one compelling reason for attending this match-up in two days at Alaska Airlines Arena between the 11th- and 13th-place teams in the Big Ten standings.

This just might be Hannes Steinbach's final home game as a Husky and the last chance for anyone to see him play in Montlake.

Hannes Steinbach averages an 18.2-point and 11.1-rebound double-double for the UW. | Dave Sizer photo

While his team has struggled, Steinbach is winding down a sensational debut season that will be squandered in regards to team success for the Huskies (14-15 overall, 6-12 Big Ten) largely because of a rash of injuries that has ruined the UW season as well as poor play.

The 6-foot-11 freshman forward from Wurzburg, Germany, averages 18.2 points and 11.1 rebounds per game, putting him on the verge of supplying the UW's first double-double performance over a season in 17 years -- since Jon Brockman finished at 14.9 and 11.5, respectively, in 2009.

For Danny Sprinkle, he's not prepared to say either way what he thinks his standout player will do.

"Who knows if he's going to be a lottery pick, or if he's a first-rounder or a second?" the UW coach said. "Nobody knows until he goes through the draft process."

From picks 1 through 30, players are projected to be paid anywhere from $13.8 million to $2.7 million in the coming talent grab,. It would seem that anything in the seven-digit range would be difficult for a 19-year-old such as Steinbach to resist.

Hannes Steinbach wrestles with a Wisconsin player inside. | Dave Sizer photo

Yet his father, Burkhard Steinbach, is a former German pro basketball player who was a contemporary of Dirk Nowitzki and likely savvy enough to know how to play the money game. There's always the chance he might advise his son to wait another year to maximize his initial earnings potential if Hannes is not pegged for a certain high-end draft slot.

The younger Steinbach, however, is so good right now, with his shooting touch, his footwork inside and his desire to rebound, it seems unrealistic that he won't get drafted in an attractive position and have to consider another year of college basketball.

Hannes Steinbach makes his move to the basket against Wisconsin. | Dave Sizer photo

Steinbach already has had to deal with a Big Ten schedule that likely has given him a good sense of how rigorous and demanding the NBA might be, with multiple games played in a week and an excessive3 amount of physical pounding.

Either, way he quite possibly could be done with games at Alaska Airlines Arena after dealing with the Trojans.