The University of Washington men’s basketball team has a new look this season.
The Huskies will officially debut the Big Ten Conference logo on their home court Tuesday night when they meet UC Davis in the regular-season debut for coach Danny Sprinkle.
Sprinkle, who came to Washington from Utah State to replace Mike Hopkins, said he’s still learning about the team he’s assembled.
“With this group, we’ve made pretty good strides in the last three, four weeks,” Sprinkle said. “The older guys are sensing the first game is coming. So, there’s a little more urgency and a little more intensity and focus to what they’re doing. But until you really go up against somebody with the lights on, I don’t know what we have.”
The Huskies defeated NCAA Division II foe Western Oregon 105-68 in an exhibition Tuesday.
Guard DJ Davis, a transfer from Butler, led UW with 16 points, making four 3-pointers. Freshman guard Zoom Diallo had 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals off the bench and Portland transfer Tyler Harris also scored 14.
Preseason all-Big Ten forward Great Osobor had 12 points and eight rebounds and center Franck Kepnang, whose past two seasons have been shortened by injuries, had 12 points and three blocked shots.
“Hopefully, they’re all like that, but they’re not going to be,” Sprinkle said when asked about the upcoming schedule.
UC Davis finished third in the Big West Conference last season and came within a game of making the NCAA Tournament, losing to Long Beach State in the conference tournament’s championship game.
Big West player of the year Eli Pepper graduated, but guard TY Johnson returned after putting his name in the transfer portal in the offseason.
Johnson, a preseason all-Big West selection, averaged 17.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game as a junior.
Aggies coach Jim Les called Johnson “one of the best on-ball defenders in college basketball.”
As for staying at UC Davis?
“It was a tough decision, but it really wasn’t,” Johnson said. “After talking to these coaches and stating what I was looking for, I was able to make a pros and cons list which made it easy for me to come back and make my last year my best year at Davis.”
