The Washington Huskies made a big splash yesterday hiring Danny Sprinkle to be their new Head Coach for Men's Basketball. The program had gotten underwhelming under Hopkins and it was definitely time for a change in leadership.
When Lorenzo Romar was fired in 2017, they finished 9-22. They had a good recruiting class coming in which made it hard to move on. When a Power five school goes looking for a head coach, it is often exciting to go out and get the next up and coming head coach, usually a coach that is having success at smaller schools.
I'm not sure if Mike Hopkins was Washington's first pick in 2017 but I instantly thought it was a weak hire.
Some of the problem is that coaches are not moving up as much. Randy Bennett and Mark few seem comfortable at St. Mary's and Gonzaga respectively and there are other examples out there.
The fact that they couldn't lure an up and coming coach and gave him this long is why Washington is behind.
In 2016, Stanford fired Johnny Dawkins two years removed from a Sweet 16 appearance. In 2021 Texas fired Shaka Smart after making the NCAA Tournament and losing in the first round.
But Washington has a habit of being too frugal and waiting for the last possible moment. Will Sprinkle be a good hire, I think it has a chance too. The big question will be if it's sustainable and if there is success, will he want to stay.
You could make a case that this is the best hire of the Washington Huskies basketball history. Andy Russo came from LA Tech, Lyn Nance came from St. Mary's, Bob Bender from Illinois State, Lorenzo Romar came from St. Louis and Mike Hopkins the outlier was the assistant coach for Syracuse at the time of hire.
The track record indicates that generally Washington has been able to snag Tier 2/3 Mid Major coaches from a league in the middle of the pack. Romar is the one exception because Romar played for Washington back in the day. Utah State is in the Mountain West and is a Top eight league.
The fact that Washington is in the Big 10 probably helped this process. He needs to change the culture of Washington and see if he can get the players to buy in. I think he can get Washington to the Sweet 16 within four years and will be interesting if bigger schools come knocking on the door after.
For Sprinkle, if he wins 20 games consistently he will likely be able to stay at Washington for a long time.
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